Scholarships for ecommerce training for women-led businesses
Latin America
Led by Latin American eCommerce Institute
The Latin American eCommerce Institute awarded scholarships to women-led SMEs in 2020 to participate in ecommerce training classes. The scholarship recipients hail from 12 countries in Latin America- Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru.
The majority of participating firms are very small- about a third are individual business owners, and just under two-thirds have only 1-10 employees. They will attend at least one of four identified classes depending on their experience in ecommerce, which varies as seen below:​
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The majority, about two-thirds, already use social media such as Facebook and Instagram to market products, and WhatsApp to communicate with customers.
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30 percent already have their own online store.
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17 percent already sell on online marketplaces.
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32 percent had not sold online yet at all.
Various countries in Latin America
Scholarship program
2020/2021
Provide ecommerce training for free to women-led SMEs in Latin America
Women-led SMEs
Latin American eCommerce Institute
Country
Target Audience
Objective
Dates
Program Type
Partners
Impact
Scholarships were awarded to 160 women-led firms.
In progress
The Latin American eCommerce Institute will continue to train the scholarship recipients to engage in B2C ecommerce, leveraging the Institute’s Online Retail training programs. Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and UPS can be further invited to assist in raising businesses’ awareness of payment and logistics services for ecommerce, including PayPal partner Konfio’s online lending capabilities for Mexican MSMEs.