AECA increases the offer in e-commerce with more than 30 new e-shops

1. The Macedonian E-commerce Association, within the framework of the “Digitally FIt for E-Commerce” project, supported 30 domestic micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and registered individual producers to strengthen their online presence and advance their skills, knowledge, and competencies needed for growth in the digital era. In parallel with the Macedonian E-commerce Association, the Albanian E-Commerce Association – AECA also supported 30 domestic companies to enhance their digital skills and online presence in Albania.

2. The companies were selected within the Project “Digitally FIt for E-Commerce”, supported by the USAID Economic Development, Governance and Enterprise Growth Activity (EDGE), and implemented by AETM in cooperation with the Albanian E-Commerce Association. The project aimed to improve the digital skills of a total of 60 companies from the two countries coming from the three selected sectors, and help them open an additional sales channel by connecting to local marketplace web platforms for e-commerce.

3. The companies that were supported in both countries were selected through Public calls in both countries simultaneously, and came from the following three sectors:

• Agricultural production (products from fresh or processed fruits and vegetables)
• Light Manufacturing – Clothing and Textiles and Woodworking and Furniture Manufacturing
• Inbound tourism: ecotourism, rural tourism and adventure tourism

4. At the public call in N. Macedonia received a total of 80 applications, where 30 companies were selected by an expert jury committee. At the public call in Albania, a total of 58 applications were received, where 30 companies that were part of the program were selected following the same process.

5. The selected 60 companies in both countries had the opportunity to express their digital skills needs through a questionnaire, on the basis of which a comprehensive analysis of the digital skills needs of companies in both countries was made.

5. Furthermore, 2 representatives from each of the 60 supported companies (100+ participants in total) had the opportunity to attend 3 educational training sessions with a physical presence in both countries in parallel, which were adapted according to their specific needs, and related to e-commerce and digital marketing.

6. After completing the training sessions, the participants had the opportunity to attend an online b2b event with the local existing marketplace web platforms for e-commerce in Macedonia: ananas.mk, paket.mk and mitra.mk, to hear about the terms of cooperation and to started selling their products and services online by opening an additional sales channel – an e-store within the existing marketplace platforms. Following the same process, companies from Albania were connected to the marketplace platforms aladini.al and gjejevete.al.

7. The project resulted in increased digital skills of 100+ representatives coming from 60 supported companies (total in both countries) and with over 60 new e-stores being opened within local marketplace platforms in total in both countries for the duration of the project.