Sarita Batra Khanchandani is a nutritionist. She is present on social media and phone groups but she now wants to build a full fledge online space to sell her services for nutrition. "We need to increase our sales to beyond word of mouth." says she learnt "how the trends are changing for online consumption. They talked about How To- and for me How to lose weight or how to stay healthy is a big question my business could address."
Small businesses by women in India set for big growth on the internet
Riddhi Dave, of Adaa creations is a member of many groups that support women in business. She runs a boutique that she wants to grow. "We do custom clothing. We need to expand and tell our story to many others, using location specific marketing," referring to what she learnt at #Womenwill. She was one among 200
female entrepreneurs who showed up to improve their learning curve and "understand online branding and marketing."
Speaking at the Womenwill conference in Ahmedabad, Shalini Girish, Director - Google Marketing Solutions, Google India said, "India has over 51 million SMBs, and over 8 million women entrepreneurs. At Google India, we are committed to helping these communities successfully leverage digital to grow profitably and sustainably."
Not just upcoming entrepreneurs, but existing established players too are noting how the digital landscape is becoming more demanding, yet more accessible.
Arpita Ganesh runs Buttercups, a lingerie business where she does manufacturing and is using
online advertising to promote sales. "We would not exist if we didn't have digital outreach," she admits.
Not just upcoming entrepreneurs, but existing established players too are noting how the digital landscape is becoming more demanding, yet more accessible.
In India, every year more and more
women entrepreneurs are entering the business sphere. This is driven by many reasons such as desire to be creators, be a master of their own game, the absence of enough businesses catering to women as a market and government support and encouragement to women to experiment with entrepreneurship.
"As more and more women come online, they are going to use the internet not just to become a massive consumer base but also be able to offer services and products that now have a market," says Shaili Chopra, Founder of SheThePeople.TV which partnered Google to launch this conference in Ahmedabad. "A market that doesn't need excessive and initial infrastructure to take off."
Only 6 pct of commerce is happening through wallets and soon this figure will double to 15%. Wallets are on the right signalling there is a huge online market growth expected. Shalini Girish explained the potential of digital growth with some statistical examples. "First is that SMBs that leverage digital platforms grow their profits and revenues twice as fast when they only using offline. These are people using basic tools. Second, SMBs that are online are able to reach markets that are outside of their home territory. 52% of them are able to cater to customers outside of their home network."
Digitally enabled businesses can connect across India and position themselves globally. That was the key takeaway for most women who attended Womenwill.
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