Seeing the immense opportunity in the eCommerce industry of the GCC region with Saudi Arabia and UAE already becoming the centre of maximum online shoppers followed by Qatar, Kuwait, Oman etc., large marketplaces, both local and international ones are working on providing seamless and easy to use business models to sellers and retailers in order to boost sales, increase profitability and enhance customer relations. 

Two of the most renowned and highly valued marketplaces with the best seller models in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are:

• Noon
• Amazon 

While both are the biggest rivals fighting it out big to dominate the Middle Eastern eCommerce market, selling on either or both of these platforms can really bring in tons of revenue for your online business and help you reach a massive customer base regionally and internationally.

This article has been designed to enlighten sellers, retailers and brands like yours to understand each of the seller models of these two platforms and curate the best strategies and plans to not only sell on them but also to be fully ready to tackle any issues or challenges along the way. 

Noon Selling Models

Starting off with homegrown and one of the first most popular marketplaces across UAE and Saudi Arabia, Noon offers two selling models for eCommerce businesses to choose from or use both at the same time for higher sales. The only condition Noon implements when you go with both the selling models is that of keeping separate inventory for each one of them.

1. Fulfilled By noon (FBN)

Fulfilled by noon or FBN allows sellers to deliver their products to the Noon storage facilities and take care of the next processes all from there. 

The entire process followed by FBN to enable faster, efficient and hassle-free service to your customers includes:

• Once FBN facility receives all the products, a thorough quality check is performed 
• Items that pass the quality check are then allocated locations in the noon fulfilment centre as per product type, size, expiry, etc.
• The FBN team takes care of the entire picking, packing and dispatch process once a purchase has been made. 
• To help you with every single update on your orders, there is a dedicated noon support team that manages, tracks and updates all your inventory and orders and ensures that your sales run smoothly. 
• Post dispatch, the FBN team handles all the customer queries and disputes regarding your product.
• For returns and cancellations, FBN keeps the products under its wing till you raise a return request from their  facility 
• Payments for each successful delivery is processed into your seller account on a weekly basis. 

While noon takes care of the complete cycle of your online sales, all you have to do is maintain pricing of your products and promote them as much as possible.  

How does noon Express help me?

FBN also renders special delivery benefits such as same-day delivery anywhere in Dubai for orders placed in the morning and for other regions in the UAE, it ensures that orders reach the customers within the next 24 hours of purchase. For orders placed in KSA, FBN allows easy dispatch and free delivery for orders above AED 100. 

These quick delivery options are a major governing factor for customer happiness and can help you acquire loyal and repeat shoppers.

Using the noon Express or FBN facility you can experience higher sales, focus more on developing your core business, and deploy cost-effective steps for better stability of your eCommerce business.

2. Cross-dock Back 2 Back (B2B)

Cross-dock Back 2 Back or B2B is the second selling model provided by noon that helps sellers do things as per their own convenience. 

With the Seller Back to Back selling model, you do not have to send your products anywhere and keep them in your own storage facility until an order is placed and you receive an email notification to confirm the same. 

Once you receive an update, the support team of noon follows a series of steps to ensure correct and timely deliveries of your orders to the customers. 

The major steps followed in the Crossdock selling model by noon include:

• Post requesting for stocks, the logistics team of noon, noon express collects your orders from your facility then brings it back to their own customer fulfilment centre
• In the noon fulfilment centre, all the products undergo Quality Checks and those that qualify the checks are then prepared for dispatch
• Once the order is dispatched from the noon facility, a confirmation on the same is communicated to you. 
• If an order is cancelled post it has reached the noon facility, the staff tries to reallocate the item to another customer order in line but if there is none, then the product is converted to FBN within the next 24-48 hour or returned back to you.

Even with the B2B selling model, you save big on most of the processes and only have to take care of the storage of your products while having full control of the pricing, quality and promotions of your items and be assured of the noon serviceability to provide your customers with the best shopping experience.

