Alliance for eTrade Development

Ecommerce is opening new opportunities for developing country micro, small, and mid-size enterprises (MSMEs) to engage in trade, grow, and create new jobs.

The Alliance for eTrade Development formed by Nextrade Group in 2016-17 with altogether 17 leading private sector partners and USAID is aimed to advance developing country MSMEs' use of ecommerce, including for cross-border trade.

The eTrade Alliance aims to increase the number of developing country MSMEs engaged in international ecommerce, and the value and volume of developing country MSMEs' digital trade.

To achieve these goals, the Alliance will work in a number of countries globally, where partners’ corporate and USAID’s development priorities align. 

Activities will create proofs of concept, scale partners’ technologies, and drive new analytics to fuel ecommerce. The Alliance has five workstreams:

• ​Policy & Enabling Environment for Ecommerce: The Alliance strengthens developing country regulators’ and policymakers’ ability to adopt policies and champion technologies conducive to MSME ecommerce.​

• MSME Skills Development for Ecommerce: The Alliance works with MSMEs to improve digital trade skills such as digital marketing, management of online stores, customer data analytics, and  global shipping.

• ​Ecommerce Logistics and Trade Facilitation: The Alliance maps and measures last mile logistics costs faced by developing country digital traders and develop proofs of concept to use delivery, address, and logistics technologies for fueling ecommerce delivery.

• ​Access to Finance: The Alliance helps develop a corporate digital ID to reduce fraud and improve transparency, as well as support the development of financial technology tools to expand online seller MSMEs' access to working capital.

• ​Inclusive Trade: The Alliance works to identify and bridge in-country disparities, engaging rural firms and local leaders in digital trade development and optimizing support for women-led firms.