Supporting small businesses to sell online: How can local providers and networks build small business digital capabilities?

“The neighborhood where I live is not in a busy place. That is to say, it is not a commercial area. So, using social networks, pages, and all that, has a great impact because I can reach many people without having to be in a commercial area.”
— Daniela, online reseller in Popayán, Colombia

Daniela lives in Popayán, a smaller city in the southwest of Colombia that is about a 12-hour drive from Bogotá. She resells various types of merchandise that can be personalized, such as caps, shirts, and keychains. She uses social media to advertise her goods, and the impact has been positive. “I would say that a large number of customers are acquired through social [media] … It allows us to contact each other easily. So, yes, it has been quite an impact.” Her business is entirely virtual, so she’s busy on social media, spending two-thirds of her day posting and communicating with customers.

While Daniela’s experience with selling online has been positive, other small merchants have had mixed experiences. Camila, in Bogotá, found that her efforts in setting up her knitwear business on e-commerce marketplaces were intially negative. However, following her participation in the DigitAll program — an initiative led by Fundación Capital with support from Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth — Camila enhanced her knowledge of digital solutions. Now, social media channels comprise 11% (and growing) of her total sales.

Across Latin America, small merchants, especially those outside big urban centers, are trying to take advantage of the promise of an increasingly digital economy through social media and e-commerce platforms. But how can Strive work to accelerate this promise? And how can partners play a role?

Upskilling small merchants to accelerate e-commerce adoption in Latin America

Microentrepreneurs engage in different sales experiences through e-commerce platforms, and many agree that sales digitalization is a promising pillar to future business. Customers are rapidly adopting digital purchasing habits. Coupled with increasing mobile internet connectivity, the reach of social media in the region is opening new revenue opportunities.

For micro-entrepreneurs, selling online can mean enhancing productivity, reducing costs, and increasing competitive advantage. In fact, Mastercard Strive’s Small Business Evidence Map has shown that the adoption of social media and e-commerce platforms has been linked to 20% to 50% increases in small business revenue across the region. Targeted upskilling focused on marketing practices — such as professional and active social media use and good customer communication — is one of the most common ways for small businesses to improve their efficiency, resilience, and growth.

That’s why Mastercard Strive launched an e-commerce tool kit for micro-entrepreneurs. Developed by experts and small businesses around the world, the platform provides digital training content that equips small business owners with the skills they need to thrive online. The course, available in Spanish and Portuguese, contains ten modules with practical and actionable tips, designed to support small businesses selling on e-commerce and social media platforms.

Leveraging local networks and partners to build small business digital capabilities

Tapping into local small business networks requires partnerships with deep roots. Local entities have the capacity to understand ground-level dynamics, offer financial aid, and organize training programs and workshops adapted to small business owners’ daily routines. Strive’s e-commerce tool kit leverages this one-to-many approach. It identifies local partners who can improve their value proposition by offering tools to build small business digital capabilities, particularly for businesses that are women-led.

Mastercard Strive has learned that small businesses engage with significantly more learning material when it is shared in trusted online communities of active groups of small businesses. For example, Facebook groups that offer advice and support to business owners have organically accrued social capital, reach, and trust in their communities, which in turn enables Strive to distribute and drive engagement with training content. This learning was reinforced through our partnership with Hoob Marketing, who promoted the e-commerce tool kit to women-led small business owners through trusted Facebook groups across Latin America.

Forming strategic partnerships with local financial service providers, fintechs, and e-commerce platforms to offer training is another promising win-win approach for small businesses and providers alike. By bundling upskilling with digital services, such partnerships deepen small businesses’ capabilities and enhance providers’ value propositions. For instance:

• Strive is partnering with Fundación BBVA para las Microfinanzas (FMBBVA) in Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Peru to disperse content across the region through five of FMBBVA’s microfinance institutions.
• As an initiative of the Regional Alliance for the Digitalization of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, we’ve partnered with Todas Conectadas, a platform of digital and financial tools for women entrepreneurs.
• In Colombia and Mexico, the tool kit will be part of the Socias platform, a platform that promotes, supports, and accelerates women entrepreneurs through training and mentoring to achieve economic autonomy, connecting them with impact investors.
• We’re also in advanced discussions to roll out our e-commerce tool kit with other financial services providers across the Andean region and Central America.

In an increasingly digital economy, the stakes of being left behind are high for Latin American small merchants, especially those that are women-led. Central to Strive’s work in the region is understanding how to best support small businesses in this transition lest the digital divide widen. Digitalization is not a panacea for every business; but understanding its value — and drawbacks — across a variety of services and tools provides an invaluable roadmap to further support entrepreneurs.

If you are interested in integrating Strive’s free e-commerce training tool kit in Spanish, Portuguese, or English into your small business solutions, reach out to us at hello@strivecommunity.org.