While you can choose either or both of the noon selling models, understanding the major difference between the two FBN and B2B selling models is important. 

Here is a tabular depiction of the most distinctive differences that the two selling models have.

No matter which of the two models you choose, noon allows you complete control over your products and works as an extended business model to help you make the right decisions and take your business to the next level.

Amazon Selling Models

The journey of a global marketplace, extremely popular and highly beneficial for sellers looking to start their eCommerce journey, Amazon began its operations in the Middle East by acquiring Souq.com in 2017 which was the biggest eCommerce platform in the region during that time. Post acquiring the platform for a whopping $580 million, Souq.com UAE became Amazon.ae in 2019 and Amazon.sa for Saudi Arabia in 2020. 

Souq.com now serves as the subsidiary of Amazon in the GCC region and allows thousands of sellers, retailers and brands to move their offline business online to sell on the biggest marketplace and experience a customer poll beyond any. 

Amazon allows sellers to choose their own fulfilment options, FBA or Fulfilled by Amazon, or unlike noon, it provides logistics assistance to businesses known as Amazon Easy Ship as well as Amazon Seller Flex that wish to ship their own products. 

1. Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA)

The most preferred and trusted choice of sellers, new as well as existing is the FBA or Fulfilled by Amazon selling model which is also popular amongst the shoppers as they receive assurance of good quality by Amazon for the products they purchase. 

With Amazon FBA your products need little to no assistance from you and are taken care of completely by the marketplace as soon as you have sent them to the Amazon warehouse. The complete structure of the FBA selling model consists of: 

• Keeping your products in the Amazon fulfilment centres across all regions with a huge storage capacity to eliminate the chances of your products going out of stock.
• Amazon allows the flexibility to pay on the go, as in paying for only the storage space that your products acquire in the facility with no extra costs on shipping.
• Picking, packing and shipping of all your products from these Amazon fulfilment facilities 
• Amazon takes care of all customer services right from resolving queries to giving tracking updates, handling disputes, etc.
• As FBA is present in almost all regions, your customer pool expands internationally and helps you achieve greater sales
• With Fulfillment by Amazon, customers trust your products more and you save a lot on marketing expenses, manual involvement, shipping charges and more.
• Amazon also handles all your return orders and ensures that you experience minimum losses.

Apart from these very cost-effective features by Amazon, your products also get to be featured in exercises like Lightning deals, getting free shipping etc., that attract more shoppers to your products. 

Amazon also gives out a very special ‘Buy Box’ feature for sellers or brands that reach a certain level of popularity and repeated order rates. 

2. Amazon Easy Ship

For businesses that can or want to take care of their inventory all by themselves, Amazon offers another selling model in which all it does is provide assistance for shipping products whenever your products are purchased from the platform. 

Amazon Easy Ship enables sellers to store and pack their products in their own warehouses or storage facilities and then sends in an associate from Amazon’s identified courier partners to the seller’s location to take up the packed orders and deliver it to the customer while charging a small delivery fee. 

Sellers who want their customers to have a faster and more accurate delivery experience as well as to have accurate shipment tracking information, choose the Amazon Easy Ship model that offers a number of advantages including:

• Option to schedule orders for pick up at your one convenience all through the day
• Undivided attention to core business without the distraction of handling customers
• Live tracking for orders and real-time updates on its location 
• Allowing easier and faster modes of serviceability to enhance customer satisfaction
• Availability of Cash on Delivery or COD options.

Although the AES selling model offers more control to the sellers, it has some restrictions too. One of them is the unavailability of the feature throughout the GCC region and the second is the fact that certain product types such as heavy or bulky items cannot be delivered through the Amazon Easy Ship program.

3. Amazon Seller Flex

Especially beneficial for local sellers and logistics service providers, the Amazon seller flex model allows the best last-mile delivery services around UAE as the Flex Seller Model allows independent logistics partners to pick up bundles of items from local Amazon warehouses and then deliver them to a specific address provided to them by Amazon.

