SMEs still have barriers to selling online

Despite the fact that online sales have grown in recent years, largely driven by the pandemic, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the retail sector still face barriers to marketing. online.

The main barrier is Difficulty implementing a new business modelas indicated by 37% of the SMEs interviewed in the fifth edition of the GS1 Barometer: SME Manufacturers of the Consumer Industry, carried out by GS1.

But there are also other barriers such as the type of product they sell, the company’s lack of interest or the lack of time, so 31% of those surveyed say so, while for 20% a problem is not having the knowledge necessary to open an e-commerce.

However, six out of 10 SMEs agree on the importance of selling onlinesince 35% do it mainly to expand their market and due to factors derived from the pandemic, 14% to position their product, 14% to increase their sales, 12% for its easy management, 9% for being a global trend, 9% to have another distribution channel and 7% out of necessity.

On the other hand, the SMEs that stopped selling online did so for lack of consumer interestbad administration, not mastering the digital channel.

What do they need to strengthen?

SMEs say noneed to strengthen certain technical issuess to sell online, including logistics, payment methods and fraud prevention.

“A natural disadvantage of SMEs is precisely in the logistics. For example, in the food industry, it is often perishable products and it is not within the reach of many businesses to rent logistics and outsource it because they will probably have to move their merchandise from the shelves in a matter of days or weeks,” said René Yamada, Strategic Planning and Operational Effectiveness Manager of GS1 Mexico.

He specified that it is expected that in the future the ecommerce be more than half of the sales for a 47% of businessesTherefore, it is important to pay attention to the difficulties that small businesses are having.