Tikto Athens is a Greek fashion retail SME with a brick-and-mortar store located in Athens. By completing digital up-skilling programmes run by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and private institutions, the firm was able to boost their online sales and develop an ecommerce strategy.
Digital upskilling with higher education institutions and online learning: the case of a Greek fashion retail SME
Abstract
Tikto Athens is a fashion retail SME with a brick-and-mortar store in Athens, Greece, which sells women’s ready-to-wear clothing. The company created a sustainable fashion brand that produces their products ethically and locally in Greece.
During the Covid-19 pandemic it proved to be necessary to shift the company’s business to online retailing. The e-commerce management skills acquired in an online university course helped the founder to manage Tikto Athen’s e-commerce shop. However, the university did not provide sufficient training to be able to master the new challenges. A perceived negative of the course consisted in outdated resources, too few practical elements and little engagement with companies and the broader ecosystem.
Already before the pandemic in 2019 Tikto Athens started implementing digital practises. By acquiring knowledge from private lessons from the Woocomerce developers and by following YouTube Tutorials, the founder Ms Katerina Chatzichristou began to build the company’s e-commerce platform. Participation in adult learning is very heterogeneous across OECD countries and data from OECD Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), indicates that only 40% or 2 in 5 adults participate on average in formal or non-formal professional trainings. In Greece, less than 25% of adults reported having participated in adult learning (OECD, 2021[1]). Since the CEO and founder possessed a background in graphic design but only basic digital skills, she aimed to complement her skillset by taking an online digital marketing course from a Greek university. This course, open to all and with a tuition fee of EUR 450, encompassed management of social media accounts, the implementation of digital marketing plans, basic SEO skills as well as online content creation.
Due to these missing elements, the founder complemented her university training with her personal online research to better understand the topic and develop her skillset at her own pace. Today, Tikto Athens uses several types of communication and marketing software to send out newsletters to their customer base and to manage their online e-commerce store. Specifically, the customer engagement with newsletters helped the company to increase online sales by 30% during the pandemic.
On top of that, the founder of Tikto Athens keeps following her journey of digital learning. Currently, she is completing an industry wide recognized diploma in digital and social media marketing from the private online learning platform “Know Crunch”. According to the founder, the advantage of this diploma lies not only in the offer of informative and efficient resources but also in its strong cooperation with the private sector ecosystem.
Tikto Athens has not participated in any government (national or local) programmes and is unaware if there are initiatives that could be relevant to them.
OECD (2021), The Digital Transformation of SMEs, OECD Studies on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/bdb9256a-en.
OECD (2021), SME Digitalisation to Build Back Better, https://doi.org/10.1787/f493861e-en
References
[1] OECD (2021), OECD Skills Outlook 2021: Learning for Life, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0ae365b4-en.
