Every SME must be part of B2B portals: Secy MSME

Top Stories

»	49% Indian startups now from tier 2, 3 cities: Jitendra Singh
»	'India ranks 3rd in global startup ecosystem & number of unicorns'
»	Tripura exported over 9K tonnes of pineapples in 2 years
»	CPI inflation eases to 6.71% in July, IIP falls to 12.3%
»	Rupee depreciates 12 paise to close at 79.64 against US dollar

Saurabh Gupta | 01 Apr, 2011
Each and every Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) must be a part of Business-to-Business (B2B) portals, Secretary, Ministry of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME), Uday Kumar Varma told SME Times on the sidelines of the World SME conference in New Delhi recently.

Asking SMEs to take the advantage of B2B portals, the secretary MSME said,"B2B portals have become the platform for information exchange. But presently not every SME is part of it and also not all information is there on it (B2B portals)."

Varma said, "SMEs are joining B2B portals and paying money for their membership. SMEs are not only taking membership, but also renewing their memberships and the membership number is going up."

"So my only view is that there must be some value that the SMEs are showing so much of importance in these portals. They must be serving some purpose for SMEs to carry their business further. A B2B portal should also become far more comprehensive than what it is now," he told SME Times.

With the boom in e-commerce and Internet marketing, online B2B portals and marketplaces are becoming much more prevalent. These B2B portals act as a bridge between buyers and sellers, importers and exporters, and offer them a common platform availing a bundle of some most useful services. No matter whether you are an exporter or importer, manufacturer or service provider, these online portals offer readymade lists of exporter and importers to help you quickly locate the exact item or company you are looking for.

Unlike in B2C (Business to Consumers) marketing, B2B operations involve exchange of products, services, or information between businesses rather than business and end users. Based on the understanding of what businesses buy/sell and how they buy/sell, B2B Portals offer message boards where users can view buy & sell trade leads and post their own leads to generate maximum business inquiries.

Emphasizing the need of the hour, Varma said, "An extremely potent B2B portal is imperative for SMEs. We need a single portal which will have every information on Indian SMEs and NSIC is working on that."

"And I hope that by the end of this year end we will have something concrete," the secretary added.

When asked on his views about the importance of internet, he said, "Internet is not only the best marketing tool for SMEs, but also it is an unavoidable tool."

"There is no way SMEs can avoid IT (information technology). It will only add to your peril if you don't adopt IT," he added.