GoDaddy to help SMEs set up e-commerce websites

US-based tech firm GoDaddy today launched its 'GoDaddy Online store' in the country to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country to set up their own e-Commerce websites.

SMEs will be charged a monthly fee of Rs 999 and they will have access to payment gateway, seamless syncing with social networking sites, free hosting with unlimited bandwidth as well as Google analytics to monitor the business trends.

"There has been a rapid growth in e-commerce in India fuelled by mobile devices, changing customer behaviour and rising Internet penetration. This represents a compelling business opportunity for SMBs," GoDaddy Vice President India and Australia Rajiv Sodhi told PTI.

He added that the company intends to offer a complete suite of solutions to assist SMEs come online in a simple and affordable manner and grow their business.

At present, e-commerce websites like Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart offer a marketplace model to help SMEs sell their products online.

Using GoDaddy's solution, SMEs will be able to sell products from their own website, the company said.

"The solution helps them save on costs like setting up payment gateways and also offers very low transaction fee. We have partnered CC Avenue for this," he said.

According to a recent Assocham report, Indian eCommerce industry is likely to clock a compounded annual growth rate of 35 per cent and cross the USD 100-billion threshold in value over the next five years.

GoDaddy, which entered the Indian market in 2012, has 13 million paying customers and 59 million domain names under management globally.

"India is a very important market for us. It was one of the first markets that we entered as part of our international expansion and the country will continue to be a bedrock for offering new products," GoDaddy Executive Vice President International James Carroll said.

Carroll said there are over 50 million small businesses in India but most of these are not online.

"India has a domain penetration level of about 2 per cent, compared to 14 per cent in China and 27 per cent in the US. There is a huge potential that the Indian market offers with its over 300 million Internet users and 39 million already shopping online," he added.