The sellers have complete control over storage, packaging, time of dispatch etc., and can ship more orders with multiple Flex drivers to specific locations at a time. This model also helps these local logistics companies to make maximum wage delivering Amazon packages in their chosen and well-known locations.

4. Amazon Global Selling

With Amazon Global Selling, sellers can reach customers beyond borders as it allows them to sell internationally from anywhere. Over 200 countries fall under the International Selling of Amazon Global Selling model including the USA, Canada, Mexico & Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, UK, UAE, Turkey, Japan, Singapore & Australia.  

Amazon Global Selling makes export of products from one region or country to another seamless and offers sellers a wide range of customers across the globe. 

Apart from these selling models of Amazon that are being used around the GCC region, there is one more model rendered by the platform across the world to further help sellers choose the right option suitable for their eCommerce business and then proceed to expand sales and provide greater customer experience. The other selling model of Amazon is:

5. Amazon Self Ship FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant)

Quite popular in regions like India, the Amazon Self Ship model allows sellers to fulfil orders themselves without the involvement of any third-party entity. 

Using this model, sellers get to produce as well as store all their inventory at a single place in their own facility, pack and ship items on their own which guarantees more cost savings and faster deliveries.

Although Amazon Self Ship model is yet to hit the GCC eCommerce market, if you plan on choosing any of the other selling models currently provided by Amazon, i.e., Amazon FBA, Amazon Easy Ship, Amazon Flex or Amazon Global Selling, you can always be clear on the fact that the level of trust customers from all around the world have on Amazon, you can fully expect a rapid release in your demands, order volumes and fulfilments to find yourself climbing the ladders of success with your business.

Start selling on Amazon & Noon today with the right solutions to support you!

Different selling models, tons of options to choose from within each model, various advantages and disadvantages, and of course the possibility to onboard on any of these platforms, let alone both can all be a little intimidating if you do it all by yourself.

But with a highly knowledgeable and robust technology solutions platform that provides:

• Seamless integrations to 100+ biggest eCommerce players including Amazon & noon
• Automates all inventory, order and warehouse operations from a single panel
• Enhances productivity and overall profitability 
• Provides real-time updates to you on all business operations

and a lot more so that you can sit back and gather all your focus into expanding your business and providing the best in class customer service.

Unicommerce is leading supply chain technology solutions platform that excels in empowering your business to integrate on both of these platforms if not one along with 200+ other leading e-commerce service providers including logistics providers, ERP & POS systems, etc., to make the entire e-commerce journey for your business truly simplified. 

Learn: Automate your Business with 220+ Stable E-commerce Integrations!

With Unicommerce, over 20,000 businesses have accomplished the true potential of their business and have unlocked the best possible strategies to experience: 

• 35% Increased Sales Growth
• 25% Reduced Inventory Cost
• 30% Lower Manpower Cost
• 20% Reduced Order Return

Don’t wait up, allow your business to explore new opportunities and increase your profitability with the customized and tremendously impactful solutions of Unicommerce. 

Explore our platforms:

1. Integrated logistics management system
2. Automated payment reconciliation system

Read how Businesses are growing with Unicommerce –
1. How Dubai-based Vidiwell achieved 230% sales order growth in 7 months in the Middle East
2. 99.99%+ Fulfillment Rate for the Kuwait-based Platform Toyfull
2. Oryvo Achieved Maximized Efficiency and Minimized Workload

The post Selling Models of Amazon & Noon: How to Handle Selling? appeared first on unicommerce.com.

The introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will mark a significant move in the field of tax reforms in India. By amalgamating major Central and State taxes into a single tax class, it would abolish double taxation in a simpler way and object the creation of a common national market. GST will replace all indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Central and state governments.

