Mumbai: The COVID-19 crisis and the resultant containment measures have not impacted everyone in the same way. Among the private sector, Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), especially those led by vulnerable groups such as women, youth, and economically deprived communities, suffered the most.
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises account for a staggering 90 per cent of all businesses and over 50 per cent of jobs worldwide, as per estimates. They play a key role in stimulating economic growth and providing employment, particularly in developing countries like ours.
As a mark of recognition to the gigantic contribution these smaller businesses make to the global economy- often away from the spotlight- 27 June is celebrated as MSME Day or Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Day internationally.
This MSME Day, OkCredit- the digital book-keeping app for small business owners – attempted to bring back the joy of neighbourhood shopping. The company encouraged consumers to shop in their friendly neighbourhood stores through a heart-warming creative that reminds us of the big role these local stores played in our lives before the boom of e-commerce.
The short film talks about the time when a trip to the market encompassed a plethora of pleasant experiences, tugging at our heartstrings with nostalgia-inducing nuggets like the shopkeeper giving one candy instead of small change. It urges us to bring back those days gone by for ‘applying a discount code is not half as fun as haggling’ at a store where the neighbourhood came together to hang around and discuss the day’s events. Through poetic narration, it captures all those little moments, comparing the fun, intimate feel that local shopping provides as opposed to the cold experience of surfing e-commerce sites while looking for offers.
While social commerce may be all the rage right now, OkCredit’s campaign shows that it began years ago at the original social network- i.e. the Kirana shops on our street corners.
The poetic lines have been credited to the company’s ‘in-house poet’ associate director- growth, Ayush Jain. If neighbourhood shopping is your favourite way of buying essentials, while observing the world around you, then this is for you.
Earlier this month, OkCredit had launched the #UdharAbhiBaakiHai digital campaign to help small and medium businesses recover from a severe cash crunch, wrought on by the pandemic. The digital campaign urged customers to clear their pending dues to help small businesses and kiranas to tide over the financial crisis.
OkCredit currently has over 2.4 crore registered users, these include over 100 types of businesses such as kirana store owners, mobile recharge shops, medical stores, apparel amongst others.
