Authors - Agna S. Nath, Arun Kumar V N, Aswathi K.B Abstract - This study investigates the role of WhatsApp Commerce—the use of WhatsApp for business transactions—in empowering women-led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Tier-3 cities of India, while advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Economic Growth). Despite India’s digital revolution, gender disparities persist, with women leading only 20% of MSMEs and facing barriers like digital exclusion and sociocultural constraints. Grounded in Kabeer’s Empowerment Theory and Davis’s Technology Acceptance Model, the research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys of 400 women entrepreneurs and 20 case studies across four Tier-3 cities (Bareilly, Jalgaon, Dibrugarh, Erode). Key findings reveal that WhatsApp usage intensity correlates with a 27% revenue increase (β=0.27, *p*
