Social commerce entrepreneurship
and new opportunities for women’s
nancial inclusion in India and
Indonesia
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
2
Executive Summary
Expanded mobile internet connectivity and smartphone ownership in low- and middle-income countries has
spurred micro-enterprises to begin to adopt a suite of digital platforms for their businesses, including social
media, e-commerce, delivery apps, and digital payments. These tools are transforming micro-enterprises by
expanding their access to new customers, suppliers, skills, and capital. As enterprises blend social media with
e-commerce and payment and delivery platforms, this emerging business model has come to be known as social
commerce entrepreneurship.
For women in particular, social commerce has the potential to overcome many of the constraints that they
disproportionately face to starting and expanding businesses, including low access to capital, restricted mobility,
constricted social networks, limitations on inheritance and property rights, and being time poor managing child-
care and household responsibilities. Social commerce presents new opportunities to enhance women entrepre-
neurs’ access to formal nancial services and begin to close the credit gap for women-owned enterprises, esti-
mated at $20 billion in India and $21 billion in Indonesia. However, in both countries, women still face constraints
to adopting the digital tools needed to engage in social commerce.
The potential of social commerce to advance women entrepreneurs’ growth and nancial inclusion cannot be
realized without a deeper understanding of what drives women’s adoption of digital platforms, how women use
and perceive them, and how their businesses are changing as a result.
With support from Standard Chartered and the Australian Department of Foreign Aairs and Trade, Women’s
World Banking conducted research in India and Indonesia to investigate the potential of social commerce to ad-
vance women entrepreneurs’ nancial inclusion.
This report describes four key segments of women entrepreneurs in India and Indonesia:
• WhatsApp entrepreneurs use WhatsApp, and no other digital platform, to promote their business
and communicate with customers.
• Social media entrepreneurs employ one or more social media platforms to promote their business
and to communicate with customers. Often, they use Facebook together with WhatsApp or Instagram.
• E-commerce entrepreneurs use online marketplaces and delivery services to either buy supplies
or sell their products. They may in parallel use social media platforms and WhatsApp to promote
their business and communicate with their customers.
• Digital payment entrepreneurs do not use any online platforms (WhatsApp, social media, or e-commerce)
but do use digital payments for their business.
This segmentation reects the fact that women are largely using separate digital platforms for marketing, cus-
tomer engagement, delivery, and payments. Improving integration of these activities could enhance women’s
access to features that protect buyer and seller, save women time, and expand access to nancial services.
The second half of the report discusses new opportunities for strengthening women micro-entrepreneurs’ busi-
nesses and nancial inclusion through social commerce. The rst category of opportunity focuses on supporting
women micro-entrepreneurs to fully utilize digital platforms for their business, through promoting adoption, build-
ing women’s capabilities to fully use platforms, and adjusting the platforms themselves to better meet women’s
needs (Table 1). The second category of opportunity focuses on leveraging social commerce activities to extend
new nancial services to women micro-entrepreneurs, including opening accounts in women’s names, strength-
ening nancial capabilities and utilization of accounts, and using transaction data for digital lending (Table 2).
In the rapidly evolving digital ecosystems of India and Indonesia, the e-commerce, social media, digital pay-
ment, delivery, and nancial service companies that best understand and address the needs and aspirations of
women social commerce entrepreneurs will be best positioned to retain and grow with this emerging segment.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
3
Table 1: Support women micro-entrepreneurs to fully leverage digital platforms for their business
Table 2: Leverage social commerce to develop new nancial services for micro-entrepreneurs
Finding Opportunities
Finding Opportunities
In-person touchpoints have been key in driving
adoption of new digital platforms
Extend the assisted adoption model
During assisted adoption, clearly address key
concerns and provide accessible, transparent
recourse mechanisms to build trust
With increased use of digital platforms,
entrepreneurs face diculties tracking and
managing business transactions separately
from personal transactions
Integrate payment and business management
features into the main digital platforms women are
already using
Despite adopting digital platforms women are not
yet fully utilizing them and need new skills to stay
competitive
Leverage online channels and peer learning to
provide training in online marketing.
Use these platforms to reach women where they
are to build nancial and digital capabilities
Most women social commerce entrepreneurs
already use a bank account for their business –
but not necessarily their own
Provide women with a choice between
independent and joint accounts
Women social commerce entrepreneurs continue
to use cash alongside digital payments, but
perceive cash and digital payments as serving
distinct functions
Strengthen the digital payments ecosystem
Strengthen nancial capabilities and mobilize
savings via digital nancial services
Many women social commerce entrepreneurs are
eager for credit to grow their business, but remain
constrained in accessing credit
Leverage digital transaction data for digital lending
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
4
Introduction
What is social commerce?
Expanded mobile internet connectivity and smartphone
ownership in low- and middle-income countries has
spurred micro-enterprises to begin to adopt a suite
of digital platforms
1
for their businesses, including
social media, social messaging, e-commerce,
delivery apps, and digital payments. These tools are
transforming micro-enterprises by expanding their
access to new customers, suppliers, skills, and capital.
Since micro-entrepreneurs have more experience and
established networks on social media and messaging
platforms, these platforms appear to function as a
gateway to adopting other digital platforms for their
businesses.
2,3
In India and Indonesia respectively,
23 percent and 56 percent of the population are
active social media user.
4
As enterprises blend social
media with e-commerce and payment and delivery
platforms, this emerging business model has come
to be known as social commerce entrepreneurship.
5,6
Social commerce allows users to connect where they
buy and buy where they connect, both strengthening
relationships around their transactions and transacting
with people in their networks.
7
How does social commerce address
barriers that women micro-
entrepreneurs face?
In this report, we present research on emerging
opportunities from social commerce for women micro-
entrepreneurs in India and Indonesia. Social commerce
has the potential to overcome many of the constraints
that women disproportionately face in starting and
expanding businesses, including low access to
capital, restricted mobility, constricted social networks,
limitations on inheritance and property rights, and
being “time poor” given the childcare and household
responsibilities that largely fall to them.
8, 9, 10
These constraints contribute to a gender gap in
entrepreneurship in India, where women own less than
10 percent of all micro-enterprises (4.6 million), and in
Indonesia, where women own about a quarter of all
micro-enterprises (14.7 million).
11
Social commerce
may reduce barriers to entry by allowing women to
start businesses from home, eliminating the need
for capital to invest in a physical storefront or large
amounts of inventory. Conducting business online can
accommodate women’s mobility and time constraints,
allowing women to coordinate with
suppliers and customers at any time of day and serve
customers via delivery services rather than wait for
them in a physical store.
