Impact of e-commerce on small scale industries in global economy
Atish Kumar
With the emergence of a global economy, e-commerce is becoming a strong catalyst to expand business activities and build an active customer base. It is not very surprising to see the revolutionary way in which e-commerce has helped the business industry. The integration of information and communication has totally changed the relationship between the organizations, the consumers and those who act as mediators between the organizations and the consumers. The use of information technology has not only enabled greater consumer participation but has also helped in mass communication along with reduced costs. Small scale industries, or what in the popular parlance are called SSI, has long been accepted as the engines of economic growth and development. The impact of SSI in the global economy is a very crucial role in the construction of a society which is free of poverty. The reason is that they not only provide ample job opportunities of e-commerce to the different strata of the society but also ensure the flow of money across the various levels of society. Help of e-commerce SSI also play a very critical role in the world economy by contributing to the employment scenario along with the input and output. There are certain points to be understood here. As per a report published in 2015, approximately 600 million jobs would be required worldwide over the next 15 years. Predominantly, most of the formal jobs that are available in developing markets are created by the SSI. That is almost four out of five jobs available in the market. Despite playing a vital role in the development of the economy, it is observed that around 50% of the SSI lack access to finance or capital investment. At any given point of time, the formal SSI create around 33% of the national income and 45% of the total employment in developing countries. When we include the informal SSI in the list, the numbers rise even higher.