The recent joint event highlighting the role for female entrepreneurs in online trade was a big hit. Professor Lynne Cadenhead, Chair of WES said that Ecommerce is particularly well-suited for female entrepreneurs because of three reasons:

1. Ecommerce offers high-levels of work flexibility

2. Ecommerce is also well suited for those starting with limited capital resources.

3. Because ecommerce can be incrementally phased, it can be relatively low risk.

However, the Challenge is increasingly that of knowledge and skills.

The over subscribed event at the Scottish Enterprise HQ venue highlights why the subject of ecommerce must feature more prominently in any Strategy for business in Scotland. The subject is digital, it directs those involved towards ever greater levels of productivity, it’s low risk, it’s hugely scalable and it’s fast becoming the primary mechanism for global trade. Most importantly, unlike industries such as oil and gas or fintech, it has the potential to be the primary driver for growth across the majority of Scottish SME’s - particularly the smaller ones. These factors aside, there is growing evidence about it’s rapidly growing relevance to female entrepreneurs which was the focus for the event.

The key issues discussed were that although many female-led businesses made some use of ecommerce, the solutions currently used were often far from optimal. Issues around which platforms to use, which marketing approaches to focus on and which suppliers to engage were hot topics.

The following comments were representative of the feedback The IoE received from everyone that attended.

“Thanks so much for a fantastic day!! You should be really pleased - every speaker was great, and I’ve already started to action many of the recommendations, and get in contact with several, so am pleased.” Suzanne Doyle-Morris, InclusIQ

“I would take the opportunity to thank the WES team for organising a great session last Monday. It was a really insightful and very relevant as well. I can already see a boost of sales in the last few days that I have implemented the notes that I took.” Hermine Kinkela, Mbikudi

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Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company based in Scotland. It’s ambition is to act as a catalyst for economic growth and inclusion where women can start up in business and thrive. The Institute of Ecommerce (IoE) is a company made up of hands on practitioners in ecommerce. The goal is to focus on skills, community and business needs. To exploit this key driver for wealth, trade, exports and productivity. Its objective is, over a period of 5 years, to double the economic performance of 1000 Scottish businesses.

The event described here follows a similar fully-booked ecommerce event that the Institute of Ecommerce ran with Scottish Edge.