Jet Airways To Launch SME E-Marketplace In India

Jet Airways will become India’s first airline to launch an online marketplace for B2B transactions geared toward the SME community, reports this week said.

The airline announced Monday (May 1) that it is launching an online platform through which SME buyers and suppliers can transact. The portal will open sometime within the next three to four months, the company said.

“We need to create an ecosystem that allows SMEs to leverage digital technologies, as they would not be often investing in these areas,” said Jet Airways Vice President, Marketing, eCommerce and Innovations Belson Coutinho in an interview with BusinessLine. “SMEs generally focus on their own business and profitability.

Jet Airways tapped IT company Digitation Digital Solutions to develop the online marketplace, reports said, and will integrate the tool into Jet Airways GlobalLinker, an online business networking platform also developed for SMEs.

“We produce a lot of content on GlobalLinker,” Coutinho added, “ranging from financing a business to insurances, mostly written by experts and related to SME businesses. The content is free, while there are tools to integrate all emails — this is a one-stop shop for SMEs.”

GlobalLinker first launched in 2014, reports said. Jet Airways is India’s second-largest airline and has made similar efforts to target small- and medium-sized enterprises, offering these customers a 10 percent discount on ticket fares for the companies registered with GlobalLinker.

India has a strong B2B eCommerce presence, with Walmart expanding its B2B efforts in the nation in 2014 and B2B eCommerce platform IndiaMART recently landing a Series C funding round led by Amadeus Capital.