12
In addition, women can
connect with other businesses, receive customer
feedback to adapt their product oerings, and form
online communities with other women to exchange
learnings and reduce isolation.
13
Social commerce also presents new opportunities
to enhance women entrepreneurs’ access to formal
nancial services, particularly by driving adoption of
digital payments at scale, promoting the opening
of nancial accounts, and creating new data-based
means of assessing creditworthiness of informal
businesses. It could help close the gender gap in
credit, estimated at over $20 billion for women-owned
enterprises in India and $21 billion in Indonesia.
14
In
addition, social commerce can facilitate new channels
for nancial service providers to identify and engage
with growth-oriented women micro-entrepreneurs.
However, women lag behind men in access to the
tools needed to engage in social commerce. Though
both India and Indonesia have made signicant
advancements in mobile internet connectivity and
aordability in the past ve years, gender gaps in
mobile internet access, digital literacy, and smartphone
ownership persist.
15,16
In India, there is a gender gap
of 58 percentage points between men and women’s
smartphone ownership, with only 13 percent of women
owning smartphones, and where family disapproval
of women’s smartphone ownership remains a key
barrier.
17,18
In Indonesia, 34 percent of women own
smartphones, but men outpace women by 21
percentage points.
19
Such gendered constraints hinder
women’s adoption of these potentially transformative
digital platforms and nancial services.
What is missing to realize the
potential of social commerce for
women micro-entrepreneurs?
The potential of social commerce to advance women
entrepreneurs’ growth and nancial inclusion cannot
be realized without a deeper understanding of
what drives women’s adoption of digital platforms,
how women use and perceive them, and how
their businesses are changing as a result. Looking
towards the future, to what extent are women able
to access the existing tools and platforms, and how
well do they currently work for women? As women-
owned micro-enterprises transform, how can digital
platforms and nancial services evolve to best support
the needs and aspirations of this growing segment?
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
5
With support from Standard Chartered and the
Australian Department of Foreign Aairs and Trade,
Women’s World Banking conducted research in India
and Indonesia to investigate the potential of social
commerce for advancing women entrepreneurs’
nancial inclusion. This report rst lays out the research
methods and describes four key segments of women
entrepreneurs, drawing contrasts between these
segments’ use of available digital platforms in India
and Indonesia. The second half of the report presents
new opportunities for strengthening women micro-
entrepreneurs’ businesses and nancial inclusion
through social commerce.
Methods
Research activities included large-scale surveys and in-
depth interviews in selected geographical locations in
India and Indonesia. In Indonesia, a survey with 1,800
respondents and 30 semi-structured interviews were
conducted in urban, rural, and semi-urban areas in
Jabodetabek (Jakarta metropolitan area), Yogyakarta,
and Bali. In India, Women’s World Banking conducted a
survey with 1,200 respondents and 30 semi-structured
interviews with women small-
and micro-entrepreneurs in urban and peri-urban
Bangalore. Data collection took place in early 2019
in Indonesia and in mid-2019 in India. Respondents
were women entrepreneurs who reported taking at
least half of decisions about their business themselves,
had used online platforms for at least three months,
and had managed their business for at least a year.
Key segments of women digital entrepreneurs
Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected,
we dened four key user segments in the sample.
• WhatsApp entrepreneurs. Women micro-
entrepreneurs who only use WhatsApp, and no
other digital platform, to promote their business and
communicate with customers.
• Social media entrepreneurs. Women micro-
entrepreneurs who employ one or more social
media platforms to promote their business and
to communicate with customers. Often, they use
Facebook together with WhatsApp or Instagram.
• E-commerce entrepreneurs. Women micro-
entrepreneurs who use online marketplaces and
delivery services to either buy supplies or sell their
products. They may in parallel use social media
platforms and WhatsApp to promote their business
and communicate with their customers.
• Digital payment entrepreneurs. Women micro-
entrepreneurs who do not use any online platforms
(WhatsApp, social media, or e-commerce) but do use
digital payments for their business. While this segment
is not technically engaged in social commerce, these
digital entrepreneurs were included to explore their
potential to adopt social commerce practices.
20
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
6
WhatsApp
• Medium • High • High
• Medium
• Low
Social Media E-Commerce Digital Payments
Percent of sample,
India
Percent of sample,
Indonesia
Online platforms
Payment methods
Ownership
of business
Growth
orientation
• WhatsApp
• UPI and mobile wallets
• Electronic money and bank transfer
• Cash
• Women-owned • Women-owned • Women-owned
• Jointly owned
• Jointly owned
• Marketplaces
to buy supplies
• Marketplaces
and delivery apps
to sell products
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WhatsApp
• None
13%
34%19%
N/A
20
34%
21% 63% 15%
Women rarely use a single platform for all transactions
from product discovery to payment. In fact, a
notable feature of social commerce is that micro-
entrepreneurs frequently move between multiple
platforms while engaging with a single customer.
For example, in Indonesia, an entrepreneur may
connect with her customer on Facebook, coordinate
product details over WhatsApp, arrange a delivery
service, and receive payment in cash, bank transfer, or
electronic money.
The following sections describe the four segments of
social commerce micro-entrepreneur and characterize
their use of digital platforms for their businesses.
• = India
• = Indonesia
Table 3: Overview of key segments of entrepreneurs
In Table 3 we provide an overview of how the four segments are represented in the data we collected
in India and Indonesia.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
7
1. WhatsApp entrepreneurs
This segment of entrepreneurs relies on WhatsApp as
the sole digital platform for their business.
In India and Indonesia respectively, 34 percent and 21
percent of the sample only use their personal WhatsApp
for their business. Those who only used WhatsApp
tended to have newer businesses or ran a business
to generate additional income, alongside other paid
and unpaid responsibilities. In both countries, no
respondent reported using the WhatsApp Business
app.
In India and Indonesia, WhatsApp is already the
dominant app for daily personal communication,
making it the easiest digital tool for women to start
using for their business. Entrepreneurs can tap into
their existing network and quickly start sharing photos
and information about their business. Some advertise
products only using stock photos before buying any
supplies, to ensure there is a buyer for the product.
As one woman in Indonesia described, “It’s simple
because we can communicate directly, when we want
to see the pictures, it’s only [that we] need to send. I
think WhatsApp is simpler than others.”
