“The GeM has also witnessed tremendous growth in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and is catching up with E-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart,” the report said.
Economic Survey 2023: Government’s e-commerce portal GeM grew 160% in FY22
As per the annual Economic Survey report, tabled by FM Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the ‘Government eMarketplace’ has attained an annual procurement of Rs 1 lakh crore in FY22. The growth marks a 160 per cent increase compared to last fiscal.
“The GeM has also witnessed tremendous growth in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and is catching up with E-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart,” the report said.
The government-backed portal for public procurement saw micro, small and medium enterprises contributing 57 per cent of the total business on GeM while firms run by female entrepreneurs have accounted for over 6 per cent of revenue.
“The recent initiative of the launch of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is also playing a significant role in democratising digital payments, enabling interoperability, and bringing down transaction costs,” it read.
The report said the portal has taken a host of steps to onboard products of self-help groups (SHGs), tribal communities, artisans, weavers, and MSMEs. Initiatives taken by the Government for the promotion of e-commerce, including the Digital India program, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), GeM, etc., have been major contributory factors to the growth of E-commerce in recent years, it added.
It may be noted that while 4,06,936 MSE sellers and service providers were registered on the GeM portal at the end of March 2021, this number grew to 7,41,756 in a year, a growth of a whopping 82 per cent.
“A vast untapped rural market holds the potential for strengthening consumption growth; new E-commerce companies like Trell, Meesho, and shop 101, are expanding and gaining popularity in Tier 3 and 4 cities. The E-commerce industry is focusing on local solutions to penetrate rural areas by strengthening the network of rural distributors and retailers and using local distribution centres as Pick Up Drop Off points, enabling logistics companies to serve rural consumers,” the report read.
Also read: Economic Survey 2023: Labour market recovered beyond pre-COVID levels; female participation improved
Also read: Economic Survey 2023: India clocked 200% increase in rural internet subscriptions in six years
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