Open marketplace access to women-led micro-enterprises

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

Hepsiburada operates one of Türkiye's largest e-commerce marketplaces and employs more than 3,000 people.

In 2017 women made up only 9 per cent of the sellers on the platform. Women's cooperatives, which aggregate home-based and small-scale production in local communities, had very little access to digital markets and limited awareness of what e-commerce required of them.

The barriers were operational rather than attitudinal. A micro-enterprise selling on a marketplace faces commission on every sale, shipping costs on outbound and returned goods, the cost of product photography good enough to compete, and a set of digital skills — listing, pricing, advertising, financial management — that nobody in the business has been taught. For a woman running production from home in a rural district, each of those is individually small and collectively decisive.

The company treated this as a marketplace supply problem as much as a social one. A marketplace with a seller base that excludes most of the country's women producers has a narrower assortment and a weaker connection to local production than one that includes them.

The programme launched in 2017 under the name Girişimci Kadınlara Teknoloji Gücü — Technology Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs — and has since become an institutionalised structure with 2017 as its measurement base year.

Location of the initiative: Türkiye, nationwide

The programme removes the entry barriers one by one rather than offering a single benefit, and it does so inside the commercial platform rather than in a separate corporate responsibility channel.

The financial barriers are removed first. Women's cooperatives receive an indefinite commission rate of 1 per cent and free shipping including returns, which is the single largest cost item for a small producer. Women entrepreneurs receive reduced commission, advertising credit and free product photography, which addresses the fixed costs that a micro-enterprise cannot amortise.

Capability is built alongside the discounts. A structured training and mentoring track covers everything from financial literacy to the use of artificial intelligence, and the full curriculum runs to 52 hours. A mentoring programme run with a women entrepreneurs' association pairs participants with experienced business people, and free academy courses cover the operational skills that selling on a marketplace demands.

Access to finance is handled through the banking system rather than by the company. Nine banks joined the ecosystem with banking products designed for women entrepreneurs, which addresses working capital in a way that a marketplace operator cannot.

The public dimension gives the programme reach that a commercial platform could not achieve alone. A protocol signed in 2024 with the Ministry of Family and Social Services connects the programme to local networks across the country, and cooperative digitalisation work during the pandemic was designed with the Ministry of Trade and UNDP.

Market access extends beyond the domestic platform. Products from women's cooperatives were taken to New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which connected micro-producers in Anatolia directly to international buyers and networks that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.

The company also puts its own operating assets behind the programme: its logistics capability, its digital advertising tools and its data infrastructure are made available to programme participants rather than sold to them.

Figure 1: Programme identity: Technology Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs.

Figure 2: Support package for women entrepreneurs and women's cooperatives: commission discounts, free shipping including returns, product photography, advertising credit, training and mentoring.

Sustainability impact

Climate

The programme is an economic inclusion initiative and no greenhouse gas effect has been measured for it, so nothing is reported against Scope 1, Scope 2 or Scope 3. Its potential climate relevance is an enabling one and sits in the production and logistics choices it shapes rather than in the company's own inventory.

Two mechanisms carry that potential. Between the 2017 base year and 2025 the programme brought more than 72,000 women entrepreneurs and more than 320 women's cooperatives onto the platform, which digitalises home-based and small-scale local production and connects it to national demand that would otherwise be served from larger and more distant suppliers. Against that, the company absorbs the shipping cost of those orders in full, including returns, so the programme also generates delivery movements to and from rural districts, and the net emissions consequence depends on how those deliveries are routed and consolidated.

Social

The measurable change is in who participates in the digital economy. In 2017 women were 9 per cent of all sellers on the platform; by 2025 the share had risen to 24 per cent, close to three times the starting level.

More than 72,000 women entrepreneurs have been brought into the platform as active participants in the digital economy, and more than 320 women's cooperatives have been included, which digitalises local production and the solidarity economy that sits behind it.

Women producers have listed more than 101 million products on the platform, and more than 7,000 women have established their own brand under the branding and vision support provided, moving from producer to employer.

Reporting is built on five headline indicators: the number of women entrepreneurs selling on the platform, the number of women's cooperatives supported and strengthened, the volume of products listed, the number of women who have created their own registered brand, and the penetration of women sellers within the total seller ecosystem.

Data is tracked through the company's internal data analytics platforms on digital audit trails aligned with international independent audit standards, and the monitoring period runs from 2017 to 2025.

