IT MSMEs Say Online System is Beneficial for Their Business

A major contributing factor to the survival of offline channels is, that brands are turning to the online system and to  omnichannel retail to enhance their visibility and offer a seamless experience to their customers. Now, buyers have the option to shop from all kinds of sales channels, such as online marketplaces, brand web stores, and social media platforms, apart from offline stores.

Here is what some of the MSME channel partners have to say on embracing a hybrid channel of sales to stay relevant in the current times.

Rajinikanth R, Microsystems

We have close to 50 stores which includes all formats – stand-alone, malls, brand owned and more. The last one year, I am noticing many changes in the consumer buying patterns.

Even though our store sales were normal, our online portal had doubled their numbers. Some of the reasons why customers prefer online includes convenience, safety and comparison.

If you ask me the smaller or MSME channel partners should align themselves with large delivery partners. That would give them a clear understanding of the geography and ways to approach. Slightly matured partners should go hybrid as their focus should be satisfying the customer with last mile delivery and a physical office for after-sales support.

Dinesh D, Symmetrix

We have both sales and services. We have to accept that post pandemic, we had a severe drop in the sales. Since our sales happen through our valued customers whom we are providing annual maintenance services, we always preferred a human touch in our sales too. That is one main reason why we had not built a separate online channel as such.  Even though the retail customers prefer physical touch and feel, business customers prefer a touch and feel. B2B orders predominantly demands a human interface than a chat bot or a virtual rack.

However, online system can bring the customers to us and then we can directly deal with them so that they can get the human advantage from us.

Karthikeyan S, Bloom

 We are witnessing a rise in the O2O business primarily because of the pandemic. The future of retail is also headed in that direction.

Brick & mortar stores should start embracing digital technology to stay relevant and reach out to as many customers as possible.

While a mix of physical and digital is here to stay, it is also evident that most buyers want to have touch and feel while purchasing a product. Omnichannel, however, differs from multi-channel retail in certain ways. Omnichannel strategy provides the customer with an integrated and seamless shopping experience through all possible sales channels that multi-channel does not.

In conclusion, we can say that the online system is very helpful for the offline IT MSMEs to capture their customers, after which they can deal with them directly.

By B Swaminathan

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