ITC E-Commerce Solutions – a holistic approach to developing the SME sector

• Customized face-to-face training for intermediate institutions and consultants who coach and advise local firms on e-commerce
• Set of online training modules designed to support local firms with strengthening their online presence
• Provision of services, technology and tools for local partners to build their own platforms that support SMEs

• Assessment of local institutions to understand existing capacities
• Creating development plans to support e-commerce growth for SMEs
• Facilitates collaborative support structures, and partnerships with third-party providers in order to reduce or share the costs of exporting goods and handling foreign payments

• Structuring of policies to overcome the barriers to e-commerce for SMEs
• Advice on facilitating foreign currency transactions, digital signatures, company registrations, etc.

• Assistance in designing and establishing mutually-owned e-commerce platforms and related payment and logistic solutions
• Expert support in the early stages of project implementation before gradually taking on full responsibility
• Advice on maintaining and updating the e-commerce platform to develop a sustainable local business model
• Research and implementation of innovative solutions to access payments, logistics and other services

• Creating locally-owned business structures that collectively enable access to affordable logistics, international payments and promotional initiatives
• Support in building a local environment that will develop your digital ecosystem and support e-commerce
• Advice in quality management and metrology to establish testing and certification systems

The programme offers specific solutions for each type of barrier faced by SMEs. All solutions combine training, advice and technology support on a local and international level.

Made in Senegal is an online platform for Senegalese enterprises to share their products. This was a joint project between the Ministry of Commerce of Senegal, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the private sector.

ConnectUEMOA is an online platform created to promote commercial opportunities as well as the products from the West African region. This portal provides a directory of enterprises in different sectors as well as a marketplace with digital products.

With support and advice from the E-Solutions programme, 12 fashion designers in Côte d’Ivoire created an e-commerce platform to sell their products internationally. The project was based on mutualizing access to a single website and sharing the costs of its development and maintenance. While each brand had its own dedicated store, they all benefited from a common marketplace: http://ivorymall.com

ITC helped with the integrated payment and logistics solutions, and also provided training for the companies on overcoming barriers to e-commerce.

LetSequoia is a smallholder coffee producer in Rwanda. It employs 30 workers to farm and wash its coffee beans. Unlike the many large international coffee brands that operate in Rwanda, LetSequoia lacked the logistics and finances to export its products – until it received support from the E-Solutions programme.

Thanks to the programme’s capacity building and advisory services, LetSequoia was able to set up ‘direct coffee’ channels that work like integrated supply chains. This has allowed the company, like many other local smallholder coffee producers, to establish exports and better compete with large producers.

Furthermore, LetSequoia participated in ITC’s e-commerce Caravan, a pop-up store that travelled across Switzerland to promote e-commerce products from developing countries.

Ethiopian fashion designer Genet Kebede started working with the E-Solutions programme in 2015, aiming to expand her business. Her Paradise Fashion brand, founded in 1992, combines contemporary fashion with hand-woven local fabrics.

Through the programme, she has met international buyers and designers, participated in local and international workshops and trade shows, and received mentoring and capacity building training. Webinar workshops have taught her to negotiate more effectively with clients and better present and promote her products.

She also participated in ITC’s e-commerce Caravan, a pop-up store that travelled across Switzerland to promote e-commerce products from developing countries. Through initiatives like this, she is able to sell her products without intermediaries – and therefore give more back to the people who work on them.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) in partnership with DHL and eBay brought in June and July 2016 an e-Commerce Caravan to Switzerland. The e-Commerce Caravan is a series of events where physical and virtual worlds meet to promote and sell authentic products made by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that ITC works with.