Adobe partners with Mastercard, Meta, Etsy to offer digital creative solutions to SMBs

Technology for MSMEs: Software company Adobe has announced new partnerships with Mastercard, e-commerce company Etsy and Facebook’s parent Meta to support creativity and productivity for small and medium business (SMB) customers. The partnerships will provide SMBs with special access to Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud (PDF and electronic signature solution), the company announced at its annual conference for creative work Adobe MAX on Monday in Los Angeles.

Adobe said its tie-up with Meta will offer a training programme Express Your Brand, which provides free education and tools, to SMBs to grow their presence and visibility online. This included granting annual Adobe Express premium subscriptions to 10,000 Black, Latinx and Hispanic-owned businesses. Through the Mastercard partnership, Mastercard BusinessCard and World Elite Mastercard for Business cardholders will get access to over 20 Adobe Creative Cloud applications like Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator and Adobe Express.

With regards to the partnership with Etsy, Adobe said during Etsy’s Holiday Edition event in September, 5.3 million sellers received four-month premium trials of Adobe Express to create product listings, promotional design graphics, social media content, logos and more.

“Technology must help SMBs grow, not get in the way,” said Claire Darley, Vice President, Digital Media GTM and Sales, Adobe in a statement. “Millions of small businesses rely on Adobe technology, and our new innovations remove complexity, improve collaboration and automate repetitive tasks, so they can focus on creating customer-delighting digital experiences.”

Adobe also announced new automation and collaboration features across its Adobe Creative Cloud solution and the Adobe product portfolio to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) modernise their workflows. Creative Cloud solution includes apps, web services and other resources for different creative projects such as photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media and more.

According to a new Adobe research, nearly 70 per cent of SMBs now depend on digital solutions to do more with less amidst labour shortages while for 77 per cent the ongoing uncertainty has compelled them to look for new ways to collaborate.

The app-specific features announced by Adobe included creating social media posts from different templates, automating repetitive tasks in Photoshop, InDesign, etc., and easing the process to address all reviews and feedback. Under Document Cloud and cloud capabilities, Adobe Acrobat introduced free web-based watermarking, cropping, redaction, OCR, stamping, certifying and page numbering tools for quick actions on documents.

On the other hand, Adobe said its Commerce solution enables SMB retailers to easily incorporate Walmart’s, PayPal’s and FedEx’s enterprise-grade solutions, enabling any merchant to offer an omnichannel customer experience.

Digitising small businesses is a massive market opportunity for digital solutions providers across the globe and in India. According to a Zinnov report, the opportunity for technology providers in India will grow from estimated $30 billion in 2019 at around 25 per cent CAGR to around $85 billion in 2024.