Evaluating the Significant Role of E-Commerce to the Resiliency of MSMEs During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

E-commerce has evolved and become the universal trade platform that includes Finance Technology (Fintech), the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Social Commerce, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence. This paper hypothesized that e-commerce is the critical ingredient in worldwide economic resilience, particularly with the resiliency of the MSMEs, which are the sector that survived the dwindling economy during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Further, this paper postulates that the indicators of e-commerce as the key to being resilient of the MSMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic are the following: Review of Related Literature or Meta-analysis based on the recent research on the effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The COVID-19 Pandemic forced all business sectors to adopt e-commerce platforms in dealing with business. Hence, there was a leveling of the playing field regarding market opportunities among all business sectors. Kitikutha and Vasa et al. (2021) found that the impact of COVID-19 has resulted in a significant increase in online shopping, as people adhere to safety social distancing measures to stop the further spread of the coronavirus. E-commerce has brought about wealth creation and bridged the socio-economic status gap. The Internet can revive struggling economies and enable them to better compete with more developed nations. As this paper postulates, the indicators that e-commerce played a significant role in the survival of MSMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic are: The increase in internet traffic and demand for quality service, the rise of mobile applications to provide solutions to both providers and consumers, the increase in the number of IPDS companies that offers same-day delivery service, increased usage of productivity apps for collaboration and education, and leveling of playing field in terms of market opportunities to all business sectors.