Small but dear: banks have started to help SMEs analyze sales and business development

Banks are actively launching services to help small businesses. For example, T-Bank has begun to provide entrepreneurs with data to analyze sales and company development. The new service helps track the company's financial indicators, information on customer returns, the average check and allows you to compare your business with competitors. Other major financial organizations offer, for example, assistance with the launch of an electronic store with pre-connected acquiring, accounting services and legal support in the format of subscriptions. They also offer services to easily calculate taxes and reduce the risk of being blocked under anti-money laundering laws. Why banks are introducing more and more systems to support SMEs and what indicators are really important to analyze for small companies - in the material "Izvestia".

How banks help small businesses with sales analytics

Large Russian credit organizations are launching new systems to help small businesses. For example, in T-Bank created a service for analyzing the business health of the company. It allows entrepreneurs to track sales dynamics, information on customer returns, number of transactions and average check.

The service also enables businesses to make an impersonal comparison of their performance with competitors, relate themselves to the market and analyze their customers. This data helps, for example, to decide whether to launch an advertising campaign to retain customers or to attract new ones. And also - whether it is necessary to introduce more expensive goods into circulation and additionally stimulate consumers to buy in order to increase the average check, explained in T-Business (a division of T-Bank).

They added that these functions are available to all customers who have a current account with T-Bank and use the credit organization's merchant acquiring service. The service allows you to view statistics for all of the company's stores together or for each store individually. In the future, analytics on Internet acquiring will also be available, the bank said.

- Now small offline business has few available tools for analyzing sales and making decisions about further development of the company, - said Alexei Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group. Many almost do not analyze their place in the market, checking, for example, only the prices of the nearest competitors. At the same time, there are many solutions for online sellers that allow them to track sales statistics.

- Many novice entrepreneurs get lost in a large flow of data and do not understand how it can be effectively used to develop their business. And more experienced ones are eager to get structured data to see a unified picture of how effectively their sales outlets are working," said Igor Ivanov, Vice President of T-Bank.

- It is necessary to improve financial literacy among entrepreneurs to increase the life of organizations and their impact on the economy, - said Alexei Tarapovsky.

- Analyzing sales dynamics, comparing a company with its competitors and understanding generalized market trends will help to forecast future trends, optimize costs and form strategies to retain and attract people," emphasized Igor Ivanov from T-Bank.

- The largest banks have long been showing data on personal finances for individuals in their applications, and the same services should be launched for businesses," said Alexei Tarapovsky.

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What banks offer for business development and why it is needed

- The largest players in the financial market are creating other services for SMEs. For example, Bank St. Petersburg offers assistance in launching an online store. They promise to open a free current account, develop and launch an electronic store with acquiring connected. They also offer business services of insurance, accounting and legal support in the format of subscriptions, - said the director of the directorate of mass corporate business of the credit organization Margarita Anisimova.

In "Sber" small businesses are also given the opportunity to open an account for free and choose a package of services, follows from the data on the website of the credit organization. To start a company there offer to choose a package with a limit of payments to individuals in 300 thousand rubles without commissions.

- Bank Tochka offers services for simple tax calculation, management of development on marketplaces and reducing the risk of blocking under anti-money laundering legislation," said Evgeny Nikolaev, marketing director of the "Electronic Business" direction. He added: and to help the restaurant business there launched a system for paying the bill and tips.

- Now small and medium-sized businesses are becoming more and more attractive to bankers in terms of solvency, so credit organizations are beginning to offer more services for this segment, - explained the general director of the International Association for the Development of Marketplaces and Entrepreneurs (MARMP) Alexei Molodykh. According to him, large players can provide SMEs with a wide range of products and even an individual approach. At the same time, small businesses only benefit from such competition from banks.

- The launch of new services to analyze sales and business development for SMEs allows the bank to attract new clients and build deeper partnerships with existing ones, - explained Ilya Larin, a leading analyst on bank ratings "Expert RA". In addition, the integration of such a service provides the credit organization with additional analytical information for setting up current offers. It becomes clear whether the company may be interested in loans, leasing, factoring and even non-banking instruments - insurance, legal assistance, - said the expert.

- The main reason to pay attention to the SME segment is the significant share of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian economy," says Evgeny Plaksenkov, a professor at the Skolkovo School of Management. In his opinion, this is where the potential for significant revenue growth lies. About 30% of the revenue of all Russian business falls on this segment.

- That is why banks are trying to create conditions for increasing their income and the income of SMEs. At the same time, credit organizations develop timely business support against the background of deteriorating economic conditions and high key interest rates, - emphasized Evgeny Plaksenkov.

- Information on revenue by product groups and distribution of finances by cost centers - all this will help SMEs to determine which development and promotion tools to apply," said Stanislav Andreev, General Director of SberMarketing.

- In the future, banks may move to the development of services to provide comprehensive consulting and accounting services and turnkey solutions in the areas of marketing, insurance or logistics, - says Ilya Larin from Expert RA. In this way, they will increase the loyalty of clients who need the services of these specialists on a permanent basis.