Impact of Covid-19 on the digitisation of SMEs in Poland
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polski
The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development in cooperation with the World Bank has conducted a study which shows the impact of the coronovirus on SMEs in Poland. According to the report “COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey – Poland”, one third of companies in Poland increased the use of digital platforms.
Medium-sized companies with a slight advantage
The coronavirus pandemic and the related restrictions forced organizations to seek new solutions in order to establish the best possible customer relations. According to the latest report of the Agency for Enterprise Development – “COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey – Poland”, since the beginning of the pandemic almost one third (32%) of companies from the SME sector increased the use of digital tools, and 18% of companies decided to invest in new solutions, such as purchasing new hardware or software. Thanks to digitalization, every fifth company adapted its product and service offer.
Analyzing the different market segments, medium sized companies only slightly declared a wider use of digital platforms in connection with Covid-19 than small and micro organizations. In the case of medium-sized companies, this percentage was 37%, while in small and micro enterprises it was 35% and 32% respectively. Looking at investments, the difference is even smaller. The percentage of SMEs that increased their investments during the pandemic was 19% and 17% for micro enterprises.
Industry lagging behind
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, commercial and service companies have increased the level of digitisation much more than industrial companies. In industry, only one in five companies increased the use of digital tools (36% for services and commerce) and only 11% of them made new digital investments (22% for commerce, 18% for services). In the case of commerce, the e-commerce segment is of great importance, which has experienced a real boom due to the Covid-19 crisis. This has a direct impact on the use of and investment in digital tools.
