-- Turkey's Hepsiburada bolsters its support for female entrepreneurship with the launch of "Women's Cooperatives: Stronger with E-Commerce in the Pandemic" project, in collaboration with the Innovation for Development (I4D), the International Labor Organization (ILO) Office for Turkey and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (BPRM) --

Hepsiburada (NASDAQ: HEPS), one of the leading e-commerce platforms of Turkey, continues to celebrate and support women's entrepreneurship with the launch of the "Women's Cooperatives: Stronger with E-Commerce in the Pandemic" project in collaboration with International Labor Organization (ILO), Innovation for Development (I4D), and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

The project aims to improve the digital and business skills of female entrepreneurs by providing training and mentoring support to over 100 women in 5 women's cooperatives that have been affected by the pandemic. The cooperatives involved in the Project,  will enjoy several benefits, including commission discounts, advertising and marketing support, free photoshoots, and shipping support. They will also receive mentoring and e-commerce training. The project will contribute to the participation of women's cooperatives in the economy to encourage local development and inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

The project will help with the digital transformation of women's cooperatives to improve their access to online marketplaces and boost their presence in supply chains and economy. Additionally, a new social procurement framework will help the cooperatives continue to set up new projects.

Today's announcement builds on Hepsiburada's strong track record. To date, Hepsiburada has supported 24,000 female entrepreneurs and 88 women's cooperatives since 2017 under the Technology Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs program. Since then, the proportion of female-led business operating on the Hepsiburada platform has risen from 6 percent to 23 percent of total vendors.

Hepsiburada Chief Commercial Officer Murat Büyümez said: "We are excited to announce our collaboration with our international partners. This is an important demographic that Hepsiburada has been pleased to support over the past two years with a number collaborations and investments including Women Entrepreneurs Challenging COVID-19 Project in cooperation with Innovation for Development (I4D), SPARK and Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD).  As a company that supports the participation of women in all aspects of society, we will continue to mobilize our resources to empower female entrepreneurs, building on what we have already achieved with our Technology Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs program."

ILO Livelihoods Officer Ayşe Turunç Kankal said: "At the ILO, we are working to minimize the damaging economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hurt traditional sales channels and caused supply-chain disruptions globally. Moreover, it has been particularly hard on vulnerable groups such as women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and refugees. Strengthening vulnerable groups and integrating them into the digital economy of the future, particularly women's cooperatives and refugee entrepreneurs, is essential in achieving sustainability and diversifying sales channels."

I4D Director Doğan Çelik said: "At I4D, we have been working on breakthrough development interventions in areas including the jobs of the future, inclusive supply chain management, women's economic empowerment, social entrepreneurship, and social procurement. It is thrilling to see some of these efforts come to fruition in collaboration with the private sector and the sustainable development world. The issue of ending poverty is now more prominent than ever, so we are calling on the private sector and international development community to help develop and expand this collaboration with ILO and Hepsiburada."