Electronic commerce is no longer a trend that is yet to arrive; it has already profoundly changed the way we buy, sell, and build business models. This shift is visible globally and across the European market, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where eCommerce is developing faster than is often acknowledged in public discourse. According to the European E-commerce Report 2025, the value of online sales in Europe reached EUR 842 billion. At the same time, Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked among the markets with the most pronounced growth in eCommerce turnover, an impressive 117%. However, this figure also has another side to the story: the share of online shoppers remains significantly below the European average. In other words, the domestic market is moving quickly, but it is still in the early stages of real maturity.
In such an environment, understanding eCommerce is increasingly less a matter of ambition and increasingly a matter of basic business literacy. Digital channels are becoming infrastructure rather than an add-on, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that want to remain relevant in a rapidly changing market.
It was within this context that the eCommerce MasterClass was held, organised by Fondacija 787 as part of the BizUp Goes Green&Digital programme, implemented by the eCommerce Association in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The programme brought together women entrepreneurs from different parts of the country with the aim of examining, through a practical and structured approach, how digital and sustainable models can concretely improve their businesses. Through four thematically connected modules, from setting an eCommerce strategy and developing a webshop, to digital marketing, payment systems, and security issues—the focus was not on theory, but on understanding the real challenges and decisions that entrepreneurs face in a digital environment.
The value of the education is most clearly reflected in the experiences of the participants themselves. Azra Deović Osmanagić, creator of the natural cosmetics brand AVIA Njega prirodom from Sarajevo, points out that the MasterClass provided what she had previously been missing. “For me, this was the completion of a whole that I could not put together on my own. I gained a clear picture of what eCommerce actually means in practice, from the role of the webshop and design to ads, landing pages, and card payments. The modules were so well connected that the entire MasterClass made sense as a single whole”.
A similar impression was shared by Nina Stanarević from Banja Luka, a graphic designer and owner of the bookbinding studio TISA. “Honestly, the amount of information was huge. Even though I thought I knew quite a lot, I realised there were segments I hadn’t thought about at all. The module on payments and security was particularly useful for me, because that’s where I had the most questions. Already today, I have concrete questions that I will ask my developer and web designer.”
Within the eCommerce MasterClass, special emphasis was placed on a practical approach and knowledge from the real business environment. The President of the eCommerce Association in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Orhan Gazibegović, who was also one of the lecturers, emphasised that the goal was to offer knowledge from practice. “The MasterClass was designed so that lectures are delivered exclusively by experts who actively work in eCommerce in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We did not want a theoretical approach, but concrete, hands-on examples from real business operations. It is precisely this exchange of real-world experience that makes this education different from many programmes that remain at the level of theory,” Gazibegović stated.
The eCommerce MasterClass is conceived as a modular educational framework which, in its full version, includes nine interconnected units, with the ambition of viewing eCommerce as a system rather than a set of isolated tools. The structure of the programme follows the entire online sales journey, from strategic thinking and goal setting, through the building and optimisation of a webshop, to digital marketing, customer relations, logistics, payments, security, and legal frameworks. A special section is also dedicated to the role of artificial intelligence in the contemporary eCommerce environment, not as a futuristic add-on, but as an increasingly present operational layer.
The BizUp Goes Green&Digital programme is implemented within the Private Sector Development Initiative (EU4PSD) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, co-financed by the European Union and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.