As GST would be applicable on “supply” of goods or services as against the present concept of tax on the manufacture of goods, sale of goods and provision of services, same will lead to many benefits not only for the consumers in terms of a reduction in the overall tax burden on goods, which is currently estimated to be around 25%-30% but also it will mark significant leads in Trade.

GST will be categorized in two components with State and Centre as separate stakeholders. Components of Dual GST:

Out of 7 Union Territories*, UTGST is applied on only 5 of them, however, SGST can be applied in Union Territories such as New Delhi and Puducherry, since both have their individual legislatures, and can be considered as “States” as per GST process.

E-commerce organizations (Sellers & Marketplaces) are looking forward to the implementation of GST expecting high clarity, and dismissal of state specific rules and multiple Taxes.

*List Of 5 Union Territories considered under GST:

1. Andaman and Nicobar
2. Lakshadweep
3. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
4. Daman and Diu
5. Chandigarh

Sellers and Marketplaces have to meet basic requirements to run business post GST implementation.

Know more about: Plug ‘N’ Play Accounting System Integration

Below are the mandatory requirement from Sellers and marketplaces which will be implemented in Uniware to help sellers in smooth and issue free order processing from 1^st July, 2017:

1- GST Number/ Registration:

All sellers mandatorily require to register under GST. So now even e-commerce sellers whose aggregate turnover does not exceed the threshold limit for registration will still have to compulsorily register to sell online. 

Key Points for Registration:

• If a seller has business with same PAN in different states is now expected to register separately for each of the States where he has a business operation.
• If a seller has two business verticals in a state, he/she may obtain a separate registration for each business vertical.
• If seller has two different businesses with two TIN numbers in the same state, he can have common GST registration for both.

As per this mandatory requirement, seller has to update GST No. in Facility, Billing Party, Customer and vendor for order processing from 1^st July in Uniware. Validation of GSTIN will be done using state code & PAN rules which will be already stored in backend to validate the GSTIN filled by the supplier.

2- HSN Number:

HSN Code stands for Harmonized System Nomenclature. HSN number is mainly used for classifying goods to compute Value Added Tax in India. Now, same classification code (HSN) is adopted for classifying Goods and Service Tax for GST as well.

Under GST, the HSN code would be utilized by a taxable individual for classification of goods , but the format of HSN code will be based on the taxpayer’s turnover. When preparing Tax Invoice for GST, the HSN number must be mentioned on GST Tax invoice and also to be declared while filing the GST returns.

To mention HSN codes for the products will also become mandatory for sellers in Uniware as well. Same information will be saved under item type (products) created in Uniware.

3- Issue of Tax Invoice Under GST: 

Every registered person is required to issue a tax invoice at the time of supply of taxable goods/services and the invoice shall contain following particulars:-

Supply of Goods/Services

1. Description of goods/services;
2. Quantity of goods;
3. Value of goods/services;
4. Tax charged on Value of goods/services; and
5. Such other particulars as may be prescribed.

Further the invoice shall be prepared in triplicate, in case of supply of goods and duplicate in case of supply of services. Uniware will provide all above required changes and number of invoices as per supply of goods through its portal.

Below mentioned is the detailed information for the way of issuing Invoice after GST is implemented, which will be provided by Uniware as well. Invoices generated through Uniware will also have the prescribed format as described above.

Note:  Fetching of Marketplace Invoices:

Unicommerce would not only provide GST ready invoice templates for both B2B and B2C transactions, but also overhaul the architecture to fetch invoices from marketplaces, instead of pushing the invoices to marketplaces, wherever required. For example, Unicommerce is moving to the new version of APIs in case of Flipkart to be able to fetch their invoices, as well as pass on the HSN code to the marketplace etc. to comply with the GST regime.

4- Credit Note:

 Credit note will be reflected in the monthly return in which such notes have been issued.

When a Credit note should be issued:

When a registered dealer issues a tax invoice and in these invoices the tax amount is greater than the tax return filed for that period, seller has to issue credit note to the partner business owner containing such particulars as may be prescribed.