Women micro-entrepreneurs in our sample use
WhatsApp to communicate with their existing networks
of contacts such as friends, previous customers, and
vendors. Messaging content with customers and
vendors often relates to product details, payment,
and delivery logistics. Many also market their business
using the status feature to push out promotions to their
entire network, or creating new WhatsApp groups from
their contacts, to which they send updates, photos,
and product information.
This segment largely relies on word of mouth or in-
person transactions to expand their network, using
WhatsApp primarily to build and retain relationships.
However, it is possible to use WhatsApp to connect with
peers outside of their networks. Some respondents in
Indonesia mentioned that they joined large WhatsApp
groups to connect with networks of resellers, whom
they did not know personally.
Women entrepreneurs who are only using WhatsApp
are a prime segment to target for adopting social media
and e-commerce platforms, since they are already
using photos and text to advertise to customers.
100% 100%
India Indonesia
Percent of
sample
Social media
platforms
•• WhatsApp
Sole
decision-maker
of business
Business type
• Sewing
• Hair dressing
• Clothes
• Cash
• UPI
• Mobile wallet
• Cash
• Bank transfe
r
• Clothes
• Food
• Beauty & hair
• Other
# Customers
Payment method
Income
Education
$$$
Few Few
12%
29%
13%
15%
24%
25%
35%
47%
Middle
99%
61%
31%
87%
63%
34% 21%
96%
71%
Table 4: WhatsApp entrepreneurs
Notes: Calculations based on quantitative survey responses.
Sample: refers to the percent of interviewed women falling into
this segment. Social media platforms: Percentage of this segment
using a particular platform. Sole decision-maker: Percentage of
this segment who take all business and nancial decisions on
their own. Business type: Percentage of this segment active in
a particular business. Customers: Self-reported number of daily
customers served, re-categorized into few, some, and many.
Payment method: Percentage of this segment using a particular
payment method. Income: Self-reported monthly income, re-
categorized into low, middle, high. Education: Self-reported
education level, re-categorized into low, middle, high. Education
information is missing for Indonesia.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
8
2. Social media entrepreneurs
This segment of entrepreneurs uses more than one
social media platform for their business, typically
WhatsApp, Facebook, and/or Instagram. Some also
use Google Maps and YouTube.
In contrast to WhatsApp entrepreneurs, social media
entrepreneurs use these platforms to expand their
network and make new connections with customers,
suppliers, and peers. Many advertise products on
Facebook and Instagram but switch to use WhatsApp
when they are ready to make a deal with a customer. In
Indonesia, about 75 percent of women in this segment
use Facebook and WhatsApp respectively, and almost
half use Instagram. Of the women surveyed in this
segment in India, 98 percent use Facebook, 94 percent
use WhatsApp, and only 7 percent use Instagram for
their business.
Older women entrepreneurs in Indonesia reported
some diculty with Instagram, and in some cases
women fully relied on their children to manage
the account, uploading photos and captions and
communicating with customers.
Women who run beauty or clothing businesses were
more likely to draw on messaging and social media to
share images and video of their work and communicate
with clients. These women tend to run the business
independently from husbands or family members. In
India, messaging and social media segments were
most likely to be the sole decision-maker for their
business (71 and 78 percent respectively).
In both countries, respondents also noted that
they have used Facebook and Instagram for other
aspects of their business. Women used these
platforms to nd suppliers and resellers, study their
competitors, compare prices, and understand trends.
In Indonesia, one woman who provides henna services
primarily for brides found a wedding photographer
over Instagram and collaborates with her to promote
their services together. Others described how they
learned skills such as cake baking and dressmaking
through Instagram, YouTube, and Google. Many
social media entrepreneurs are interested in trying
e-commerce platforms but feel the stakes are
higher. In Indonesia, a food vendor explained she
was concerned if she would be able to keep up
with demand if she registered with a food delivery
app and did not want to over-commit to production
volumes she could not keep up with on her own.
78%
India Indonesia
Percent of
sample
Social media
platforms
Sole
decision-maker
of business
Business type
• Sewing
• Hair dressing
• Clothes
•• WhatsApp
•• Facebook
•• Instagram
• Cash
• UPI
• Mobile wallet
• Cash
• Bank transfer
• Clothes
• Food
• Beauty & hair
• Other
# Customers
Payment method
Income
Education
$$$$$
93%
Some Few
15%
21%
21%
20%
6%
23%
44% 50%
High
99%
76%
56%
94%
98%
7%
75%
76%
47%
88%
78%
13% 56%
Table 5: Social media entrepreneurs
Notes: Calculations based on quantitative survey responses.
Sample: refers to the percent of interviewed women falling
into this segment. Social media platforms: Percentage of this
segment using a particular platform. Sole decision-maker:
Percentage of this segment who take all business and nancial
decisions on their own. Business type: Percentage of this
segment active in a particular business. Customers: Self-
reported number of daily customers served, re-categorized into
few, some, and many. Payment method: Percentage of this
segment using a particular payment method. Income: Self-
reported monthly income, re-categorized into low, middle, high.
Education: Self-reported education level, re-categorized into low,
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
9
3. E-commerce entrepreneurs
This segment of entrepreneurs uses e-commerce
platforms to sell products or buy supplies for their
business, often alongside other online platforms.
In Indonesia, 15 percent of the sample are
e-commerce entrepreneurs, using online marketplaces,
and food delivery platforms associated with super
apps
21
, sometimes in combination with social media
and digital payments.
In Indonesia, respondents identied the ability to
make personal purchases (including bill pay) on these
platforms, trust, and ease of delivery as key factors
driving their use of e-commerce marketplaces. Sales
representatives commonly visit microenterprises to
on-board them to the platform. In contrast to direct
transactions with customers over social media, where
there is a risk that payment or delivery will not go
through, most of the e-commerce marketplaces (with
the exception of OLX) automatically arrange delivery,
and payments are made only after the buyer receives
the items. A rating and review system helps consumers
know whether they can trust the store. In urban
Jakarta, a woman explained, “Yes, when I bought
foods from other media online, I have sent the money
but the foods never come. But we can trust Shopee,
Tokopedia and Bukalapak because there is a rating for
the trusted online shops with good comments.”
These platforms allow various options for payment:
electronic money, cash-on-delivery, bank transfer,
or make an oine-to-online payment through an
institutional non-bank agent aliated with the site.
Many e-commerce entrepreneurs accept cash-on-
delivery, as customers prefer to receive and check the
product before making the payment.
