Summary
Access to international markets can be a difficult process, especially for Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) who may not have the staff or budget to research and comply with all of the regulatory and procedural requirements. e-Commerce platforms have enabled the products of many MSMEs to reach new customers, but there is still a difficulty when approaching foreign markets – and indeed sometimes to even approach some national markets. eService platforms can help provide all of the services required in a single place, such as transport services, finance services, border-clearance services.
This paper goes through the different challenges that MSMEs can face in international trade. It then establishes the principles of platforms called “Integrated Services for MSMEs in International Trade (ISMIT)”, the benefits they can provide and their basic structure. It ends with some use cases of existing platforms which can be considered ISMITs.