Digital wave rides strong in Tier II & III mkts in India

NowFloats, a location-based content marketing platform, in association with Zinnov unveiled a report focused on the technology adoption trends among small and medium businesses across India. The report titled 'Inside the Internet of India' brings together insights on the usage of smart technologies across various industries and cities.

The survey done as a part of the Digital Desh Drive, was conducted across 24 cities from Amritsar to Kanyakumari with the aim of studying the behavioural patterns of entrepreneurs across different regions and also enable them to build a strong digital footprint online.

"Technology now plays a very important role in business expansion and through this study we have highlighted these technology adoption trends in Tier II, Tier III markets across various sectors," said Jasminder Singh Gulati, CEO, NowFloats.

"We witnessed that more than 90% of small businesses are adopting smart technologies for their businesses, which further proved that technology adoption is growing at a much faster pace, than generally believed, not only metro cities but also the smaller markets. Along with the SMBs' fast evolving technology journey, we also notice a strong amalgamation of both digital and traditional tools to do business as an emerging trend."

The report shares significant insights about technology adoption in various industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and retail, wholesale, hotels and restaurants as well as city-specific findings.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance who extended his support to the Digital Desh Drive expresses, "The country's economic prowess is such that by providing better life to one billion Indians, the problems of the world would be solved. This initiative is a firm step towards enabling our citizens digitally and empowering them economically. The results of the report strongly indicate the unexplored potential of the country in Tier II and Tier III markets."

• Small and local businesses across locations and verticals are adopting smartphones more rapidly than ever.• The need to connect instantly with customers is a key motivation across businesses.• Many businesses are using web tools such as websites and e-mails for promotions and marketing.• Significant usage of credit, debit card and online banking for payments has been witnessed• Merchants are willing to adopt new technologies such as mobile wallets if customer demands increases

• Tier III Indian cities are largest adopters of smartphones & PCs for communicating with customers, managing business data and accounting related activities• Tier II Indian cities are the highest adopters of payments technologies such as debit and credit cards for sales and transactionsInsights by Industry Verticals:• Many retail businesses are using smartphones to interact with customers and suppliers.• Hospitality businesses use online platforms aggressively to acquire and communicate with new customers.• Manufacturing businesses primarily leverage smartphone-enabled platforms to integrate and closely monitor their suppliers.• A third of SMBs leverage technology tools such as websites and email for marketing, .COM remains the first choice of domain name for SMBs with or without a website.