An E-Commerce Model for Small and Medium Enterprises

When e-commerce first emerged in the mid 1990s, experts predicted significant development benefits through “leveling the playing field” and disintermediation. Many ICT for Development projects were launched installing computers and Internet access in poor communities all over the world somehow expecting magic pixie dust to flow through the lines, thereby making everybody more informed, healthy, and prosperous. However the promise of income and employment benefits have largely gone unfulfilled as few projects pass the test of “Internet you can eat”.