The Future of E-Commerce: Innovations and Shifting Consumer Behaviour in the Digital Marketplace

ABSTRACT Marketplace is an ICT innovation that facilitates MSMEs to market their products on the internet. On one hand, marketplace provides several benefits to MSMEs such as access to broader market, ability to enter supply chain of large companies, access to information at single source and the like. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector is the growth engine of Indian economy. It has received due attention of policy makers of the country due to its share in national exports, employment and GDP. In manufacturing sector, MSMEs constitute 95 per cent of the total industrial units. Hence enhancing the competitiveness of this sector has become the priority of the Government of India. On the other hand, researchers opine that marketplaces increase competition among MSMEs and benefits of participation in marketplace are higher to large buyers. As use of marketplace by MSMEs in India, is in growth stage, there is a need to understand the perceptions and experiences of MSMEs with marketplaces. Even though there are empirical studies on adoption of e-business, majority of them either focus on large firms or electronic business in general. There is lack of empirical studies on adoption of marketplaces in India, especially in the context of small firms. Keywords: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME), Marketplace, manufacturing sector, national exports, employment, e-business.