E-Commerce and Online Retail Opportunities for SMEs

E-commerce industry in the Philippines is on the rise and holds much potential for growth and development. An e-commerce business is a kind of retail outlet where goods and services are purchased or sold through computerized networks. Payment for those goods or services can be made online or off-line depending on the priorities of vendors and customers. It is mostly driven by those consumers who are immersed in technology and social media platforms.

By the end of third quarter of the year 2017, the total revenue from e-commerce transactions has increased by 22% (from $1 billion to $1.2 billion) and approximately 30.3 million Filipinos have made purchases from online stores - as reported by statistics portal Statista. It is also anticipated that by the end of the year 2018, E-commerce sale in South-east Asia shall reach up to $6 billion (i.e. 65% of the total transactional value) and the Philippines shall be the major market for it.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had also introduced an E-commerce roadmap for Philippine’s retail industry for a period of five years (2016-2020). This roadmap has set up strategies to achieve an invigorated growth and expected contribution of at least 25% from that retail sector in national GDP by the end of 2020. With the development of e-commerce system in the Philippines, other industries shall also flourish. These industries include but not limited to Telecom industry, Mobile Banking, Social Media platforms, and Logistics and warehousing (for supply chain). Shopping malls, brands, and retail stores can also benefit from these developments by looking into the innovative techniques of marketing their businesses on the internet and getting an online presence.

E-commerce boom shall open many avenues for startup and SME businesses to grow and succeed. Many SMEs have already been making use of E-commerce to add value in existing businesses or to set up new business ventures.

However, there are certain obstacles and hindrances for SMEs; and one of them is lack of finance. Commercial Banks usually hesitate in extending business loans to SMEs because of their perceived low creditworthiness. This is where CreditBPO can help. We, at CreditBPO, help SME owners improve their credit score and make sure that SMEs are enabled to get the right business loan for their company’s working capital or future expansion needs. We generate a comprehensive credit profile of the business using quantitative and qualitative data from a professional financial analyst’s viewpoint. We also generate recommendations on how a business owner can improve his SMEs credit risk rating using our U.S. copyright-registered CreditBPO Rating Report® as a technology-enabling roadmap to achieve business growth and prosperity.

For further details, please visit: www.creditbpo.com