Spanish SMEs’ digitalization enablers: E-Receipt applications to the offline retail market

The brick-and-mortar retail SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) market is confronted with unprecedented challenges: digitization procurement in a company not prepared for a digitalized business model, and the actual digitalization process of the business model, which not only changes the business rules but disrupts them with new possibilities. Despite Industry 4.0 transforming manufacturing in terms of the way of producing and distributing goods by means of process digitization, the offline retail SMEs market is struggling to satisfy customers’ shopping expectations due to two direct constraints: existing offline competitors operating under a narrowing market share, and online retail competitors increasing market share due to their better positioned eCommerce IT platforms. The purpose of this work is to study the potential effect of digitalization on SMEs, focusing on businesses operating in the offline retail market, by means of provisioning cloud solutions supporting the business digitization process. The study is based on data collected from a wide range of official sources in conjunction with extensive research work reviewing technologies applicable to these kinds of businesses. The validation is performed through the Focus Group methodology between the months of June to October 2019, with 20 participants from the Henares Corridor, Madrid (Spain) area, considering them as a relevant sample of offline retail SMEs in Spain. The value proposition of this study can help offline retail SMEs understand the difference between digitization and digitalization, the necessity of digitalization in their businesses, the existence of accelerators such as e-Receipt cloud solutions, and the disruptive potential of digitalization to their business models on long-term survival regarding competitors and raising the circular economy.