Washington, DC April 13, 2022. The Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) is pleased to announce its alliance with Shopify, one of the world’s leading commerce providers. Shopify will be sponsoring the VI Young Americas Forum, which will be held on June 8 and 9 in Los Angeles, California. The Young Americas Forum is recognized as one of the three official forums of the IX Summit of the Americas along with the Civil Society Forum and the Private Sector Forum of the Americas.

Entrepreneurship is on the rise with a record-breaking 5.4 million new business applications filed in the United States in 2021, compared to 4.4 million in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau. Now, more than ever, entrepreneurship and innovation have become synonymous with global youth, thereby representing a paradigm shift in traditional business through digital transformation. One of the objectives of the alliance between YABT and Shopify is to support the entrepreneurial youth of our hemisphere in their transition towards the digitalization of their businesses.

Shopify is a global commerce platform that allows entrepreneurs of any size to design and build their virtual store without the need of programming knowledge; it also offers reliable tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business. Shopify is built for the next generation of dreamers. Over a decade ago, the company was created by Tobi Lütke who wanted to sell snowboards online. Unable to find tools to create an online store, he wrote software to build his own. Realizing his software could help others sell online, he made it available and called it Shopify. That technology now powers millions of businesses in approximately 175 countries, helping entrepreneurs everywhere sell their products online and in stores.

Companies have faced more changes in the last few years than in the previous two decades, due to the pandemic. Many were forced into survival mode and relied on digital transformation and ecommerce to stay afloat. As a result, businesses have become more resilient and above all, collaborative. Greater technology adoption is one of the priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The lack of knowledge of digital technologies, the low level of readily available information and the technical barriers to developing business models are problems in several countries in the region. This alliance between Shopify and YABT will allow entrepreneurs in the Americas to focus on their business models and leave the technical part in the hands of an efficient and globally proven commerce platform.

For more details, please contact YABT: forum@yabt.net