A practical seminar entitled “Opportunities for Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Businesses through E-Commerce in Uzbekistan” was held at the Center for Professional Skills in Karshi. The event was organized jointly by the Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship, the regional administration, and the Wildberries platform. More than 100 participants, including entrepreneurs, artisans, women, and young people, attended the seminar.
Today, e-commerce is becoming an important tool for small-scale producers in remote regions, enabling them to enter new markets and expand their sales geography. Kashkadarya Region also has considerable production and handicraft potential. In particular, the Nishon and Kasbi districts specialize in textile and garment production; the city of Karshi in the food industry; the Kokdala and Chirakchi districts in agricultural product processing; and the Shahrisabz district in traditional crafts, wood carving, pottery, and souvenir production. Meanwhile, the Dehkanabad and Chirakchi districts are known for livestock farming, wool processing, and carpet weaving.
For reference, there are currently 27,000 business entities operating in the region. Of these, 10,000 are engaged in trade, 3,000 in industry, 2,800 in other services, 2,200 in construction, 1,700 in food services, more than 800 in transportation and storage, and approximately 800 in healthcare. The region's rich historical and cultural heritage, together with its tourism potential, creates significant opportunities for bringing locally produced goods to international markets.
However, some artisans still sell their products exclusively through local markets and intermediaries, which makes it difficult for them to assess consumer demand promptly. E-commerce, on the other hand, provides opportunities to monitor online demand, analyze sales volumes, and adjust product ranges in line with market needs.
“Our company currently manufactures more than 20 types of textile products,” said Oybek Shukurov, a representative of Safe Collection LLC. “Over the past nine months, our company has produced goods worth nearly UZS 10 billion. Our sales are primarily focused on the domestic market, with 30 percent of our products sold to Russia. As experts have pointed out, opening an online store on this platform and launching online sales in the future would give us the opportunity to increase our revenue by another two to three times.”
During the seminar, participants were introduced to the process of opening an online store, delivering products to marketplace warehouses or shipping them directly from their own warehouses, as well as methods of organizing logistics and analyzing sales performance.
At the conclusion of the seminar, agreements were reached on identifying business entities ready to enter e-commerce and providing them with practical assistance in launching sales through marketplaces.
Going forward, the regional branch of the Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship will continue to regularly organize practical training sessions in digital marketing and export development.