ITV

Tag: SMEs

  • Google aims to get 50,000 Gujarat SMEs online

    MUMBAI: Google India has announced its plan to get 50,000 small medium businesses in Gujarat online by end of 2014. The initiative is part of Google’s national campaign titled ‘India, get your business online’ which offers free websites and hosting to small medium business in India. The campaign is aimed at bringing down the barrier that prevents small medium businesses to get on the Internet. Giving a head start to this project, Google also unveiled the details of a special project wherein Google India & HostGator went to popular traditional markets in Ahmadabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot and built websites for 5,000 small businesses making them accessible to the world.

     

    In addition to creating the websites, Google India also created Google maps listings and Google+ business pages for these businesses. All these 5,000 businesses will be able to use 24×7 customer support to manage their websites and get free online advertising credit that can be used on Google search to promote their business online.

     

    This initiative was announced by Google India Head – SMB Sales Suryanarayana K, who said, “SMEs are a key driver for economic growth of India, but very few businesses have been able to utilise the benefits of the internet effectively. Gujarat houses the largest number of SMEs in the country. These can benefit greatly by having a website for their businesses which will open up new markets for them. Google’s ‘India Get Your Business Online’ initiative aims to boost the SME ecosystem by giving them a simple, effective and free platform to get their business online. We aim to get 50,000 SMEs online, which will dramatically change the business landscape and opportunities for SMEs in Gujarat.” 

    “Our research has shown that SMEs who use internet, see revenue growth of 51 per cent and raise in profits by 49 per cent. Gujarat already represents 10 per cent of the total internet population in the country and houses many export oriented businesses, by being present on the internet, they can make the world their market and continue to boost the economy of the country”, he added. 

     

    Amongst the businesses that were covered in the project, Google India team built websites for traditional businesses operating out of popular local markets in Ahmedabad like the Manek Chowk, Teen Darwaza, Kabootar Khanna, Lathi Bazaar. In Surat the project covered Millenium market, Radha Krishnan market (textile market), In Rajkot – Soni bazaar and Sant Kabir road famous for jewellery stories, and in Vadodara – Lehri Pura Darwaja a market that focuses on traditional artifacts. 
    Nakul Makker, owner of Swati Furniture based in Visharam Marg, Ahmadabad said “We get a lot of customers who always ask us about our website as nowadays the customers expect us to put our catalogue online. We have been thinking about making one but we did not know how to go about it. With Google offering to set up a website for us, our business is now accessible online to anyone and everyone in Ahmadabad. A website today is like a mobile phone, as a business you need to invest in one and grow your business. With our website we can also look at expanding our customer base which is not limited to Ahmedabad.” 

     

    In addition to this initiative, Google will host several workshops through its 200 Google partners in Gujarat, who will provide local support to SMEs and help them to get online and grow their business through online marketing. The campaign will also be supported by an aggressive marketing campaign that will focus on improving the awareness on the benefits of Internet for small medium businesses.

  • ShipRocket offers high-speed dispatch and shipping service for e-retailers

    MUMBAI: KartRocket, an e-commerce platform for SMEs and retailers, has launched a new powerful order-processing and shipping service for its e-retail clients, ShipRocket.

     

    The one-click service, based on the SAAS (Software as a Service) model, allows e-commerce ventures to enjoy the benefits of the highly efficient delivery management service. ShipRocket enables its clients to dispatch a shipment, pick a courier company, assign an airway bill number and print a shipping label amongst other facilities.

    The service prints all packing slips in batches providing easy access to all customers and order information in one place. Order statuses change automatically from ‘dispatch’ to ‘shipped’ and from ‘shipped’ to ‘delivered’, facilitating the tracking of order history for a particular order.  The final consumer is notified via auto-emails and SMSes when the order moves through dispatch and delivery. ShipRocket manages remittance from various companies and is fully integrated with Amazon and eBay.

     

    Kartrocket.com CEO and co-founder Saahil Goel commented on the new service saying, “ShipRocket is a phenomenal new technology that we have introduced to smoothen the work of those who want to sell their products online. The service has extended coverage with shipping enablement to over 12,000 pin codes including 6,000 COD pin codes. We follow the policy of a uniform contractual agreement for all clients, enabling multi-vendor management with vendor panels for all our clients. We truly hope to revolutionize the e-commerce space with this excellent introduction.”

     

    Keeping true to its promise of providing unmatched coverage and reach to its clients, the company is looking at adding more shipping service providers in local regions in the quarters to come.