While shopping on the internet has become very popular in most parts of the world, it seems that Middle East online businesses are having a hard time convincing local consumers to shop with them.
“I really enjoy shopping on the net’ claims Lina Kakkar, a 27 year old from Abu Dhabi, it’s easy and convenient! But I mostly shop on websites in Europe because it is always a headache to pay on the local websites. Also, I never fully trust the sites here!”
Looking at the small size of E-commerce compared to other regions, this feeling must be shared by a majority of potential online consumers. Online retail, one of the fastest growing areas in retail globally, is still in the infant stage in the GCC.
Fashionation.me, the first online Private Sales Club in the region has taken a series of steps that could help change the perception. The site, a by-invitation only shopping club giving its members access to excess inventories of luxury and lifestyle brands at a bargain, has put security and transparency at the centre of its preoccupations.
“In the Middle East, people are worried about giving their credit card details” explains Didier Picard, the Managing Director of Fashionation.me. “It is true that fraud is high here. One issue is the limited number of really secure payment platforms. Our decision to partner with Etisalat was largely influenced by their security system, the one used by the large governmental organisations to collect payments online.”
“Our company is paranoid about security. We never collect credit card information and instead automatically transfer our members to the Etisalat payment platform, who controls the transaction. We are applying the most advanced encryption methods and are therefore able to offer a level of security comparable to what you get in Europe.”
Another sensitive subject is that of privacy. “We hear a lot about how quickly private information can get out of control on the internet. Yet, very few of us actually read the privacy policies of websites. Let’s make it clear: In our case, we only gather the information we need to service our members. And more importantly, we are saying loud and clear that we will never communicate or sell the data of those who have decided to trust us.
When asked how he decided to launch Fashionation.me, Picard explains “I have been in the Middle East for 8 years, and was heading one of the large luxury cosmetic groups prior to launching Fashionation.me. With the crisis, I noticed that consumers were looking for more bargains, but were also becoming smart shoppers. Gone are the times where they were ready to line up outside some clandestine warehouse, dig through piles of 4 season-old items in some crowded hotel ballroom or crawl to some remote outlet store with the secret hope to find the ‘deal of the century’. Today’s technology makes shopping for bargains pleasant: You are invited to a sale, you turn up any time while the sale lasts, you browse through the items available, and if you like something, you select it and we bring to your home within a few days”.
Despite common beliefs, people in the Middle East are not adverse to online shopping. In fact, statistics show that their behaviours are very similar to other areas of the world. For E-commerce to kick-off in the region, all that is required to convince consumers to shop here are reliable systems, some clear commitments … and good deals !
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