India Indonesia
Percent of
sample
Social media
platforms
Sole
decision-maker
of business
E-commerce
platforms
Business type
• Small stores
• Hair dressing
• Food
6% WhatsApp
3% Facebook
2% Instagram
71% Udaan
Jumbotail
Ninjakart
56% Tokopedia
Bukalapak
Bibli
34%
Flipkart
Amazon
48%
Grab
Gojek
56% WhatsApp
40% Facebook
40% Instagram
• Cash
• UPI
• Mobile wallet
• Cash
• Bank transfer
• Clothes
• Food
• Beauty & hair
• Other
10%
9%
45%
36%
# Customers
Payment method
Income
Education
$$$$$$
6%
7%
68%
19%
Many Some
Middle
99%
82%
50%
86%
75%
19% 15%
35% 91%
Notes: Calculations based on quantitative survey responses.
Sample: refers to the percent of interviewed women falling into
this segment. E-commerce platforms: Platforms used by this
segment. Sole decision-maker: Percentage of this segment
who take all business and nancial decisions on their own.
Business type: Percentage of this segment active in a particular
business. Customers: Self-reported number of daily customers
served, recategorized into few, some, and many. Payment
method: Percentage of this segment using a particular payment
method. Income: Self-reported monthly income, recategorized
into low, middle, high. Education: Self-reported education level,
recategorized into low, middle, high. Education information is
missing for Indonesia.
Table 6: E-commerce entrepreneurs
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
10
In India, 17 percent of respondents were
e-commerce entrepreneurs. In contrast to Indonesia,
very few businesses in the sample sold products over
e-commerce platforms. Micro-enterprises’ lack of
Goods and Service Tax (GST) certication appears to
be a barrier to register on e-commerce sites in India.
22
Instead, e-commerce entrepreneurs were much more
likely to use these platforms to buy supplies, rather than
sell their products. These women often owned small
shops and groceries stores, using marketplace apps
for bulk purchase and delivery of supplies to save time,
diversify their product oerings, and ensure quality. As
one woman explained, she used to buy vegetables
in bulk at the wholesale market without the ability to
check the products and “no guarantee of the quality…
But here with Ninjakart, I can check the products and
even they replace the rotten vegetables if there is any
or else they will return the money.” Interestingly, less
than 10 percent of e-commerce entrepreneurs were
using social media platforms for business alongside
the e-commerce platforms.
However, to check products and ensure quality,
many respondents explained they often continued to
pay cash on delivery.
Table 7: E-commerce platforms
India Indonesia
Marketplace
Food delivery
Super apps
Amazon
Meesho
Shop101
Flipkart
Udaan
Ninjakart
Zomato
Swiggy
N/A
Tokopedia
Bukalapak
Shopee
Blibli
OLX
GoFood
GoResto (Gojek)
GrabFood (Grab)
Gojek
Grab
Note: The platforms listed here were mentioned by respondents
in our survey and are not a full list of available platforms.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
11
4. Digital payments entrepreneurs
This segment of entrepreneur only uses digital pay-
ments for their business, without using messaging,
social media, or e-commerce platforms for their busi-
ness. Micro-entrepreneurs in the other segments used
digital payments as well, but in conjunction with online
platforms for communication and marketing purposes.
In India, digital payment entrepreneurs are frequent
in our sample, and use of digital payments outpaced
WhatsApp and Facebook. In Indonesia, micro-entre-
preneurs commonly accept digital payments without
using other platforms, but they were not included in the
sample for this study.
In India, most women surveyed use UPI-based apps
(75 percent), followed by mobile wallets (28 percent).
In the India sample, entrepreneurs who only used dig-
ital payments often ran small shops or groceries in
partnership with their husband. They had established
physical shops and did not see the value of advertising
or expanding their client base via social media. They
were not yet aware of e-commerce apps focused on
suppliers.
Many of the women interviewed in Bangalore ex-
plained they preferred digital payments over cash
to reduce the risk of theft; save time from waiting in
line at the bank; and create a record of transactions.
Many are able to make their own payments, includ-
ing paying bills, digitally. As a WhatsApp entrepreneur
in peri-urban Bangalore explained, “It saves so much
time especially when we have to pay bills. We can pay
our electricity bills through this. Whatever the bills we
want to pay we can pay with a click by sitting in one
place.” Many women also described how using UPI
helps them receive and document proper payment
from customers. An urban entrepreneur who only uses
UPI described, “These methods will keep a record of
whatever transaction that is made. There is no chance
of any misunderstanding or cheating. The customer
cannot cheat us by saying that they have paid this
much amount when they have not.”
“Using digital payments is better. It’s dicult
to withdraw the money from the bank every
time. Digital payments make it very conve-
nient. You don’t have to have any concerns of
keeping cash securely or of the.”
Urban digital payments entrepreneur,
age 55, India
India
Percent of
sample
Social media
platforms
Sole
decision-maker
of business
Business type
• Small stores
• Hair dressing
• Food
• Other
• Cash
• UPI
• Mobile wallet
# Customers
Payment method
Income
Education
$
8%
28%
35%
Many
Low
99%
88%
55%
N/A
34%
39%
Table 8: Digital payment entrepreneurs in India
Notes: Calculations based on quantitative survey responses. Sample:
refers to the percent of interviewed women falling into this segment.
Online tool: Tool this sample used for business. Sole decision-maker:
Percentage of this segment who take all business and nancial
decisions on their own. Business type: Percentage of this segment
active in a particular business. Customers: Self-reported number of
daily customers served, re-categorized into few, some, and many.
Payment method: Percentage of this segment using a particular
payment method. Income: Self-reported monthly income, re-
categorized into low, middle, high. Education: Self-reported education
level, re-categorized into low, middle, high. Education information is
missing for Indonesia.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
12
The social commerce customer
journey
The described segments raise important questions.
Why does each segment of women micro-entrepreneur
use the particular digital platforms that they do? How
much movement is there, or could there be, between
segments?
While the customer journey of social commerce
entrepreneurs is often characterized as starting with
social media and ending in digital payments, both
countries present evidence that complicates this idea
of a linear progression. Successful in-person assisted
adoption campaigns have driven the direct uptake of
digital payments and e-commerce apps by micro-en-
trepreneurs, who had not used digital platforms for
business previously. Women’s personal use of social
media, digital payments, and e-commerce is a gate-
way to using any of these platforms for her business,
building greater condence and trust in the platform.
A strong use case and appropriate support can drive
adoption of digital platforms in any sequence.
