How SMBs can make the best of the festive season and other top stories of the week
The festive season is here, and this week SMBStory brought to you an opinion piece on how small and medium businesses can make the best of the festive season.
There are festivities all around and this is the best time for businesses to cash in on the opportunities. This week, Sandip Chhettri, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at , has listed a few important tips and tricks for SMBs to harness the potential of the festive season.
Tricks of the trade
Image credits: Shutterstock
The festive season stimulates consumer sentiment greatly, increasing the demand for goods and services across segments.
According to an analysis by Axis My India, 48% of consumers tend to spend more during festive days compared to any other time in the year. The analysis also revealed that 20% of consumers plan to shop more during this festive season compared to last year.
For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this is an opportunity to harness the potential of the festive season and grow their customer base.
SMEs—which play a vital role in job creation in India—have gained significant popularity due to their contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
In the last two years, the government’s focus on uplifting SMEs through several programmes and financial inclusion brought them back on their feet, after the pandemic.
This year, the festive season brings a lot of opportunities for SMEs. It is especially creating job opportunities for millions of Indians who are otherwise unemployed during the large part of the year.
According to an employment survey, consumer-facing companies in the retail, gifting, and hospitality industries have stepped up their recruitment by 25-30% in anticipation of a strong demand recovery.
To make their businesses more profitable this festive season, SMEs should consider some of the tips given here.
Other top picks of the week:
IoTechWorld Avigation
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Drones are everywhere—from videographers using them at weddings to scientists employing them for agricultural and geospatial mapping.
A big credit for the growth of the drone industry in the last year goes to the government, which has taken various initiatives to make India self-reliant in drone manufacturing. It introduced an incentive of Rs 120 crore under the Production Linked Incentive scheme and made The Drone Rules, 2021 to make India a global drone hub by 2030.
One of the beneficiaries of these initiatives is Avigation Pvt Ltd, a manufacturer of kisan (agricultural) drones, which received the first type certificate for its airworthiness last year.
Speaking to SMBStory, Deepak Bharadwaj and Anoop Upadhyay, Co-founders of IoTechWorld Avigation, talk at length about building the drone manufacturing company from scratch and how they are helping farmers across India.
Ecommerce marketing strategies
Small businesses need ecommerce marketing services to focus on niche markets. Providing products at the right price to new and returning clients will help businesses stand out from the competition and attract more customers.
When it comes to promoting SMBs online, businesses should focus on the key demographics that make up their ideal clientele. Building a strong brand requires establishing a name for your business that people can associate with high quality and reliability.
For maximum success, an ecommerce website for SMBs should be user-friendly and packed with relevant content. Site usability is crucial, especially for first-time online shoppers.
Having a visually pleasing and user-friendly website is essential if you want to increase your customer base. Moreover, it is imperative to offer information straightforwardly without overwhelming customers.
Business owners should get a healthy return on investment (RoI) from their ecommerce marketing efforts. Whether you're selling real or digital goods, the RoI is typically expressed in terms of new business opportunities discovered.
Edited by Swetha Kannan