Marketplace for digital technologies for SMBs

There are a lot of digital technologies available to small and medium businesses, but business owners lack the time to search for solutions. A digital marketplace would help business owners to have a one-stop-shop for finding products or services that can help them. Also, digital technology service providers are often small businesses themselves, and spend a lot of money on advertising. The government can host this marketplace and help connect providers with businesses looking for a solution.

 

Why the contribution is important

Universally, business owners are time poor. They are problem aware, but not necessarily solutions aware. They may even lack the language to find the right solution - for example, they are very  aware that cash flow is a problem, but don't search for accounts receivable software to help them collect payments faster. A one-stop market place reduces the barriers to finding the right solution for their business.

by ezyCollect on December 04, 2017 at 12:00PM

Current Rating

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Average score : 4.6
Based on : 3 votes

Comments

  • Posted by reuel88 December 04, 2017 at 12:17

    This sounds like an excellent idea. It is often hard to know what are the resources you need to when running a business.

  • Posted by smalldigbizteam December 04, 2017 at 16:16

    Thanks ezyCollect for a great idea!

    Can I ask your further thoughts - what might a digital marketplace look like? would it be a website?

    And just to explore your comments about 'lack of language' what might help with this?

    Would be great to hear your and others thoughts

    Cheers the small business digital taskforce team

  • Posted by ezyCollect December 13, 2017 at 16:30

    Hi team,

    Definitely thinking an online resource - website, possibly structured as a directory.

    Lack of language - List solutions by problems the small business owner is dealing with e.g. I need to collect money faster OR I need to accept online payments OR I need a customer database - then list digital technology providers if they solve these problems. Example - a business will be aware that they need to get paid faster, but not necessarily aware that they need a debtor management solution or an online payments solution.

  • Posted by SoniaC January 10, 2018 at 10:07

    Some of the major online players are already hosting marketplace directories with other companies solutions that are complementary to or integrate with their own (eg the Xero marketplace).
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