SKOPJE, 19.11.2021: Following the successful launch of the Ecommerce4All.mk platform for the Macedonian market, the Macedonian E-Commerce Association with the support of the Open Regional Fund – Foreign Trade – a regional project implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of German Development Cooperation – will develop and expand the platform making the region available for the CEFTA parties.
In 2020 the Macedonian E-commerce Association launched the platform Ecommerce4all.mk which represents a center with information and resources for conducting e-commerce business for all existing and new e-commerce in North Macedonia. The platform was developed as part of the “E-Commerce for All” project supported by the USAID Business Ecosystem Development Project, and will now be extended to all CEFTA parties, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northеrn Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.
“Whenever the work is recognized it is a motivation for even better work and further contribution to the development of e-commerce. We are glad that our work was recognized by GIZ and that we will have the opportunity to expand the “Ecommerce4All” platform regionally. With a population of 18 million and an estimated value of € 1 billion in e-commerce, the region has great potential for growth and expansion of e-commerce companies. The platform will be a practical center with resources and information on key aspects of e-commerce for all countries (general information on the state of e-commerce, regulation, delivery and e-payments). It will be able to serve all companies locally for doing e-commerce business in their country, but more importantly, it will serve them in their plans for expansion to other CEFTA countries. This project holds great potential for contributing to the development of inter-party e-commerce, and we are glad that within the project we will have the opportunity to strengthen the cooperation with Regional E-commerce Associations in the region where they are established, as well as to encourage the formation of new Associations in CEFTA where they do not exist.” – says Nina Angelovska, PhD President of the Macedonian Ecommerce Association.
Through the implementation of this regional platform, e-shops from the CEFTA region, who plan to expand their e-commerce businesses outside in the coming years, will have at their disposal a unified point from where they will be able to provide all necessary relevant and confidential e-commerce information for the region. The platform will be available in the local language for each country and will be available in English as well.
Florian Brütting, Head of E-Commerce Project at GIZ: “We are very pleased to cooperate with the Macedonian E – commerce Association to scale the successful platform Ecommerce4All in the region. We strongly believe that transparent and relevant information will have a strong impact on the further development of e-commerce in the region as a new driving force of regional trade.“
The project “Regional Ecommerce4all Platform” will be developed in three phases. The regional platform will consist of four modules, out of which the first three modules will cover the key aspects of conducting a business in e-commerce such as legal framework in e-commerce, payment, and delivery. These modules will be followed by one additional module: success stories. Each of these modules will contain party-specific relevant information, guidelines, manuals, documents related to the topic, and video presentations. The development of the modules will be tailored to each of the 7 CEFTA parties depending on the resources and opportunities for the realization of each module. In addition to the four modules, one basic starting module will be developed presenting the state of e-commerce via statistics and data on the e-commerce market development (interactive charts of the state of e-commerce in each party and comparisons of e.g. share of e-shoppers, payment cards, digital skills, UNCTAD B2C e-commerce readiness index, and other relevant Eurostat data).