Key findings
- Nine in ten cannot be found through a channel of their own. A buyer who searches for one of these businesses by name finds trade-directory pages, company-registry pages and GST look-up sites. For 148 of the 160 businesses, that is all there is: no website, app or storefront the business controls.
- IndiaMART is the most common channel. 9 of the 12 businesses with a channel of their own use an IndiaMART storefront. On these pages the business sits next to competitors, and the marketplace decides which supplier a buyer sees first.
- Own websites are rare. We found 2 websites and 1 catalogue app among 160 businesses (1.9%). Both website owners are larger brands that also appear in national business news.
- Exporters are not ahead. Only 1 of the 19 businesses listed as exporters had a channel of their own, although overseas buyers rely on search more than buyers who can visit the market.
- No market area stands out. The share of businesses with a channel of their own is similar in every area we covered (see the table below).
What a buyer finds when they search the business name
Number of businesses, out of 160. One business can appear in more than one row.
By business type and by area
| Type | Checked | Own channel |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturers | 125 | 9 (7.2%) |
| Exporters | 19 | 1 (5.3%) |
| Wholesalers | 15 | 1 (6.7%) |
| Job-work units | 1 | 1 |
| Area | Checked | Own channel |
|---|---|---|
| Ring Road Textile Belt 34 markets | 131 | 10 (7.6%) |
| East Surat Textile Belt (Umarwada – Puna – Parvat Patiya) 6 markets | 18 | 1 (5.6%) |
| Saroli – Kadodara Road New Textile Hub 3 markets | 11 | 1 (9.1%) |
Percentages are shown only for groups of 10 or more. Groups this small can change a lot when a few businesses go online.
What owners tell us
Part two is built from owners' own answers
A web search cannot see WhatsApp catalogues, groups or most Instagram pages, which is where many Surat traders sell today. Our free check asks owners directly: where buyers see their designs, how orders arrive and whether they can take payment online. The figures appear here once 30 Surat businesses have answered.
What this means
For buyers sourcing from Surat
Most Surat suppliers are still reached the traditional way: by visiting the market, through an agent, or on WhatsApp once you have their number. Online, you will usually find a listing about the business rather than its own catalogue, so prices, minimum orders and current designs still have to be asked for. Start with the market pages in our Surat textile market directory and ask suppliers for their latest catalogue on WhatsApp.
For Surat manufacturers and wholesalers
When a retailer in Kolkata or Chennai searches for what you make, they land on listing sites that show you next to dozens of competitors, or on the few suppliers who have a site of their own. A catalogue website with your designs, set sizes, MOQ and a WhatsApp button keeps that buyer on your products, and it answers "send photos and rates" for every new buyer at once. With so few businesses online, the ones who start now face very little competition for those searches.
How we did the research
- Businesses
- 160 Surat textile businesses in 43 markets, taken from public trade listings for the directory.biztorq.com shop pages
- Left out
- Businesses that BizTorq added to the directory itself (BizTorq clients), so our own work does not lift the figures
- Search
- Each business name searched together with "Surat" on 4 November 2026
- Counted as "own channel"
- A website, catalogue app or marketplace storefront run by that business, matched on name and products
- Not counted
- Trade-directory listings, company-registry and GST look-up pages, news articles, and matches we could not tie to the business
- Done by
- BizTorq, Surat. Every finding is stored with its link.
Limits of this research
- WhatsApp and Instagram are not covered. Web search does not show WhatsApp catalogues or groups, and finds few Instagram pages. Many Surat traders sell through these, so the share of businesses with some online presence is higher than 7.5%. The owner survey above measures this side.
- Not finding a website does not prove there is none. A website that does not show up for the business name is also one that buyers will not find.
- The sample leans towards manufacturers (125 of 160), because the public listings we started from do.
- It is a sample of listed Surat businesses, not of the whole market. Surat has many thousands of textile shops; these are the ones in our directory so far, and the sample grows with every round.
- We did not test online ordering. Whether a website takes orders and payments is measured in the owner survey, not here.
Use these figures
You are welcome to quote this report in articles, presentations and research. Please credit BizTorq and link to this page.
BizTorq (2026). Surat Textile Market Online Readiness Report 2026, research round November 2026. https://directory.biztorq.com/reports/surat-textile-online-readiness-2026/
Download the aggregated data (CSV) Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. No business names are included.
Questions about this report
How many Surat textile businesses have their own website?
In our November 2026 check of 160 Surat textile businesses, 2 had a website we could find and 1 had its own catalogue app (1.9% together). Most businesses are visible online only through listings that other sites created about them.
Do Surat textile wholesalers sell on IndiaMART?
Some do. 9 of the 160 businesses we checked (5.6%) had an IndiaMART storefront that showed up when their name was searched. It was the most common channel we found.
Does this mean most Surat traders are not online at all?
No. Many Surat wholesalers sell through WhatsApp catalogues, groups and Instagram, which a web search does not show reliably. The finding is narrower: a buyer who searches for the business by name usually finds only a third-party listing, not a website or storefront the business runs. Our self-check survey measures the WhatsApp and Instagram side.
How was the research done?
We took every Surat business in the directory.biztorq.com listings that came from public trade listings (160 businesses in 43 markets), searched each name together with "Surat", and recorded any website, app, social page or marketplace storefront run by that business. The four businesses that are BizTorq clients were left out.
Can I use these figures in an article or presentation?
Yes. Please credit "BizTorq Surat Textile Market Online Readiness Report" with a link to this page. The aggregated figures can be downloaded as a CSV file from the report.
How often is the report updated?
The research is repeated every quarter with the same method, and the survey figures update as more businesses take the free online-readiness check.