DIGITAL REVOLUTION IN RETAIL TRADE (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SMALL RETAILERS IN KALYAN REGION)

Small local retailers have a big contribution to the surrounding citizens as well as Indian economy. These retailers include tiny shops, small grocery stores, medical stores, hardware shops, mobile shops, mobile recharge stores, local vegetable and fruit sellers, etc. These small shops are spread all over, who makes groceries and consumables available for the customers easily. During COVID-19, because of the pandemic, these small retails came to the rescue of the surrounding citizens. Most of the online marketing and its shopping portals had stopped sending home delivery. Even then most such businesses suffered a lot, and they have incurred huge losses. Since people were not able to go out in crowded areas and do shopping on their own, many of them opted for sitting at their homes and ordering products for their daily needs. With time the face of business is changing, and businesses are going digital. This is impacting the routine operations of local shopkeepers due to many reasons. If these small businessmen’s won’t upgrade their strategies or adopt new technology, they may vanish over a period of time. The basic feature of the e-Commerce is ease of doing business. It has been proved over a period of time that small business if do not adopt new techniques then the situation may led to the closure of several businesses, regardless of size or nature. This research paper attempts to ascertain the problems faced and opportunities grabbed by small retailers of Kalyan City in recent times and the massive use of e- commerce by them in their sustenance and growth. Further it also assesses the distress amongst the business community and focuses on the real time benefits of e-commerce to the small businessmen’s community in the near future.