In the blistering digital era we live in today, companies in the realms of e-commerce, fintech, and logistics are lightning-fast into markets that are new to them. One of the factors that pushes up this extension happens to be merchant onboarding, a process that empowers small businesses to be featured, sell products, and take digital payments across platforms.

The downside is that the old manual way of onboarding is often costly and takes a long time to complete. The on-demand workforce has now appeared on the scene, and it is changing the game by bringing up speed, scalability, and cost-effectiveness to the merchant onboarding process.

The Growing Need for Agile Market Entry

With India witnessing a surge in internet adoption—over 880 million internet users as of 2023—and UPI transactions hitting 13 billion in January 2024 alone, digital platforms are in a race to onboard small and micro merchants across Tier 2, 3, and rural markets. However, onboarding thousands of merchants in new geographies demands a workforce that is not just large but also flexible and scalable.

Gig Workforce: The Engine of Expansion

Companies are increasingly tapping into the gig workforce to speed up field agent onboarding. These are freelancers or part-time agents who are trained and deployed rapidly to onboard merchants on the ground.

Benefits of Gig-Based Onboarding:

• Speed & Coverage: Gig workers can be quickly mobilized across different regions, enabling companies to scale onboarding operations in days instead of weeks.
• Cost Efficiency: According to BCG’s 2023 gig economy report, companies save up to 25–30% on operational costs by using gig-based flexible staffing solutions.
• Localized Access: Field agents from local areas understand the language, culture, and business landscape, making merchant interactions smoother and trust-driven.

Technology: The Silent Enabler

Today’s gig-based models are powered by tech-enabled merchant solutions. Platforms provide mobile apps that streamline documentation, automate KYC checks, and track onboarding statuses in real time. These tools enhance gig workforce efficiency, reducing onboarding time by up to 40% compared to manual processes.

Tech-enabled merchant solutions have redefined what’s possible. Mobile apps now handle:

• Real-time KYC verification
• E-signatures and digital documentation
• Geo-tagging of merchant locations
• Live dashboards for progress tracking

With automation integrated into the process, the gig workforce efficiency increases dramatically, leading to faster merchant activation and improved onboarding accuracy.

Case in Point: Market Expansion in Action

A leading payments company partnered with a gig staffing platform to onboard 25,000 merchants in rural Maharashtra and Odisha in under 90 days. The result?

• Onboarding time reduced from 4 days to 1.5 days
• Customer acquisition costs dropped by 28%
• Merchant activation rates improved by 35%

Empowering Small Business Scalability

By simplifying and accelerating merchant onboarding, gig-based models directly contribute to small business scalability. When merchants get onboarded faster, they begin accepting digital payments, expanding their reach, and accessing credit and growth tools much sooner.

A NASSCOM 2023 study revealed that digitally onboarded MSMEs saw a 25% increase in monthly sales within 6 months of going digital, highlighting the long-term value of rapid onboarding.

Conclusion

With the advent and growth of markets, the traditional staffing model for merchant acquisition, which was once the model of choice, has now become obsolete as businesses need to be more agile, inclusive, and scalable. There is great potential for an on-demand workforce, technology, and localized gig platforms to converge and join, resulting in a scalable market expansion benefit solver that is flexible, welcoming, and adaptable.

Focusing on merchant, field agent, and staff onboarding, companies are now capable of not just expansion but also smart onboarding and friendly, stronger merchant ecosystems creation across the different geographies of the world.