Prabin Khadka:

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been playing a significant role in the economic development of small economies like Nepal. They have helped create employment, leading to increased participation of indigenous people, use of local resources, generation of technological innovations and provision of skills and training at a low cost to the people. The major exportable items like woollen carpet, pashmina products and handicraft goods produced by SMEs have been sources of earning foreign currency. In this context, electronic-commerce can be a good medium for today’s competition and modernisation, to recognise the modern multilateral trading system and to participate in the international trade.

What is e-commerce? Website is made by description of any product, place or person in text or graphic picture or motion picture form that is stored in hard disk, which can be seen and read by people from anywhere in the world through the medium of the Internet on the computer. In this way, web page is built for any new product and it is advertised by using computer through World Wide Wave (www).

After getting the price of that product through the electronic medium, it will be sent to the customers. In this way, e-commerce or electronic business can be used to buy or sell products from home.

Although SMEs play a pivotal role in the country’s economy, they could not face the challenges of changing European and American markets using information technology of the 21st century. A recent research shows that most of the European and American buyers purchase goods online by using the Internet as a means of knowing the comparative prices of different sellers. Business can be explored by using e-business and the opportunities and threats of changing market phenomena could be better understood. The Nepali products are much cheaper than the western ones. So, online business model will help to find the prospective buyers. Therefore, it is necessary for SMEs to take further steps toward international marketing and sales promotion for their products.

Because of economic liberalisation, the number of online shoppers worldwide is increasing and it seems that online shopping will dominate the retail market in days ahead. But at present, Nepali SMEs are not taking full advantage of it. Most entrepreneurs don’t have even a knowledge of how e-business works due to the absence of sufficient information and awareness. There is a great potential for products made in Nepal like garments, thanka, Nepali paper, to be sold on the international market through e-commerce. It is useful for both buyers and sellers.

On the one hand, e-commerce provides buyers with countless options, on the other, it reduces the expenditure and helps to promote the products of the sellers. The potential development of e-commerce also lies in the fact that it is not subjected to any transit problem and geographical barrier, as Nepal is a landlocked country. Buyers and manufacturers in far-off countries can offer their products or services with information on product capabilities and benefits, contents or components, prices, production schedules, delivery terms and payment conditions.

Huge amounts of money are not required for investing in website development. As e-commerce is a new subject for Nepali SMEs, it may take some time to develop basic infrastructure including dissemination of knowledge and practice of e-commerce. But it is essential for SMEs to follow e-commerce to cope with the fast changing global business environment.