· More than 70% of small merchants who signed up on the Instamojo platform lacked digital presence
Mumbai, NFAPost: Instamojo, a full-stack solutions provider for MSMEs, has enabled the digitisation of more than 2 lakh small businesses across the country, across the last two quarters.
In fact, data from the platform showed that more than 70% of the merchants on-boarded did not have any form of online or digital presence before.
With the pandemic bringing about a 360-degree digital shift, businesses are today taking to online solutions in order to survive and cater to an evolving customer segment. Instamojo offers merchants a host of digital products and solutions ranging from online payments, credit services, logistics, e-commerce and marketing.
Post the early days of the pandemic, the Instamojo platform on-boarded businesses across various categories ranging from education to IT, food and retail, entertainment, travel religion, and to toys and gifts.
The platform witnessed maximum sign-ups in the category of Education & Jobs which contributed close to 20% of the merchant pool, followed by the services sector at 15%. Sectors such as Not for Profit, and financial services and products saw a contribution of 4% and 2.61% respectively. Below is a representation of some of the sectors and the percentage contribution.
| SECTOR | % OF MERCHANTS ON-BOARDED |
| Education & Jobs | 20 |
| Services | 15 |
| Books & Magazines | 9.58 |
| Business-to-Business | 7.06 |
| Clothing & Accessories | 6.56 |
| Not for Profit | 4 |
| Financial Services & Products | 2.61 |
| Religion & Spirituality | 0.42 |
| Pets and animals | 0.30 |
Small businesses from Tier 1 cities contributed to maximum merchant signups with Delhi topping the list followed by Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
| RANK | REGION | % OF SIGN-UPS |
| 1 | Delhi | 13 |
| 2 | Pune | 11 |
| 3 | Hyderabad | 9 |
| 4 | Bangalore | 8 |
| 5 | Mumbai | 7.5 |
Tier 2 cities also witnessed several merchants taking the digital path. The cities of Patna, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal and Guwahati topped the charts. The platform also had merchants from Ludhiana, Raipur, Meerut and the North Eastern city of Imphal signup on the platform.
Sharing his views, Instamojo Co-Founder & COO Akash Gehani said the current times are a true testament of growth amidst challenges.
“Along with the several obstacles that the pandemic introduced, it was also instrumental in bringing about a digital wave which in a small way paved the way towards digital progress for MSMEs across the country. For most traditional businesses who showed great resistance towards making the digital shift, this is a start point which also contributing to the larger agenda of Digital India,” said Akash Gehani.
He further added that though the digital way of life was not new in urban areas, an interesting trend we observed was the traction gained from Tier-II cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore and Patna – digital adoption in these cities have picked up well, compared to Pre-Covid times.
“The pandemic has been a great accelerator for small businesses in these markets to establish an online presence for the first time. Through our unique digital solutions ranging from payments to setting up on online shop, we at Instamojo aim to empower and support micro-businesses across the country with the right growth enabling digital solutions,” said Akash Gehani.
