Author:Bianca Bujor, ABS Romania

Mastercard together with Waze, the most popular platform for drivers in Romania, launched a project that helps the small producers who do not have access to the regular open markets to sell their products. While travelling, any driver that uses the Waze platform can see the local producers on the map together with information about them.

Supporting the small producers

The project militates for financial independence and equal opportunities between the actors of different economic power given the fact that small producers involved do not have the opportunity to reach large markets that are located usually in the larger cities.

The producers involved in the program are roadside small producer or people who sell their products in front of their homes and who work hard to cultivate and harvest their own products without the help of machineries. They can easily submit an online application form where they only introduce their name and telephone number, after that being contacted and helped throughout the process by a dedicated project team. They can make their own avatar for the online pin on the map and they can tell their story via the app.

They can make their own avatar for the online pin

The small producers enjoy exposure and support for the marketing of products via Waze app, making it easy to be localized and even creating customer loyalty among the drivers who can find them easier on the map if they want to return.

Promoting local products

The program encourages people who are already using the driving app to purchase local and traditional products at cheap prices with all the money going directly to the producers.

Digitalizing the small communities and educating the locals

Mastercard helps the farmers with the card payment method even on the side of the road. It also helps them with the financial know-how and tax payments.

The most known platform for drivers in Romania is becoming a digital market for the small grocery producers. The drivers can save their favorite stores on the app and can leave reviews for the other users to see in this way promoting even the smallest of producers. The producers are signaled by a dedicated pin and have a short presentation on the platform, making the experience more personal for the drivers and making the farmers easier to be recognized. In some locations, there are even panels on the side of the road to make the producers more visible.

By introducing the card payment, the program marks a novelty in Romania: taxing the activity of small producers in rural areas and making the payment easier by giving POS systems to the vendors.

Piataladrum.ro = roadsidemarket.ro