A Study on Rural Street Vendors Issues and Challenges in Adoption of Digitalisation

This study mainly focuses on the challenges faced by the rural street vendors in the digital era. As the formal sector is not able to offer employment opportunities, people enter the informal sector as hawkers or peddlers. They offer array of merchandise to suit the taste and preference of the customers. Selling perishable items like fruits, flowers, greens to foodstuffs which are fresh and tasty to stationaries to ready-made garments, these street vendors catch a formidable place in the retail sector. They very well forecast the demand of their occupants and make available all the objects, with the objective to satisfy the needs of the customers, for every occasion. They occupy a central place in the marketing in delivering goods tailored to consumers wants. The advent of digitalisation and digital products have brought revolutions. Cash less transactions, with phone pay, google pay, scanning the QR code is the order of the day. These street vendors face immense challenges due to competition, shortage of finance and the dire need to market all their products to earn their livelihood on one hand and low education, lack of skill, lack of technical knowledge on the other. This study covers Thiruthuraipoondi as its population. The sample size is 75 which is selected on the basis of convenience. The challenges faced, reason for adoption of digitalised technologies and non-adoption are also studied. The data was gathered using a questionnaire then analysed and interpreted. As the rural street vendors constitute important part of the retailing stream ,making readily available the most demanded products at the correct time, it is imperative for the policy makers to address the challenges.