A mindset that resists change is often the reason why SMEs are reluctant to implement new technology.
This is according to Alan Shannon, executive for small business services and private clients at Nedbank, who says online financial tools and platforms such as e-commerce present “significant potential for growth within small businesses”.
Shannon encourages small business owners to explore digital services such as Nedbank’s digital marketplace app, Avo.
Marketed as a 'super app', Avo launched during the 2020 national Covid-19 lockdown, offering essential services online at a time when South Africans were forced to stay at home.
Avo has since broadened its services to offer virtual vehicle mall, Avo Auto, has become an e-commerce and loyalty programme for Afro Centric medical aid, and an authorised reseller of Apple products. It has seen huge uptake, with the bank saying it was connecting over 1.5 million local consumers to 21 000 businesses listed on the platform by its second anniversary.
It has also added a B-to-B marketplace. "Avo gives registered businesses access to over 1.6 million users, including access to payment technology used by large companies, for example bank-grade security, payment reservation and end-to-end logistics support. This is the kind of tech that small-business owners cannot ignore,” says Shannon.
Embrace digital
He advises small business owners to look into other free and cost-effective digital options available, “including sales, marketing, and operational tools from companies such as Xero, which offers affordable accounting and bookkeeping services”.
Online accounting tools, especially those that can be linked to a bank, also have benefits, he says. “Small businesses are often not able to give banks the kind of information they need to assess requests for funding and support. With these accounting tools, you can give your bank access to the information it needs, in the format that it requires.”
Of course, underpinning all these services is data. The ability to derive useful insights from it, and act on them, could be the competitive differentiator for SMEs. “Web-based tools such as Nedbank’s Market Edge can draw rich data from card transactions to help business owners make more informed business decisions about the present and future,” says Shannon.
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