Result of Service

The Consultant is expected to support ESCWA in developing the capacity of Arab SMEs and business enablers in the e-commerce sector through training and business coaching.

Work Location

Remotely

Expected duration

6 months w/Ext

Duties and Responsibilities

In the past three years, e-commerce has grown faster in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region than anywhere else in the world, with an estimated 209 million consumers transitioning to online shopping, during the height of the pandemic, to access and purchase their essential needs. Big companies that delayed digitization shifted to meet consumers online within a short time span, whereas smaller businesses were left further behind. At the first Arab SME Summit that was held in Jordan last October, ESCWA committed to the digitization of 100 Arab small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have not yet embraced e-commerce by designing a Regional Entrepreneurship Training Program, with a focus on e-commerce, to build the capacity of SMEs and support their transition journey into online selling. The Regional Entrepreneurship Training Program along with its ToT (Train of Trainers) Guiding Manual are activities of the DA Project: Expanding the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Arab region. The services of the E-Commerce Consultant are needed to assist ESCWA in implementing those activities.

The E-Commerce Consultant will ensure the timely delivery of duties and responsibilities and the tasks are complete, accurate and comply with ESCWA’s policies and procedures. Specifically, the E-commerce consultant will:

– Design and develop a Regional Entrepreneurship Training Program in Arabic, with a focus on e-commerce.
– Develop a ToT (Train of Trainers) guiding manual in Arabic for the Regional Entrepreneurship Training Program.
– Deliver one in-person ToT workshop to regional business enablers.
– Deliver online training for small businesses looking to develop transactional e-commerce websites.
– Deliver online coaching for small businesses looking to develop transactional e-commerce websites.

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the Executive Director of ETC.

Qualifications/special skills

A bachelor’s degree in E-Commerce, International Business or any other related field is required.

All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
A minimum of 10 years of experience providing e-commerce services or working in an e-commerce business is required.
Hands-on experience in managing and maintaining e-commerce websites and previous experience using a website builder (e.g.: Shopify) is required.
Developing optimized digital content for e-commerce websites (text; images; videos; VR experiences) is required.
Highly knowledgeable of the e-commerce value chain and having a solid business background in e-commerce strategy and tools, market research, e-commerce business model, and pricing strategies is required.
A subject matter expert in areas of digital marketing, online sales strategies and tools, email marketing, SEO, Google Analytics, website UX, paid social media, and e-commerce trends is required.
Developing presentations and training materials and providing training to e-commerce businesses is required.
Providing business coaching to e-commerce SMEs and identifying areas for improving performance is required.

Languages

Languages English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA.

For this position, fluency in Arabic and English is required. Knowledge of French is desirable.

Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.