These ndings also show how available digital plat-
forms currently serve dierent business needs. Wom-
en are using separate digital platforms for marketing,
customer engagement, delivery, and payments. Their
use of platform reects which activities they prioritize
for their business as well as their digital and business
capabilities. Most businesses could further improve
upon each of these activities.
Though there is no one prescribed path to move
across segments, there are key shifts between seg-
ments that can enhance business growth and access
to nancial services. WhatsApp and social media en-
trepreneurs would benet from formal e-commerce
features that protect buyers and sellers, facilitate
payment and delivery, streamline product discovery,
and enhance access to new forms of nance. Across
segments, entrepreneurs who adopt digital payments
build an important foundation for accessing other -
nancial services. This could be achieved either by en-
trepreneurs adopting additional platforms or by better
integrating these features into existing platforms.
In addition to shifts between segments, there is the
potential to upgrade within each segment. E-com-
merce can be used for buying supplies and for sell-
ing business products and services. WhatsApp and
social media can be used to communicate with ex-
isting customers or marketing products and services
to a broader network. Entrepreneurs in each seg-
ment are not fully utilizing platforms for their business.
UPI is the most commonly used digital pay-
ments platform in the country, with 955 million
transactions conducted in September 2019.
23
UPI technology directly accesses bank accounts
and transactions are immediately credited and
debited at no cost to the user. UPI registration is
simple; anyone with a mobile number regis-
tered to their bank account can create a UPI
ID to be used across all UPI-based apps. Mobile
wallets have a similar sign-up process, but they
do not link directly to a bank account and
users have to load money onto their wallets to
then use for transactions. While mobile wallets
spiked in popularity aer demonetization in
November 2017, they have since lost market
share to UPI-based apps, as mobile wallet users
incur charges of up to 2 percent of the transac-
tion when they transfer balance to their bank
account.
Box 1: Unied Payments Interface (UPI) in India
India Indonesia
UPI-based
platforms
Mobile wallets /
electronic
money
PhonePe
GooglePay
BHIM
BharatPe
Paytm
N/A
GoPay
Ovo
Dana
24
Table 9: Digital payments
Note: The platforms listed here were mentioned by respondents
in our survey and are not a full list of available platforms.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
13
The research ndings point to two broad categories
of opportunity for women social commerce entrepre-
neurs. First, there are opportunities to support women
micro-entrepreneurs to fully utilize digital platforms for
their business, through promoting assisted adoption
tailored to women, building women’s capabilities to fully
use platforms, and adjusting the platforms themselves
to better meet women’s needs. The second category
of opportunity focuses on leveraging social commerce
activities to extend new nancial services to women
micro-entrepreneurs, including opening accounts in
women’s names, strengthening nancial capabilities
and utilization of accounts, and using transaction data
for digital lending.
Build women micro-entrepreneurs’
capacities to adopt and fully leverage
digital platforms for their business
The success of UPI-based apps in India and e-com-
merce platforms in Indonesia demonstrate that this
segment can adopt new digital platforms at scale,
helping women grow their business and save time.
Their experiences reveal important lessons for how to
build trust, condence, and capacity to use new tools
and how to design products that meet women’s needs.
Finding: In-person touchpoints
have been key in driving adoption
of new digital platforms.
Rapid adoption of e-commerce platforms in Indone-
sia and UPI-based apps in India has been driven by
successful door-to-door recruitment and on-boarding
of micro-enterprises by sales representatives. Many
women learned how to use new apps from a sales rep-
resentative who helped them download the app and
returned later to provide additional support. Discounts
and promotions were initially provided to encourage
respondents to try out digital payments in both coun-
tries.
These touchpoints help build trust and comfort us-
ing the platform, which can be intimidating for new us-
ers. Asked about whether she uses digital payments, a
30-year-old WhatsApp user in urban Bangalore shared
her concerns: “I don’t how to use that app proper-
ly. So I can’t say. I just feel scared that I may end up
doing a wrong transaction. I don’t want to transfer a
huge amount… If I am not careful… it will sometimes
go to others’ accounts.”
Opportunity: Extend the assisted
adoption model
Door-to-door recruitment of women shop owners has
been successful in driving micro-enterprise adoption
of UPI and digital payments in India and Indonesia.
In-person learning remains important for women new
to digital payments. Sales representatives helped
women actually download the app and link it to their
bank account so they could instantly begin using it.
They also showed the micro-entrepreneurs the basic
steps to make transactions on their own.
Training other women entrepreneurs as sales rep-
resentatives or peer ambassadors and incentivizing
referrals would extend access to women, especially
those who run their business from home. This could
also entail referral codes shared over digital channels
and recruiting women who are already using digital
platforms as consumers rather than vendors. Plat-
forms looking to spur adoption could also partner with
NGOs working to build women’s digital literacy.
23
Opportunity: During assisted adoption,
clearly address key concerns and
provide accessible, transparent recourse
mechanisms to build trust
Women reported feeling more condent adopting a
platform if they know that they will be able to resolve
any issues that arise, so sales representatives and
recruiters for digital platforms should explain their re-
course mechanisms to encourage adoption.
Respondents shared anecdotes of technological
challenges that thwarted their use and trust of a plat-
form: being locked out of an account, unable to regis-
ter an account or change the registration, uncertainties
about whether their registration had been approved or
not weeks after application, and never receiving pay-
ment or a delivery. In Indonesia, e-commerce entrepre-
neurs are concerned about their rating on e-commerce
platforms, so the stakes are high if they are unable to
deal with problematic transactions. Additional con-
cerns centered on understanding what happens to left-
over money on mobile wallets and how to manage de-
mand from food delivery apps. Registration processes
need to be claried and barriers reduced for informal
businesses to register, including those in India that lack
GST, while ensuring they understand how to use the
platform and manage any challenges that arise.
Clients need a clear understanding of where to ob-
tain technical assistance and their options in handling
complaints or disputes. Recourse systems need to be
accessible, ecient, and free or low-cost, provided ei-
ther in-person, by phone or text.
24
As part of an as-
Emerging opportunities from social commerce for financial
inclusion and business growth
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
14
sisted adoption strategy, sales representatives should
cover these issues, which thwart adoption and con-
tinued use.
Finding: With increased use of
digital platforms, entrepreneurs
face diculties tracking and
managing business transactions
separately from personal
transactions.
Women use platforms like WhatsApp and UPI-based
apps for both personal and business activities, making
it challenging to distinguish between these activities.
