For Small and Medium business today one of the strongest possible aspects of exploring the market size and the opportunity is the Long Tail. With the Internet spreading across the length and breadth of the country, there are new consumer markets sprouting which requires a new set of product offerings with a supported set of services.
As the choice is increasing for consumers, there are more set of offerings available for the customers to choose from and as businesses are realizing it, there is a demand for products and services which is rising, which previously did not exist, as reaching out to customers in villages etc. was initially not possible.
Example, if we take the music industry, there was a time when people used to listen to radio as a mass medium and that was one way to reach the masses, as a product it could help you listen to your music without really buying discs. But with the Radio, the CD's going ahead came the Internet which changed the game. Internet created music libraries like Rhapsody which has a collection of millions of songs which can be streamed anytime from any part of the world. They have seen trends where customers are buying music which generally would be very hard to find in stores. This is music of the gone era, in cases even a decade old.
This trend shows the demand and consumption trends of a whole new market which now has access to interesting content which was not available before. The volumes of this consumption is so high that even at nominal prices it adds up significantly to the revenue.
What's in it for SMEs?
Many SMEs have strong products and related services which they are reaching out to the market with. Like all businesses they also target the larger segment of the market, where the Price-Demand-Supply ratios help them take their business to the next growth level. But there is stiff competition in the space and hence for small companies to compete becomes difficult.
This is where small companies can innovate and reach out to a new segment of the market which might not have the potential to buy the similar category of products and services, but can afford to buy a new set of customized services and products. There is a fairly large volume of such consumers which the SMEs can target using the Internet which is a low cost medium for companies to reach out to new potential markets and engage existing set of customers.
E-commerce
SMEs have a major opportunity in terms of E-commerce which they can explore. With the increased access to the Internet and increased buying power, SMEs should leverage online mediums to reach out to such potential customers with specialized set of services which have a lower delivery cost and also can be paid for online.
One can easily set up an E-commerce portal of their own, OR partner with portals like E-bay etc. to set up online stores, from where they can make online transactions. The advantage with these platforms is that they provide the sellers an existing infrastructure which the sellers can leverage to their advantage.
As the choice is increasing for consumers, there are more set of offerings available for the customers to choose from and as businesses are realizing it, there is a demand for products and services which is rising, which previously did not exist, as reaching out to customers in villages etc. was initially not possible.
Example, if we take the music industry, there was a time when people used to listen to radio as a mass medium and that was one way to reach the masses, as a product it could help you listen to your music without really buying discs. But with the Radio, the CD's going ahead came the Internet which changed the game. Internet created music libraries like Rhapsody which has a collection of millions of songs which can be streamed anytime from any part of the world. They have seen trends where customers are buying music which generally would be very hard to find in stores. This is music of the gone era, in cases even a decade old.
This trend shows the demand and consumption trends of a whole new market which now has access to interesting content which was not available before. The volumes of this consumption is so high that even at nominal prices it adds up significantly to the revenue.
What's in it for SMEs?
Many SMEs have strong products and related services which they are reaching out to the market with. Like all businesses they also target the larger segment of the market, where the Price-Demand-Supply ratios help them take their business to the next growth level. But there is stiff competition in the space and hence for small companies to compete becomes difficult.
This is where small companies can innovate and reach out to a new segment of the market which might not have the potential to buy the similar category of products and services, but can afford to buy a new set of customized services and products. There is a fairly large volume of such consumers which the SMEs can target using the Internet which is a low cost medium for companies to reach out to new potential markets and engage existing set of customers.
E-commerce
SMEs have a major opportunity in terms of E-commerce which they can explore. With the increased access to the Internet and increased buying power, SMEs should leverage online mediums to reach out to such potential customers with specialized set of services which have a lower delivery cost and also can be paid for online.
One can easily set up an E-commerce portal of their own, OR partner with portals like E-bay etc. to set up online stores, from where they can make online transactions. The advantage with these platforms is that they provide the sellers an existing infrastructure which the sellers can leverage to their advantage.
Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to create new opportunities or SMEs to grow. To know more about how you can leverage the internet and new media technologies, drop in a comment to this post and our team of experts will be happy to help!
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