SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH OF SMALL-SCALE ONLINE RETAIL BUSINESS OWNERS FROM SANTIAGO CITY
Keywords:
Small-scale business, Sustainability, Covid19 pandemic.Abstract
The Covid-19 Pandemic hampered the growth and sustainability of small-scale online businesses. Companies were forced to devise strategies that would allow them to survive the economic downturn. The complex issue of small business growth necessitates further investigation. This study looked into the sustainability and growth of small-scale online retail businesses. This study used a qualitative research, particularly, phenomenology conducted at Santiago City, Philippines. The participants were twelve (12) purposively selected small-scale online retail business owners. The research study involved face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. The open-ended nature of the questions allowed the participants to express their personal experiences. The themes which arose from the experiences and factors associated with the sustainability and growth of small-scale online business owners are linked with the following themes: establishing the business name, knowing whom to do the business with, resorting to online business, decision-making is well-planned, the going still gets tough, uncertainties in financial management, poor access to finance and customer relationship related themes. The themes which depict the challenges and coping mechanisms of the entrepreneurs are also presented. The entrepreneurs employed strategies aligned with contingency management and they relied to their skills and knowledge in running their business in order to attain sustainability and allow the firm to grow. The retail business owners have gone through financial difficulties such as cash flow shortfall, scarce fund and unforeseen reparation, more so challenged by cut-throat competition. And in order to cope, the entrepreneurs enforced the entity’s unique selling proposition, financial management and cultivated a steadfast mindset.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.