With a single, personal WhatsApp account, it is di-
cult for entrepreneurs to be responsive to customer in-
teractions, manage long-term customer relationships,
track payments and delivery of items, and account for
business expenses. Many social commerce entrepre-
neurs transact with people they know and trust and
allow their customers some exibility on when they pay.
They must keep track of payments owed for various
transactions.
Opportunity: Integrate payment and
business management features into the
digital platforms women are already
using
Digital payment transaction history in both India and
Indonesia could be a critical business management
tool for women-owned enterprises. Women like that
digital payments provide a record of business transac-
tions if there is a disputed transaction, but they rarely
review this record or use other forms of recordkeeping
for their business.
UPI developers could incorporate features that help
small business owners view summaries of their trans-
actions, make basic business calculations and man-
agement decisions, and tag whether expenses are
personal- or business-related. WhatsApp for Business
has features that would facilitate these challenges but
requires more concerted promotion eorts towards
this segment to be adopted.
In general, women are currently using separate
digital platforms for marketing, customer interaction,
delivery, and payments. Further integration of these
activities could facilitate women’s expansion into new
business activities, while saving time and reducing risk
conducting transactions. Several users expressed in-
terest in being able to use tools they are already fa-
miliar with, such as WhatsApp, for payments. As an
urban entrepreneur in India who uses multiple social
media platforms for her business explained, “See now
I don’t know how to use Google Pay and other digital
wallets and even I haven’t installed those apps in my
mobile. If in WhatsApp there is a payment option then it
is good, because nowadays everyone uses WhatsApp
so it will be more helpful. I am comfortable with us-
ing WhatsApp so I won’t mind using any new feature.”
Integrating payment systems within these platforms
could reduce friction and retain customers on these
platforms.
Opportunity: Use these apps to reach
women where they are to build nancial
and digital capabilities
Government programs to support women micro-en-
trepreneurs often struggle to reach the targeted pop-
ulation. The digital platforms that women are already
comfortable using on a daily basis should be leveraged
as a gateway for women to access additional nancial
tools and information. Government programs targeting
women entrepreneurs could advertise on these plat-
forms about nancial and non-nancial services for
which they may be eligible.
Finding: Despite adopting digital
platforms, women are not yet fully
utilizing them and need new skills
to stay competitive.
Many women are not yet fully utilizing available digital
platforms. For example, in Indonesia, social media and
e-commerce entrepreneurs reported diculties taking
quality photos of their products given limited storage
space on their phone, the quality of their camera, and
lack of suitable lighting and background. Some simply
use stock photos from their supplier. Many rely on their
children to write the captions, produce story highlights,
and interact with customers. For entrepreneurs striv-
ing to dierentiate their oerings and grow their busi-
nesses, additional capacity building on online business
practices and marketing is needed.
Opportunity: Leverage online channels
and peer learning to build business ca-
pabilities in online marketing.
Dierent learning models to build online marketing
skills could be employed. For example, in Indonesia,
a bookseller organized a large WhatsApp group of all
its resellers and disseminated online marketing video
tutorials through the group. Companies that distribute
fast moving consumer goods to women-owned retail
businesses could provide training through WhatsApp
groups to help these businesses grow as well as form
new connections between actors along the value
chain. Other organizations invested in women’s busi-
ness growth, from cooperatives to non-governmental
organizations to government agencies, should lever-
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
15
age online platforms to build business skills, catalyse
peer learning, and motivate women with stories and
lessons from other businesswomen’s success.
Opportunity: Use these platforms to
reach women where they are to build
nancial and digital capabilities
Identifying and reaching growth-oriented women mi-
cro-entrepreneurs at scale is dicult. The digital plat-
forms that women are already comfortable using on
a daily basis should be leveraged as a gateway for
women to access additional nancial tools and infor-
mation. Government and private sector programs tar-
geting women entrepreneurs could advertise on these
platforms about nancial and non-nancial services for
which they may be eligible.
Leverage social commerce to
develop new financial services for
micro-entrepreneurs
Though all segments currently have low rates of use
of formal nancial services, social commerce presents
new opportunities for increasing women micro-entre-
preneurs’ access to formal nancial services. Com-
pared to oine enterprises, social commerce entrepre-
neurs, even if they remain informal, can be identied
and reached more easily and engaged at scale, and
their online transaction histories can be used as a
means of alternative credit scoring. In addition, tran-
sitioning to online activities creates new use cases for
digital payments and nancial accounts. Financial ser-
vice providers and e-commerce companies that ad-
dress social commerce entrepreneurs’ nancial needs
can spur business growth and retain these customers
over time.
Finding: Most women social
commerce entrepreneurs already
use a bank account for their
business – but not necessarily
their own.
In both countries, most women respondents in the
sample reported having access to a bank account. In
India, only 80 percent of respondents use their own
bank account for their business, while 16 percent use
someone else’s account, often that of their husband
or another family member. In Indonesia, a number of
respondents in the qualitative research reported using
their mother’s, husband’s, or sister’s bank account and
explained this was more convenient and lessened ad-
ministrative fees. Similarly, among e-commerce users
in India, only half of the sample used their own smart-
phone, while the other half used someone else’s smart-
phone.
It is important to recognize that many women are
involved in businesses jointly with their husband or oth-
er family members. In India, e-commerce and digital
payment user segments, respectively, were almost half
as likely as WhatsApp and social media segments to
be the sole decision-maker of the business.
In jointly-run businesses, if both husband and wife
have a bank account, but a platform can only be linked
to one account, the husband’s account is often prior-
itized. For example, in India, UPI payments currently
Digital Payments WhatsApp Social Media E-commerce
Smartphone
• Own
• Other
Bank account
• Own
• Other
Who provides
assistance using
online platforms
• No one
• Husband
• Children
• Employee
64%
72%
33%
95%
90%
47%
41%
21%
49%
14%
8%
30%
8%
3%
31%
52%
29%
63%
14%
11%
10%
14%
92%
87%
54%
53%
73%
24%
Table 10: Smartphone and bank account use in India
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
16
can only be linked to one bank account and one SIM
card. Women reported linking UPI-based apps to their
husband’s account, but as they interact with custom-
ers and suppliers, they had to call to coordinate or
conrm UPI transactions with their husband. In these
cases, women have access to the digital tool but can-
not fully take advantage of its benets (for example,
access credit using the transaction history created, or
use digital payments for her own, independent eco-
nomic decisions) if it is not registered in her name.
