Moroccan SMEs gear up to sell products online

Eighty small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Morocco are now better equipped to sell their products online after participating in a workshop led by the International Trade Centre (ITC).

The workshop held on 27 January in Casablanca, Morocco, connected SMEs with local ITC-trained export advisers so they could work through obstacles to e-commerce, especially when doing business across borders. The training was co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Trade under the ITC Virtual Market Places (VMP) programme.

Participants shared the main challenges they face in selling their products online, including logistics, customer relationship management, payments and return policies.
Since the launch of the programme in early 2015, ITC completed a national analysis of Morocco’s e-commerce environment. The goal is to support 200 SMEs in Morocco to trade in international online marketplaces, such as Alibaba, Amazon and eBay.

Expanding business online

The programme, which will run until December 2017, is implemented in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia in partnership with the World Bank. The programme is financed by the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund.

Six hundred SMEs in the three countries will receive training on accessing new markets in gourmet agro-processed foods, handicrafts and services, with an accent on job creation for youth and women.