68% of 51 million small, medium businesses run offline

Kolkata: Around 68 percent of the 51 million Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in the country are offline, said Shalini Girish, Director, Marketing Solutions, Google, on Tuesday.

Girish shared findings from a joint research study with KPMG titled `Impact of Internet and Digitisation on SMBs in India`.

"The study reiterates that 68 per cent of the 51 million Indian SMBs are offline and that digitally engaged SMBs grow twice as fast compared to offline SMBs," Girish said here.

Quoting the report, she said digitally engaged businesses are able to grow their customer base significantly with 52 per cent catering to customers beyond their home city versus only 29 per cent offline SMBs.

Highlighting the macroeconomic impact of the Internet, the research found that rising penetration and greater uptake for digital means by SMBs could help increase their contribution to India`s GDP by 10 percentage points, taking it up to 46 to 48 per cent by 2020.