The EU4Digital eCommerce consultations centre will provide practical training and consultations, enabling 30 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Eastern Partnership to register and sell their products on major marketplaces. The ultimate aim of the centre is to scale up for a larger number of EaP SMEs and support a 50% increase in EU-EaP cross-border eCommerce. This journey began on 16 March 2023, when the eTrade stream launched the eCommerce consultations centre and a first training session was completed.

As the Eastern Partnership region aims to connect with EU markets, the easiest way for EaP SMEs to start selling in the EU is through international marketplaces. However, entering and expanding in these marketplaces requires resources, research and analysis if SMEs are to best fit their product to each marketplace, learn how to register there, and devise the most successful tactics for product listing and digital marketing to increase sales.  

The eCommerce accelerator activity in EU4Digital Facility phase II tests how EaP SMEs can boost eCommerce sales on EU marketplaces. EU4Digital will facilitate digital commerce, using established EU marketplaces as a tool to reach EU customers. Some EaP SMEs already have eCommerce experience on local and international levels, while others simply decided to try out the eCommerce channels. For this reason, EU4Digital developed a two-fold concept. The first part is the national pavilion account, which facilitates the product selling of less experienced SMEs through single national account on the marketplace(s). Secondly, for the more experienced SMEs, EU4Digital developed the eCommerce consultations centre. This provides a series of group training events and individual consultations about the marketplaces, covering varied topics from registration and tax-related questions to advertising campaign strategies, product placing and more. Testing of the national pavilion account is starting soon, while training and consultations for more experienced companies start now. 

These days, it would be difficult to find someone who is unaware of such giant marketplaces as Amazon and eBay, which have the largest pool of users in the EU. But how many people know that some products are not a great fit for these platforms and could achieve much higher popularity in smaller EU marketplaces? For this reason, the eCommerce consultations centre team of European experts will cover not only the big name sites, but also Etsy, Zalando, Pigu.lt, Allegro, OTTO, Bol and Kaufland. 

To prove that the eCommerce consultations centre could support companies in achieving their eCommerce goals – i.e. register on the marketplaces, sell their goods to EU customers and increase overall sales – the training and consultations will be tested on 30 selected EaP SMEs. After successful testing, the EU4Digital team will then develop recommendations to help support more EaP SMEs. 

During the launch event on 16 March, the eCommerce consultations centre was presented in detail together with the team of EU4Digital practitioners. The first training then followed. This introduced the marketplaces, presented which products fit best on each marketplace, and covered registration procedures, payment possibilities, special functions and other topics. After the session, representatives of the participating companies began booking individual expert consultations to get advice on their specific cases. 

Further information

Read more about the EU4Digital eCommerce accelerator and how it will contribute to boosting eCommerce sales of the EaP Region.