The programme is aligned with four Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 5 on gender equality is its core, and the rise in the share of women sellers contributes to it directly. Goal 8 on decent work and economic growth is served by bringing more than 72,000 women entrepreneurs and more than 320 women's cooperatives into economic participation. The goal on reduced inequalities is addressed through the commission discounts, free shipping, photography support and financial literacy training that remove access barriers for disadvantaged women entrepreneurs, and the goal on partnerships is reflected in the private sector, public sector and civil society structure of the programme.

Business impact

Benefits

The programme is run as a business model rather than as a corporate responsibility project, and the commercial returns follow from that.

Assortment is the first return. More than 101 million products listed by women producers, drawn from local craft, agriculture, textiles and other categories, gives the marketplace depth and differentiation that cannot be bought from national brands.

Seller base growth is the second. Taking women from 9 per cent to 24 per cent of sellers expands the supply side of the marketplace in a segment competitors have not systematically addressed, and more than 320 cooperatives bring aggregated local production onto the platform in a single onboarding.

The public protocol signed in 2024 gives the company a distribution channel into local networks nationwide that commercial acquisition would not reach, and alignment with public development policy accelerates that spread.

For the nine partner banks the programme delivers a growing portfolio of women entrepreneurs into the banking system, which is why they fund products for it, and the company's logistics and advertising services gain volume from the sellers the programme brings in.

Costs

The costs are direct and continuing. The indefinite 1 per cent commission for women's cooperatives is foregone revenue on every transaction, and free shipping including returns is a logistics subsidy the company absorbs in full — it is the mechanism by which the company manages the high delivery costs that would otherwise stop rural sellers from trading.

Advertising credit, free product photography and the 52-hour training curriculum are direct operating costs, as is the mentoring programme and the account management effort that supporting micro-sellers requires relative to large merchants.

The company also allocates its logistics capability, digital marketing tools and data infrastructure to programme partners rather than charging for them, and funds the programme from its own resources.

Two risks carry cost implications. Digital literacy in rural areas is the main barrier to participation, which is why the training curriculum is as long as it is; and shipping costs in delivery to and from those areas are high, which is why the logistics subsidy exists. Both are managed proactively rather than priced into the seller's margin.

Governance cost is also real: quarterly progress reporting to the Ministry of Family and Social Services, monthly usage data from nine banks and closing reports on every completed project require a permanent reporting function.

Impact beyond sustainability and business

Co-benefits

Bringing 320 cooperatives online strengthens the solidarity economy in the districts where they operate, because a cooperative that sells nationally supports more members than one that sells locally.

The programme also moved the financial sector. Nine banks built dedicated products for women entrepreneurs in order to participate, which extends access to credit beyond the platform's own sellers.

The exhibition of women's cooperative products at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, under the title Köklerden Geleceğe: Kadın Emeği, connected local producers to international commercial networks, and a support box project designed with UN Women and KAGİDER after the 6 February earthquakes channelled demand to cooperatives in the affected region.

Because 7,000 women have registered their own brands, the effect extends past platform sales into independent businesses that employ other people.

Potential side-effects

Sellers supported by an indefinite commission discount and a full logistics subsidy are, to that extent, dependent on one platform's commercial policy. The benefit is described as indefinite, but it remains a company decision rather than a contractual entitlement.

Digital literacy remains the binding constraint in rural districts, and training reaches those who can already access it. Participation therefore skews towards women with some connectivity and confidence, and the hardest-to-reach group is the least likely to appear in the participation figures.

Seasonal and category demand fluctuations affect micro-producers more sharply than large sellers, because they have no other channel to absorb a slow quarter.

Scaling through a public protocol also ties the programme's reach to the continuity of that relationship. The nine-year institutional record and the company's own resourcing are what reduce that exposure, and the intention is to deepen the model over the next three years through new regional development partnerships.

Typical business profile

The model suits platform businesses — marketplaces, logistics networks, payment providers — whose economics depend on the breadth of their supply side and which control the cost items that exclude micro-enterprises: commission, shipping, listing quality and access to advertising.

It requires a company able to forgo margin on a defined seller segment indefinitely, and to run training, mentoring and account support at micro-seller scale.

Delivery engages corporate communications, sustainability and social impact, marketing, logistics and category management functions working to a single operating rhythm, with commercial teams and the social impact team jointly responsible for day-to-day governance.

Approach

1. Measure the starting position before designing anything: Establish the share of the target group in the existing seller base — 9 per cent in this case — so that progress is measured against a real baseline rather than against activity counts.

