On June 2-3, the USAID Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (LinkSME) project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Technical Assistance Center and the Lam Dong Business Association, organized a two-day training in Dalat City on e-commerce for SMEs. Nearly 70 SME representatives attended the training on-site, with more than 60 participating online. As a follow-up to the training, LinkSME identified SMEs that expressed interest in further technical assistance to expand their e-commerce activities.

E-commerce for many SMEs is rapidly moving from a simple website or social media page to more advanced and dedicated platforms. These technically mediated marketplaces offer SMEs opportunities to expand marketing networks, automate administrative tasks, and measure the impacts of customer engagement. Although offering opportunities to engage in at least some aspects of digital transformation and cross-border commerce, these platforms are not necessarily riskless methods of doing business. The two-day training also offered the participants an objective introduction to these emerging e-commerce activities and identified those SMEs most likely to benefit from LinkSME intensive follow-on assistance.