A 30-year-old urban WhatsApp user had opened her
own bank account a week prior to being interviewed in
order to switch from her husband’s UPI account to her
own. She explained: “I was not very condent. I didn’t
have a bank account in my own name before. I and my
husband have a joint account. We didn’t get time to
open an account in my name. Recently… just about 1
week back I opened an account in my own name. So,
I was using my husband’s Google Pay till now. Now I
will start using it myself.”
Opportunity: Provide women with a
choice between independent and joint
accounts
Women may own and operate their own businesses
completely independently or in some degree of part-
nership with their husband or other family member.
For some women, access to her husband’s bank or
payment account may meet her current needs. As a
31-year-old digital payments entrepreneur in peri-ur-
ban Bangalore explained, “My husband has an ac-
count and everything is connected to his account, like
Paytm and all. One account for a family is enough,
right?” Women may even be more condent starting
to use a new digital tool with her husband. However,
if these women rely on their husband to manage UPI
transactions, they lose visibility on the transactions,
face ineciencies, and miss the opportunity to build
their own transaction history and nancial manage-
ment experience.
One option could be to allow joint ownership of UPI
and e-commerce apps so that both partners have an
equal view into business transactions and can use it
themselves. But UPI-based apps could also stimulate
the opening of new, individual accounts for women
so that she has full ownership, not just access, to an
account. Digital payment products could also be pro-
moted in partnership with account opening or linking
to women’s existing accounts. This would increase
women’s utilization of existing accounts and strength-
en women’s nancial control and independence.
Finding: Women social commerce
entrepreneurs continue to use
cash alongside digital payments,
but perceive cash and digital
payments as serving distinct
functions.
In India, 99 percent of respondents continue to use
cash. Even among digital payment users, 83 percent
cite cash as their primary payment method, and less
than 10 percent report using either UPI or electronic
money for most transactions.
In Indonesia, most respondents transact in cash (87
percent) or bank transfer (74 percent). Some respon-
dents explained their choice of payments as being
connected to how they save or set money aside. One
respondent explained that she saves the payments
she receives via bank transfer, since it is already in her
bank account, but continues to accept cash payments
to cover daily operating expenses. The lack of liquidity
helps her save automatically, and “suddenly you have
saved up a lot.”
In Indonesia, women will commonly ask for 50 percent
of the total payment via bank transfer before sending
the product out for delivery. In both countries, many
customers prefer cash-on-delivery in order to verify the
products received. A 25-year-old e-commerce entre-
preneur in urban India explained that though she uses
Ninjakart to buy supplies, “[With Ninjakart] I have to
check the items at the time of delivery… so if there is
any problem then we will adjust that time. This is the
reason I don’t do online payments.”
“My husband was having an account and if
someone asked to pay using Paytm, I used to
give his number, but aer sometime he also
told me that it’s been dicult to keep track of
his and also my transactions separately and it’s
better for you to have a Google Pay account
or something like that. So then I started using
Google Pay. So that I can manage my own
orders without relying on my husband.”
Urban social media entrepreneur,
age 31, India
“If they pay through cash, we can use it for our
daily needs and expenses. Otherwise, it goes
to the bank where they deduct money for the
jewellery we had pledged earlier. If they pay
through cash, we think we can use it for our
expenses.”
Peri-urban digital payment entrepreneur,
age 31, India
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
17
Opportunity: Strengthen the digital pay-
ments ecosystem
In both countries, social commerce entrepreneurs,
even if they have started using digital payments for
some transactions, continue to use cash because the
digital payments ecosystem is far from mature. The
digital payments ecosystem can be strengthened by
improving interoperability between payment providers,
infrastructure (especially mobile connectivity), smart-
phone ownership, cash in/cash out points, and addi-
tional use cases.
25
These advances are necessary to
strengthen the presence of digital payments in rural
areas, where adoption lags behind urban centres. As
long as the digital payment ecosystem struggles with
accessibility and reliability, people will continue to mis-
trust digital payments and rely on cash.
In Indonesia, electronic money ecosystem could be
improved by enhancing interoperability and relaxing
the current maximum account balance of IDR 10 mil-
lion (~USD 700) and maximum monthly transaction of
IDR 20 million (~USD 1,400), which discourage digi-
tal merchant payments. Requirements that individual
bank agents serve one bank and the lack of an agent
network management model in Indonesia result in
bank agents facing liquidity challenges and charging
irregular fees.
26
Opportunity: Strengthen nancial capa-
bilities and mobilize savings via digital
nancial services
Women tend to think of cash as “spendable” but view
digital payments as earmarked for savings or larger
purchases. Financial service providers and app devel-
opers have an opportunity to leverage this perception
to encourage savings habits by incorporating gamica-
tion, commitments and trackers, and/or peer support
into digital payment apps.
Sales representatives promoting digital payments
could be leveraged to strengthen users’ nancial ca-
pabilities, such as showing users how to check their
bank account balances via electronic money. In India,
UPI-based apps typically send an SMS to conrm a
UPI transaction that includes the bank balance, but the
UPI app interface does not easily indicate where the
user can check their bank account balance. For UPI
users with limited and precarious resources, knowing
their account balance is critical. A 31-year-old peri-ur-
ban digital payment entrepreneur described having her
UPI payment declined when she tried to buy shoes for
her business, because she did not know her account
balance. In her words, “If we can’t make the payment
due to low account balance, we feel very bad about it
and they also feel like not doing business with us.”
Finding: Many women social
commerce entrepreneurs are
eager for credit to grow their
business, but remain constrained
in accessing credit.
Bank accounts and digital payments have not yet im-
proved women’s access to other nancial services. In
the study sample, only 1 percent of women micro en-
trepreneurs make use of any loans or insurance prod-
ucts for their business in India. In Indonesia, 9 percent
of respondents reported using formal loans.
Women micro-entrepreneurs in both countries face a
credit gap. They face diculties in securing bank loans
due to paperwork and collateral requirements and
bank loans are not oered as quickly or at the amount
needed. As one woman in India described, “I tried [to
take a bank loan], but I didn’t have proper documents.
I opened my shop also newly, so they told me to get
GST and other documents and after 1-2 years they will
give us a loan.” Frustrated by formal credit processes,
they turn to moneylenders or family members for small-
er loans with high interest rates.
Opportunity: Leverage digital transaction
data for digital lending
As women increasingly transact digitally with their cus-
tomers and suppliers, transaction data of payments
and expenses will be a valuable input for nancial
service providers in assessing women’s creditworthi-
ness, managing risk, improving underwriting and of-
fering more customized loans. These platforms could
also be used for loan repayment. Advertisements for
new nancial products on the online platforms women
currently use can be an eective channel for custom-
er discovery.