2. Identify the cost items that actually exclude the group: Separate commission, outbound and return shipping, product photography and advertising, and treat each as a removable barrier rather than as a standard cost of doing business on the platform.

3. Set an indefinite, not promotional, financial concession: Offer women's cooperatives a 1 per cent commission and free shipping including returns with no end date, because a time-limited discount will not support an investment decision by a micro-producer.

4. Build a full training curriculum, not a webinar: Deliver a structured 52-hour programme covering financial literacy through to the use of artificial intelligence, and pair it with a mentoring track run with a women entrepreneurs' association.

5. Bring the banks in for the part the platform cannot solve: Recruit financial institutions to design dedicated banking products for the segment, so that access to working capital is addressed by the institutions that provide it.

6. Sign a public protocol to reach the local networks: Partner with the responsible ministry to gain access to community-level structures nationwide, and design the local roll-out around that protocol rather than around marketing reach.

7. Onboard cooperatives, not only individuals: Target the organisations that already aggregate home-based production, because each cooperative brings a group of producers onto the platform in a single integration.

8. Report on a fixed cycle to every partner: Provide quarterly progress reporting to the ministry, collect monthly usage data from the partner banks, produce closing reports on completed projects, and track the five headline indicators at board level each quarter.

Stakeholders involved

• Project leads: The programme is treated as a strategic business model at the centre of the company's sustainability vision rather than as a corporate responsibility project. It is owned at Board and senior management level, and strategic targets, performance breakdowns and social impact outputs are reviewed quarterly at that level.

  Medium and long-term continuity is underwritten by the company's own resources, technology infrastructure and human capital rather than by external funding.

• Company functions: Operational and strategic management runs through a multidisciplinary internal structure. Corporate communications, sustainability and social impact work with marketing, logistics and category management teams on a coordinated cycle.

  Commercial teams and the social impact team that manages relationships with the women entrepreneurs share day-to-day governance, which is what keeps the seller support and the commercial operation in one process rather than two.

  The company's logistics business, its digital advertising tools and its artificial-intelligence-supported data infrastructure are allocated to programme partners.

• Main providers: Financial institutions are the principal external providers: nine banks integrated advantageous banking products for women entrepreneurs into the ecosystem to address the access-to-finance barrier, and report usage data monthly.

  Training and photography services are delivered through the company's own academy and studio capability rather than being resold to participants.

• Other: The Ministry of Family and Social Services signed the Türkiye'nin Girişimci Kadınları protocol in 2024, which shapes the local roll-out strategy and receives quarterly progress reports. The Ministry of Trade and UNDP guided the cooperative digitalisation work developed during the pandemic.

  UN Women and KAGİDER co-designed a support box project featuring products from women's cooperatives in the region affected by the 6 February earthquakes, and that initiative led to participation in CSW68. KAGİDER also designed the Yol Arkadaşın Burada mentoring programme with the company.

  Women's cooperatives and individual women entrepreneurs are participants rather than beneficiaries: they supply the assortment, and their operating constraints define the support package.

Key parameters to consider

The programme started in 2017 and has nine years of institutional operation behind it; 2017 is the base year for impact measurement and the reporting period runs to 2025.

The financial concessions are structural: a 1 per cent commission for women's cooperatives with no end date, free shipping including returns, reduced commission for individual women entrepreneurs, advertising credit and free product photography.

Training is 52 hours, covering financial literacy through to the use of artificial intelligence.

Impact data is tracked on the company's internal data analytics platforms through digital audit trails aligned with international independent audit standards.

The principal risks are the digital literacy barrier in rural regions and high delivery costs; the intention over the next three years is to deepen the model through new regional development partnerships.

Implementation and operations tips

Put the support inside the commercial platform. A separate social responsibility storefront does not build a business; listing women's production in the main assortment does, and it is what turns inclusion into revenue for the seller.

Make the concession indefinite. A micro-producer will not buy equipment or hire on the strength of a promotional rate, and the difference between a campaign and a policy is what determines whether the seller invests.

Subsidise returns, not only outbound shipping. Returns are the cost that destroys a small seller's margin and the one most support programmes forget.

Target cooperatives to get scale, individuals to get depth. Each has a different onboarding cost and a different outcome, and a programme that runs only one of them will plateau.

Bring the banks and the responsible ministry in early. Access to finance and access to local networks are the two things a marketplace cannot supply, and partners will fund them if the seller pipeline is real.