The Technology Gap in SMEs Cross-Border Trade

More than 30% of India's GDP comes from exports and imports of goods (excluding services).

Over 40% of this amount is accounted for by SMEs, or about USD 300 billion per year.

Almost half of this trade goes to developed countries (US, EU, Japan, China, etc.).

Over 30 million Indians are directly employed by SMEs engaged in cross-border trade.


Small businesses find exports particularly attractive because –

Margin expansion - Higher profitability due to lower labor costs and raw materials availability

One of the key aspects is a better track record of payment from overseas buyers, as well as easier access to credit insurance.

It is far more disciplined for buyers from developed countries to pay on time.

Benefits from GST plus incentives (3% to 5%)

Depreciation of the INR benefits

Interest subvention on borrowings, Capital subsidies, Advance Authorisation (Import Duty waiver)

More than 14 million shipments cross India every year (by air and sea).

As for SME shipments, there is little digital footprint or data consolidation involved.


The current process is laborious, paper-intensive, and unorganized.

From start to finish, each shipment takes about 60-75 days.


India's EXIM process is quite complicated.


In addition to coordinating with overseas customers and suppliers, an SME has to deal with 10+ service providers for every shipment.

These ancillary activities cost between 10-12% of every shipment/invoice value.

SMEs in India spend over USD 35 billion per year website on these ancillary services from various service providers.

The following is an illustration of these costs for an FCL shipment.

The total overhead (excluding manufacturing and manpower costs) for this shipment is approximately USD 4,000.

The collective time spent on each shipment is at least 100 man-hours.

It is also necessary to catch up on government regulations, both local and international.


For these webs of activities, technology support is surprisingly limited or piecemeal.


It's interesting to note that Indian SMEs are not an exception and suffer from the same inefficiencies around the world.


Even though some government-sponsored digitization has taken place in India (DGFT, ICEGATE).


Nonetheless, the results are far from ideal.


Over the last few years, SaaS companies and B2B startups have addressed many of the generic needs of SMEs, including GST, Accounting, e-Payments, and CRM.

Unfortunately, SME exporters and importers do not have access to tools or solutions that simplify their lives.


SMEs typically use custom ERPs for accounting, inventory, human resources, etc., but not for export/import workflows or digitization.


The ERP solution is extended by SAP extensions in larger companies.

Therefore, such solutions take months/years to install and stabilize, and are completely out of reach for SMEs due to the cost, time, effort, and uncertainty involved.

An SME exporter/importer cannot digitize their export/import workflow with an off-the-shelf / cloud-based tool.

Due to this, teams from companies handling Export / Import rely on locally stored documents, cabinets full of hard copies, spreadsheet trackers, and proverbial emails without any system support or automation.


It is for this reason that many SMEs struggle to manage and/or expand their EXIM business effectively.

Is there a better way to handle this?


Using all-in-one platform Ninjas Pro, Supply Ninjas' team automates, digitizes, and simplifies the lives of SME exporters and importers.


Click here to know more about Ninjas Pro


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