Google India launches campaign to drive demand for small businesses

Google India on Wednesday announced the launch of its nationwide campaign to help support small businesses and drive demand through customer support.

The tech giant’s ‘‘Make Small Strong’ campaign is meant to “rally support from the citizens for small businesses by buying locally, leaving reviews and ratings and promoting their favourite retailers on social media to help generate demand for these businesses, said Shalini Girish, Customer Solutions Director at Google India.

The new initiative is based on feedback from SMBs as part of a research by Google in collaboration with Kantar. According to the report, 5 out of 10 businesses are engaging customers through digital channels. However, 92 per cent of businesses overall are facing customer-related challenges, revenue loss due to low demand and payment of fixed costs.

“Today, the need to go digital is a necessity and SMBs are hard-pressed to digitize fast. We need to do everything we can to handhold millions of small businesses in their digital transformation journey and support business recovery during the current crisis. The needs of small businesses differ across the country and we are partnering with the Industry leaders to offer more support to help small businesses go digital,” said Girish.

Google India, as part of its ongoing initiatives for SMBs, also announced new partnerships with Zoho, Instamojo, Dunzo and Swiggy.

As part of the partnership, Zoho is offering a free three-month subscription for three of its services, Zoho Sites, Zoho Inventory and Zoho Commerce. The offer is valid until March 31, 2021.

Instamojo, as part of its partnership, will offer a six-month free subscription to its ‘Premium Online Store Solution’.

Anand Nergunam Sr, Vice President, Revenue Management & Growth, Zoho Corp. said, “The dramatic shift in consumer preference towards digital commerce has caught most of the Small Businesses off-guard with many of them struggling to win their customers back. Through the Grow with Google initiative, we are providing them with basic tools necessary to digitize their operations with ease. We will assist them with building awareness, onboarding and implementation as well."

“Instamojo currently serves over 1.3 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises across the country to Start, Manage and Grow their business online. Given the current circumstances, our mission is more important than ever to unlock the potential of digital and internet to startups and MSMEs in India,” added Akash Gehani, Co-Founder, Instamojo.

SMBs can also avail Dunzo’s 24x7 Merchant support for free with zero sign-up fees and instant registration. Swiggy is offering a 7-day Fasttrack onboarding process for a restaurant to come on its platform as compared to the industry benchmark which is a 45-day process

Kartik Mishra, Head, Strategy & New Initiatives, Dunzo, said, “India already has a strong network of local merchants and we are enabling them to come online for the very first time and expand their footprints in ways that weren't possible before. This collaboration with Grow with Google, helps us reach more local businesses and empower them with the best possible tools and resources to get started on their digital journey, with a helping hand along the way.”

“In sync with our larger goal to support the restaurant ecosystem through our Jumpstart program, we are looking forward to partnering with independent outlets through fast onboarding and enabling them to grow through this association,” said Said Paul Varghese, VP Supply, Swiggy.

In a bid to increase its outreach program, Google will also be launching a new television show called Namaste Digital soon. The show which is to be launched in partnership with Doordarshan will serve as a “mass media program for SMBs to learn about the Internet and help them grow their business.”

It is also working closely with FICCI on an industry-wide digital skilling. It has trained 1.2 million individuals as part of its training program so far, it said.

Dilip Chenoy, Secretary-General, FICCI, said “Covid-19 is an opportunity in disguise. It gives us a new perspective to focus on our MSMEs and start-ups, which are indeed the future of India’s economic revival. FICCI extends its full support to the “Make Small Strong” initiative as we believe that digitally connecting these dots is the key in completing the bigger picture of digital inclusion.”

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