27
E-commerce platforms, especially those
focused on merchants, could develop supplier credit
products for users. However, clients need to be able to
provide informed consent of the use of their data for such
purposes, and measures must be taken to ensure client
data security and condentiality.
“It would be helpful if they can give small busi-
ness people like me the loan. It is very dicult
to get the loan… there would be hundreds of
questions they will ask about the business and
house and income like that…. If we get a large
amount at once from the bank… we can invest
that amount into something rather saving
small amounts for so long. I have many ideas
but don’t have the money to invest.”
Urban digital payments entrepreneur,
age 50, India
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
18
Women micro-entrepreneurs in India and Indonesia are
adopting a variety of digital platforms, which transform
their businesses. However, micro-enterprises’ digital
transition is far from complete. Even as women con-
duct business online, many transactions continue to
occur oine and with cash in both countries. There are
still critical unmet needs in the sector to enhance en-
trepreneurs’ use of digital platforms, reduce cash pain,
and increase eciency.
Given how rapidly evolving early-stage social com-
merce ecosystems are in countries like India and Indo-
nesia, they remain highly competitive—as much for the
micro-enterprises entering this sector as for the new
companies that are jostling to capture this expanding
segment.
For social commerce entrepreneurs to stay compet-
itive, they must address new business challenges, in-
cluding acquiring new customers; staying top-of-mind
Growing with social commerce entrepreneurs
and maintaining relationships with existing customers;
adapting to customers’ shifting preferences around
products, platforms, and payment methods; expand-
ing and diversifying product oerings; dierentiating
their businesses with quality marketing; and increasing
business eciencies and mitigating risk especially in
payment and delivery interactions with both customers
and suppliers.
For e-commerce, social media, digital payment,
delivery, and nancial service companies to remain
competitive in these rapidly evolving markets, there are
critical opportunities to support women micro-entre-
preneurs to adopt and fully leverage digital platforms
for their business and provide new nancial services
that help these entrepreneurs thrive. The better they
address the needs and aspirations of these segments,
the more they will grow with this sector.
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
19
Notes
1 We use digital platforms to mean online
platforms (social media, messaging, e-com-
merce, delivery apps) and digital payment
platforms (mobile wallets, electronic mon-
ey).
2 Abed et al. 2015. Social media as a bridge
to e-commerce adoption in SMEs: A sys-
tematic literature review.
3 Islam and Bin-Humam 2019. Could e-com-
merce bring women’s nancial inclusion in
Bangladesh?
4 Hootsuite 2019. The global state of digital in
2019 report.
5 Curty and Zhang 2012. Social commerce:
Looking backward and forward.
6 Huang and Benyoucef 2013. From e-com-
merce to social commerce: A close look at
design features.
7 Marsden 2010. Social commerce: Monetiz-
ing social media.
8 Field et al. 2019. On her own account: How
strengthening women’s nancial control im-
pacts labor supply and gender norms.
9 IFC (n.d.) Financial inclusion for wom-
en-owned micro, small, and medium enter-
prises (MSMEs) in India
10 IFC and USAID 2016. Women-owned
SMEs in Indonesia: A golden opportunity for
local nancial institutions
11 World Bank 2016. Women entrepreneurs in
Indonesia: A pathway to increasing shared
prosperity.
12 Melissa et al. 2015. The Internet and Indo-
nesian Women Entrepreneurs: Examining
the Impact of Social Media on Women Em-
powerment.
13 Kumar and Ayedee 2018. Social media
tools for business growth of SMEs.
14 SME Finance Forum 2019. MSME Finance
Gap. Accessed October 2019.
15 GSMA 2019. The state of mobile connectiv-
ity report 2019.
16 GSMA 2019. The Mobile Gender Gap Re-
port 2019.
17 GSMA 2019. The mobile gender gap: Asia.
18 Barboni et al. 2018. A tough call: Under-
standing barriers to and impacts of wom-
en’s mobile phone adoption in India.
19 GSMA 2019. The mobile gender gap: Asia.
20 While we consider e-commerce, social
media, and WhatsApp entrepreneurs to be
engaged in social commerce, digital pay-
ment entrepreneurs are not technically so-
cial commerce entrepreneurs because they
use no online platforms for their businesses.
However, they were included in the sample
in India given the prevalence of UPI-based
payment platforms, the potential for this
segment to adopt other platforms, and as a
comparison with other segments engaged
in social commerce
21 A ”super app” is an umbrella app that pro-
vides a gateway to additional apps pro-
viding dierent services. Gojek and Grab
include transportation services, electronic
money (GoPay and Ovo), and purchase/
delivery of multiple products, from food to
beauty services to massages.
22 Only formal, large businesses in India are
currently selling on e-commerce platforms
such as Amazon or Flipkart, which require
that vendors be formally registered with
GST certication. Small and micro-enter-
prises typically do not have GST certication
because it is not mandatory, the paperwork
is dicult, and they perceive that GST in-
creases their tax liability. In addition, while
food delivery and courier apps like Swiggy
and Zomato are increasingly common in
urban India, no micro-enterprises in our
sample are currently using these apps to
sell their products.
23 See for example: Sinha 2018. Three steps
for closing India’s gender gap in digital nan-
cial services.
24 Better Than Cash Initiative 2016. Responsi-
ble Digital Payments Guidelines.
25 For example, government-to-person (G2P)
payment programs may also consider lever-
aging e-commerce and payment platforms
to disburse payments to recipients, drive
adoption of these platforms, and make it
easier for recipients to use their benets.
26 Microsave Helix Institute of Digital Finance
2017. Agent Network Accelerator Re-
search: Indonesia Country Report.
27 Omidyar Network and Boston Consult-
ing Group 2018. Credit disrupted: Digital
MSME lending in India
Social commerce entrepreneurship and new opportunities
for women’s nancial inclusion in India and Indonesia
20
Women’s World Banking designs and invests in the -
nancial solutions, institutions and policy environments
in emerging markets to create greater economic sta-
bility and prosperity for women, their families, and their
communities. With a global reach of 53 partners in 32
countries serving more than 30 million women clients,
Women’s World Banking drives impact through its
scalable, market-driven solutions; gender-lens private
equity fund; and leadership and diversity programs.
November 2019
Authors
Sophie Theis
Giudy Rusconi
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