Interview of the Day: ‘E-commerce is creating huge opportunities for Indian businesses’

Faraz Ahmed, General Manager, PayPal, Southeast Asia and India

E-commerce is creating huge opportunities for Indian businesses, especially when it comes to cross-border trade and selling to the world. Today, more and more businesses are making use of technology and innovation to explore further growth opportunities, open new revenue streams and increase their profitability by reaching out to millions of global customers. 
With approximately 25% of PayPal’s business being cross-border trade, we are focused on enabling Indian merchants to go global and ultimately boost India’s economic growth. We found that in 2012, PayPal merchants in India were seizing cross-border opportunities in traditional export markets, seeing an increase in growth in USA (20%), UK (12%), Australia (31%), Canada (17%) and Germany (16%).  PayPal’s Indian merchants also grew their overall sales last year exporting to emerging markets like Israel (112%) and Russia (71%), as well as China (38%), South Africa (31%) and Singapore (20%).
What this represents is a call to action for more businesses in India to recognise the benefits of e-commerce and get online.
How do online payment platforms like PayPal facilitate Indian start-ups to expand their ventures into global market?
Building a business in today’s hypercompetitive market is tough and smart entrepreneurs will tell you that choosing the right business and technology partners will make the journey that much easier. With more consumers realising the convenience and choices available online, the need to have a secure and easy-to-use online payment platform in place has never been more important, especially for entrepreneurs and SMEs.
India has over 30 million micro and small and medium enterprises and online payment platforms like ours is committed to helping them grow by leveraging the power of e-commerce which gives them a level playing field when competing with larger export houses.
Are Indian SMEs leveraging the growth of e-commerce? And, where do you see this trend going in future?
By setting up their businesses online, SMEs can reduce their cost structures, streamline operations to enhance productivity, and most importantly, increase their sales through entry into new markets. We are seeing more and more SMEs leveraging on the opportunities e-commerce presents. To reinforce the message that the time is right for Indian SMEs to take advantage of online cross-border trade, the Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation (FIEO), the apex body of Indian exporters, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PayPal and eBay in April 2012. Through joint seminars, webinars and workshops with FIEO, this partnership seeks to help even the smallest of Indian retail exporters realise the e-commerce opportunity and how to best harness it to their advantage.
As commerce becomes 24/7 and the popularity of online shopping grows around the world, we expect more SMEs to realise this golden opportunity to leapfrog their international counterparts and take their businesses to the next level.