—platform boosts online sales for women entrepreneurs

SOME 1,500 women entrepreneurs have already signed up for the WIIN Marketplace App, launched by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to help women expand their businesses through digital commerce.
The application was launched last week at the sixth edition of the We Lift Women’s Expo, with technical support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr Vindhya Persaud, said the platform is designed to create a wider network of women in business while making their products more visible and accessible to customers online.
“You’ve all had an online shopping experience at some point in time. So, this is providing you with the opportunity to create that shopping online experience for those persons around and across Guyana,” the minister explained.
The platform functions as an online marketplace similar to major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. The WIIN Marketplace App allows women entrepreneurs to digitally showcase and sell their products and represents an upgraded version of the ministry’s previous WIIN App.
Dr Persaud said women are being encouraged to advertise their businesses and create mechanisms to make their products more visible through the platform.
She explained that the application also enables customers to purchase locally made products directly through the MMG payment system integrated into the app. What the ministry is adding to this, is the opportunity for persons to purchase these products, made in Guyana by Guyanese women, supporting these businesses by directly purchasing through MMG on the app.
“So, it’s a simple platform, the WIIN Marketplace. I want you to get online and do this because your products will become instantly available to people across the country. They can shop online and it’s happening right in Guyana, through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security,” she added.
Dr Persaud noted that the ministry will also provide support through its business incubator programme, which operates at the Guyana Women’s Leadership Institute at Cove and John on the East Coast of Demerara, as well as online.
This support will help women entrepreneurs gain experience in establishing and managing their own digital storefronts through the application.
At the launch, the minister said the initiative is aimed at creating paperless opportunities for women to expand their businesses, track their operations and access the digital marketplace.
Additionally, a registration portal is expected to open this week, allowing more women to place their businesses on the platform.