What does it take for a small market vendor to compete with a multinational grocery chain? According to new research from our faculty, the answer might be as simple as a smartphone and a TikTok account.

A new study by International Executive School researchers explores how traditional market vendors across the Commonwealth Caribbean are using short-form video to reach customers, build loyalty, and carve out a competitive space that corporate retailers have struggled to match.

Drawing on interviews with 26 vendors across Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Lucia, and Guyana, the research found that TikTok’s engagement-based algorithm creates a rare level playing field, one where authentic storytelling can outperform big-budget advertising. Vendors who showcase local produce, family recipes, and genuine community connections are resonating with audiences in ways that polished corporate content simply does not.

The study also highlights how vendors develop digital skills organically, through experimentation, peer networks, and trial and error, and how they adapt creatively to real-world constraints like unreliable internet and power outages.

The researchers are careful to note, however, that this success does not come without cost. Competing digitally under these conditions demands extraordinary effort from people already working with limited resources, and that hidden labor deserves greater recognition.

The team calls on policymakers to focus on improving connectivity and infrastructure access as the most meaningful way to support informal entrepreneurs in the digital age.

The full study is available open access at https://doi.org/10.36941/mjss-2026-0080.