NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 3
Alibaba.com, the B2B arm of Alibaba Group, hosted multiple online training workshops during the past two months to support MSMEs in response to the uncertain economic conditions resulting from the impact of Covid-19. Alibaba.com has adopted a digital approach to continue enabling MSMEs across cities, which includes hosting online training workshops. Over 800 attendees from nearly 50 towns and cities in India attended these workshops, a company release said.
Stephen Kuo, Head of Asia Pacific, Alibaba.com, said, “Alibaba.com, with the vision and commitment to empower and enable local SMEs to participate in global markets, has been working in India to serve the burgeoning MSME community. Many Indian MSMEs do not have e-commerce or export experience, so we regularly conduct workshops and training programmes to handhold them in the process. Due to the ongoing situation, offline training programmes are not possible so we have shifted gears to take these workshops online, and we are happy to see the response from our sellers.”
The majority of these attendees operate in textile, handicrafts, jewellery, and machinery sectors, and approximately 10-15% of these attendees comprise women entrepreneurs. The training workshops are an on-going engagement by Alibaba.com to enable existing and potential sellers on the platform by offering a range of topics, which are helpful for sellers across different stages of eCommerce business. As insights from Alibaba.com show that 65% of Indian sellers on the platform have no exporting experience, there are 6 modules specifically targeted towards beginners. At the same time, there are two modules designed for medium to senior levels, which are conducted by specialists.
With over 10 million active buyers from across 200 countries and regions, Alibaba.com provides global access to merchants from across markets. With operations affected by lockdowns, MSMEs face uncertainties with regard to the demand for their products. The core proposition of Alibaba.com, through these training, are to enable and empower merchants with the knowledge of digital commerce, enable merchants to take adaptable measures to grow their business during the lockdown, and create long-term sustainable businesses.
By learning how to optimize their skills and opportunities through Alibaba.com’s platform, MSMEs are evolving their business strategies to sell their products in a global market. The digital model, as a method of training, has been well received by entrepreneurs.
Initiatives such as the online training from Alibaba.com are an attempt to enable India in its vision of garnering more than half of its GDP from MSMEs.
