A catalyst for India’s growth, the SME sector is developing exponentially. Small and medium enterprises have been receiving and providing great work opportunities with the growing digitization. Irrespective of infrastructure or financial constraints, SME continues to support the Indian economy. In this league, the Government of India is also taking various initiatives, one of them being the loan approval process where an SME can get a loan approved in 59 minutes. Such steps are expected to help the Indian economy reach $5 trillion by 2025.
Amazed by the growth of the SME sector, many influential people have started investing in small and medium businesses. This helps investors explore tier III & IV cities and expand their business largely. With the help of technology, a small business can connect with suppliers, exporters, buyers etc. without worrying of geographical limitations. In this competitive era, SMEs need to be fast paced. Here are some SME business trends that 2019 is expected to offer.
Customer relationship: Since there is a tough competition in the market, a customer has numerous options to choose from. This fact makes it imperative for businesses to take special care of their customers and build loyalty. Technology cannot replace a human touch that’s close to heart. Customers should feel valued. This will gradually build a strong reputation for the business and better word-of-mouth marketing. So, the small business can retain its existing customers and acquire new ones.
Personalization: Another great trend for business in marketing is offering a personal touch to the customers. Cold calls and generic emailer are on the verge of getting trashed in near future. Businesses will need to create and send out segmented emails with high-quality content. As per Marketo, personalization increases open-rates by more than 25%. Even Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be adapted for lead generation and as it is working amazingly in offering personalized searches.
Mobile-friendly: India has more than 300 million smartphone users and is estimated to cross 480 million by 2022. This is contributing largely to the growth of mCommerce and other mobile apps. Expansion of the business can be dependent on a single platform. Businesses are expected to experiment with multiple platforms and capture their customers via mobile platform. Mobility-analytics-cloud & social (MACS) is taking over social-mobility-analytics & cloud (SMAC) system.
Social media marketing: There are more than 220 million social media users in India till 2018. The number in itself is self-explanatory to highlight the importance of getting a small business on social platforms. Facebook paid ads have become the new buzz in town for the advertisement that helps you reach millions of customers in a single go. Whatsapp business is becoming another popular choice of businesses for expansion and increased leads.
Payment system: In this ever modifying digital scenario, it is necessary to change business rules and regulations and payment system being one of them. Now businesses need to explore new ways of accepting payment to make the purchase process easier for their customers such as net banking, Paytm, Cash on Delivery (COD) etc. Also, tying up with payment avenues that offer cash backs such as Mobikwik, Paytm, PhonePe is another move.
Cybersecurity: The world is going Internet. Like every technology, this one also has its pros and cons. Various data breach issues have come up where the soft target majorly were the small businesses. The count of cyber-attacks is likely to increase in 2019. Thus, SMEs will require strong and dedicated cybersecurity to deal with such a situation and not to lose their customers. So, it is recommended to make use of Cloud solutions and Hybrid security systems.
Apart from the above-mentioned tends, CRM solutions will also be in high demand. Adopting all of these can help any small business expand big in a short span of time and deal with the major hinderances. Stay alert, stay prepared, win big!
