Lack of e-payment solutions a bottleneck for MSMEs

Vantage point: Insights from cutting-edge research

E-commerce is transforming the global trade landscape and opening up the international market, but for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), especially from developing countries, considerable challenges prevent them from tapping into its potential. “New Pathways to E-commerce: A Global MSME Competitiveness Survey”, published by the International Trade Centre, polled over 2,200 MSMEs in 111 countries and identified the challenges they face when engaging in e-commerce. Stories of entrepreneurs building online business empires from their garages in Boston, Bengaluru, or Beijing are on the rise, and serve as new business models, said the report. “Beyond this optimistic picture, however, there