The e-commerce industry has been flourishing over the years and has paved the way for retail brands to reach out to customers both at the domestic and global levels. While there are various factors responsible for the development of the e-commerce industry, one of the major elements boosting the growth of the e-commerce industry is the ever-growing SaaS platforms.
While it is not a new concept in India, but it has recently started gaining extreme popularity and is eventually playing a robust role in bolstering the e-commerce industry in India and beyond.
How SaaS platforms accelerate Economic growth?
India’s economy is growing at a significant pace and this is strengthening its position at the global level. The adoption and promotion of SaaS (Software as a service) solutions in e-commerce companies are empowering them to accelerate the process of delivery by streamlining their supply chain. SaaS permits users to connect and use cloud-based apps and utilize the power of the internet and technology to simplify their functioning. For instance, e-mail, Office tools (such as Microsoft Office 365), and calendars cater to a complete solution that a customer purchases on a pay-as-you-go basis with the help of a service provider.
Today, in the present times, online buying is soaring. Further, the outbreak of COVID-19 has given the e-commerce industry a substantial boost. Amidst the social distancing norms, people now prefer doorstep delivery for almost everything, be it groceries, medicines, or apparel.
The shift in the behavioral and purchasing pattern of customers along with their changing needs and preferences pushes the e-commerce players to come up with innovations and adopt new solutions at different levels for simplifying the whole e-commerce supply chain. Looking forward to meeting the increasing and diverse needs of customers, e-commerce platforms are finding new software solutions so as to ensure efficiency, transparency and customer satisfaction.
As per IBEF's 'E-commerce industry in India' report, the Indian e-commerce industry is expected to be the world's second-largest e-commerce industry by 2034. Adoption of advanced technological solutions like the incorporation of SaaS platforms, facilitation of digital payments, hyper-local logistics, analytics-driven customer engagement will be the major reasons for the growth of the e-commerce sector in India. This growth will further boost the employment sector, help increase revenues from export, increase in tax collection by exchequers, and will provide better products and services to the customers and hence will con-tribute majorly in accelerating the economic growth of the country.
On the whole, SaaS platforms will not only fortify the e-commerce industry but will also give the required push to the country’s economic growth as well.
How are SaaS platforms strengthening the e-commerce industry?
Over the years, SaaS has become the backbone of almost all B2B and D2C companies, especially of the e-commerce industry. It has also massively contributed to the growth of SMBs. With Software as a Solution stepping into the e-commerce
industry, organizations are now relying on this technology to build connections and engagement with their customer base.
Understanding the power of technology, retailers are re-sorting to the use of SaaS e-commerce platforms to stream-line their functioning and ensure that their operations are carried out seamlessly. By incorporating Software as a Solution, the e-commerce players are not only improving their processes but also envision surviving in a competing market strongly by having an edge over the other players.
The future of the Saas market is strong and hence it will lead to the significant growth of the e-commerce industry. NASSCOM also points out a similar trend and states that the Indian SaaS market is expected to grow 6x times and is projected to reach the $13-15 billion mark by the end of 2025. It further states that the e-commerce industry will be one of the sectors that will be majorly adopting this technology in their operations.
The SaaS platforms are increasingly becoming the back-bone of the e-commerce industry and this is due to the various benefits that the technology offers.
Ground-breaking solutions:
SaaS enables merchants to take advantage of prebuilt, basic product information, marketing capacities, and other needed functionalities. It offers radical solutions to companies and businesses, which paves the way for merchants to set up and run an online store smoothly. Integrating SaaS is a time-saving process and hence merchants can leverage the potential of this technological solution to offer a user-friendly interface.
Flexibility:
SaaS in e-commerce not only upscales the sector but also makes the players flexible and helps improvise their working. They are able to handle bulk orders and are able to serve the soaring number of customers effectively. By combining SaaS with other technologies, e-commerce platforms can add new sales channels and increase bandwidth on their servers to easily deal with rising traffic.
-
SaaS permits users to connect and use cloud-based apps and utilize the power of the internet and technology to simplify their functioning
Rajiv Kumar, Co - Founder & CEO, StoreHippo
Offers a good level of security:
SaaS platforms only handle the data but are well equipped with a strong security system to secure and protect your data. Hence, the e-commerce players can work effectively and glitch-free while the technology provider manages the bulk data collection, storage, and security.
This stands as a significant benefit for retailers as they offer a secure and safe platform to their customers who can trust them and sharing their information while purchasing from them. This helps the e-commerce players increase their consumer base and loyalty.
Affordable:
The cost required to integrate Saas into the e-commerce platform is affordable and effective. These solutions make the platform tech-savvy, easily accessible and available as they only need to spend on the add-on features and the maintenance. The merchants won’t even have to bear the additional costs for working on the patches of fixing the bugs in the software. SaaS e-commerce enables merchants to avoid huge expenses for development work as they are not building a platform from the scratch.
The SaaS software is not installed on-premise or maintained by the customers, rather an e-commerce system runs on the SaaS provider’s hosted server. Generally, SaaS applications are licensed based on subscription and the licensing model is usually a cost-effective way for merchants to experience real-time access to e-commerce platforms via an internet connection, whenever they wish to.
Summing up!
Saas extends various benefits and plays a pivotal role in upscaling the e-commerce industry in India. Saas solutions render the elements of innovation, efficiency, cost-efficacy to the e-commerce platforms. Businesses are now realizing the value of Software as a Solution and its benefits and hence are increasingly inclined towards the adoption of the same in their operations. This technology will have a tremendous impact on the future growth of existing and upcoming companies. It is increasingly becoming an integral element of the e-commerce industry and will continue to boost the growth of the sector in the coming times as well.
