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Interaction - Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

Interaction - Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo on the benefits of using E-commerce and SaaS for the offline IT MSMEs

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Archana Verma
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Rajiv

Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo discusses the advantages of E-commerce and SaaS platform for the IT MSMEs here.

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India is witnessing a rapid adoption of SaaS. What is your take on this and what are the trends driving this change?

Rajiv - The adoption of SaaS has been on a rising spree for the past few years. Amidst this, the ongoing pandemic has further accelerated the process. SaaS is now omnipresent and it can be seen in almost every industry right from FMCG, Grocery to Cement and Paints.

Observing the trend and with the rising demand and adoption of SaaS, a wide variety of industries are in the queue to actively adopt the technology. Industries including Agri-tech, Ed-Tech, Health-Tech along with automobiles and spare parts and building materials have started demonstrating the implementation of SaaS to a great extent which is likely to grow manifold from here on in the coming years.

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While there are many trends driving this rapid adoption, prominent trends that are fueling the adoption of SaaS in the current times include -

  • Greater flexibility and fully integrated solutions to build out of box solutions for large brands
  • Mobile optimisation and solutions driven by mobile-first principle
  • Better BI(business intelligence) for strategic planning and marketing
  • API driven solutions and extreme personalisation
  • Vertical SaaS to offer customisable, cost-effective, industry-specific solutions
  • White Label SaaS for brands

From Kiranas to large enterprises, a high inclination towards digital channels is being observed - give statistics, figures, charts etc.

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Rajiv - India has emerged as one of the world’s most promising internet markets, with the second-largest internet user base globally. The increasing number of online shoppers presents a huge growth opportunity for e-commerce and retail companies to explore and utilize as a key component for business growth. As per IBEF, ‘The Indian E-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the second largest E-commerce market in the world by 2034. Indian e-commerce sector is poised to reach US$99 billion by 2024 from US$30 billion in 2019, expanding at a 27% CAGR, with grocery and fashion/apparel likely to be the key drivers of incremental growth. Online shoppers in India are expected to reach 220 million by 2025.

Now, with E-commerce at its peak, a high number of players, be it kiranas or large enterprises, are opting for digital services.

While there are multiple reasons for this advancement, the major one is the changing customer preference. As a result of Covid-19 and consequential lockdowns, there has been a significant increase in the number of people shopping online as they actively prefer buying their desired items from the same confines of their homes.

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Furthermore, through their exceptional features; these digital channels also lend an opportunity to tap new markets and thus reach a larger audience. Not just this, the digital channels and e-commerce platforms also pave the way for cost-effectiveness and improved logistics services.

How are E-commerce SaaS platforms helping traditional stores to recapture growth?

Rajiv - India’s E-commerce industry is on the path of exponential growth with D2C and Omni-channel selling expected to be the next big thing in the market. With competition intensifying every passing day and brands coming up with more advanced options, it is important for brands to reach their customers by adopting the D2C model.

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Engaging customers Omni-channel on new emerging touchpoints like voice devices, wearables, mobiles, social platforms etc. is an emerging trend among retailers across categories including apparel, electronics, FMCG, furniture, grocery, and lifestyle goods to name a few. These days, an increasing number of Indian retail brands are adopting the D2C strategy to sell and deliver merchandise directly to consumers without depending on any third party which is indeed helping them establish a strong presence in the industry. 

Furthermore, with plug and play E-commerce solutions like ours, which is built on the decoupled headless architecture, adopting D2C and reaching customers across various channels has become easier for the brands. Even with the new generation of multi-channel E-commerce, brands can easily focus on catering to the specific needs of their customers using the inherent benefits of headless commerce.

In simpler terms, with the right content and marketing and a good E-commerce solution, brands can keep their customers loyal and reach new markets which were earlier a little difficult to tap.

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How successful have you been in convincing the IT MSMEs to onboard your platform?

Rajiv - IT MSMEs had already realised the potential benefits of going online and selling D2C. With our comprehensive solutions for hyperlocal ecommerce, easy payments, streamlined supply chain we could easily onboard them. The headless architecture of our platform offered a lot of scope for experimentation and building out of box solutions for IT MSMEs. Along with this our native solutions for mobile commerce and marketing have helped us easily onboard our clients from a variety of industry verticals.

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