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NORTH AMERICA
AS SOME SMES REOPEN FOR BUSINESS , E-COMMERCE REMAINS KEY FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
it would be a waste to neglect or even stop their e-commerce business once life moves towards the normal pace again . Maintaining the presence in the e-commerce space will allow them to access new , sustainable revenue streams , as well as better compete with the big e-commerce players like Amazon or eBay .”
Sustaining the revenue could be a challenge if the existing local payment methods ( LPMs ) are not exactly in tandem with the needs of small merchants . Breuss noted that creating LPMs , tailored for including small merchants , like the ‘ buy online , pick-up in store ’ ( BOPIS ) option , would be the best solution in order to help them maintain the business growth experienced during the pandemic .
The pandemic restrictions are being slowly loosened , and the usual brick-and-mortar stores in countries like the United Kingdom , Ireland , France and Czech Republic , are being opened again , while some states in the US are planning to do so soon . The US saw more than 31 % of small businesses close down last April , and many had to move online in order to survive . But with recent re-openings growing in number , small merchants might be considering closing their e-stores as the business will be slowly coming back ‘ to normal ’.
While small businesses going omnichannel initially might have been because of a need to survive , Frank Breuss , Co-Founder of Nikulipe , a FinTech company connecting fast-growing and emerging markets with the global payments industry , said that continuous use of e-commerce solutions is vital for small and medium enterprises ( SMEs ) if they want to have sustainable business growth in the long-term .
“ There is a risk that many smaller merchants will go back to running only the physical stores , with a possibility of closing the e-stores they run now , but
A significant number of shoppers are making use of the ability to buy and pay online , picking up their orders in store . A recent McKinsey report found that 56 % of shoppers plan to continue the shopping behaviour they have adopted since last year . Shoppers have come to appreciate the many conveniences omnichannel shopping can provide , and BOPIS seems to be one of the trends that might not go away .
“ SMEs in Emerging Markets have faced a rather harsh existence – most have had limited prospects for growth and short life cycles – however , their shift to e-commerce and becoming omnichannel , which they might not have done prior , led them to reach larger audiences . There is , of course , still much to do in terms of cross-border solutions that would be a perfect fit for the shoppers too , but SMEs in these markets are on the right track ,” explained Breuss .
Diversifying LPMs for reaching additional target groups is also something that could keep the sustainable revenue flow for smaller merchants , as the volume of e-commerce users continues to grow , with global sales predicted to reach US $ 4.2 trillion this year . Open Banking solutions , allowing Payments Industry FinTechs to create new , safe and even pan-European local payment methods , could work as a more easily applicable payment method for SMEs to employ . �
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