In Uniware as well, credit notes will be provided for Sale Order, Inter-state Gatepass and purchase order returns in the prescribed format set by Government bodies.

For returns filing post July 1, 2017 credit note is required only if GST was applied on the corresponding invoice.

5- Return filing Process Under GST:

 Monthly billing will constitute filing of all below mentioned forms on prescribed dates:

• Form GSTR-1: Upload all invoice-wise details of supplies to registered taxable persons and aggregate value of supplies to unregistered persons made through the e-commerce platform must be provided. (By 10th).
• Form GSTR-2A: The aggregate amount of tax collected by e-commerce operators (Tax collected at Source or TCS)** in the previous month will be auto populated, based on Form GSTR-8*** filed by the e-commerce operators. (On 11th).
• Form GSTR-2: The details of tax collected by the e-commerce operator can be accepted or modified in Form GSTR-2 (On 15th).
• Form GST ITC-1: Any discrepancy in supplies furnished with supplies reported by the e-commerce operator is made available to a supplier. The discrepancy must be rectified in the return for the month in which it is communicated.If not rectified and the value of supplies furnished by the operator is more than the value furnished by the supplier, the differential amount along with interest will be added to the tax liability of the supplier for the succeeding month.(On 21st).

**tax collected by e-commerce operators (Marketplaces) – Every e-commerce operator should collect tax @ 2% of net value of taxable supplies, out of payments to suppliers (sellers) supplying goods or services through their portals.

***GSTR-8– Form GSTR-8 will be filed by every e-Commerce operator (marketplace), who is required to collect tax at source (TCS) under GST electronically through the https://www.gst.gov.in/.

 6- Compensation Cess-

A new cess with the name “GST Compensation Cess” for first 5 years on some specified items will be implemented which will be credited to the GST Compensation Fund. The need for this cess rise to compensate the manufacturing states, as GST is a destination cum consumption based tax, so in order to compensate states from this kind of probable loss this will be implemented along with CGST, SGST and IGST.

Refer below link to know the Compensation Cess rates defined by government as defined in Central Board of Excise and Customs: CBEC-Compensation Cess

Uniware will reflect this cess as on the Invoices as well.

7-Tax Calculation as per consumption of Goods supplied by Supplier Under GST:

Refer below table reflecting the tax to be calculated as per location of supplier and place of Supply, we have tried to cover all possible conditions containing all the calculations:

Note: Go Live date for these changes will be (Jul 1, 2017) in Uniware and if prepaid order is received on Jun 30 invoice is printed on Jul 1, GST will not be applied in this scenario. However, if same order will be COD, then GST will be applied.

8- Impact of GST on Warehouse Management Processes:

GST regime will not only affect the e-commerce operators and the sellers but will also have important effects on warehousing management processes.

As per current tax regime, there is no uniformity and ease in tax implementation across various warehouse management, logistics and supply chain management processes. Effect of taxation at every step of these processes majorly affect the utilization of available resources. In present scenario, the location of warehouse is generally chosen to evade the taxes and reduce the logistics costs.

With GST, warehousing processes will also become uniform with the introduction of common market for Goods and services, breaking the state barriers and borders. This will lead to reduction in number of warehouses, and more organized warehouses enhancing the overall efficiency.

Unicommecre’s warehouse management system, Uniware is also ready to handle all warehouse processes such as inbound, outbound etc. as per new GST rules. All such changes will reflect in intra state/ interstate transfer documents, such as Gatepass.

To sum up, the below table describes the compliance requirements for GST regime and how Uniware will help the sellers in incorporating the changes at their end:

Conclusion:

Taxation on e-commerce transactions in the current regime is confusing as different states have different levies of tax and there is no clarity on Taxes levied on goods and services. The GST regime will now bring uniformity in the taxation process for e-commerce platforms and sellers.

• Seamless availability of input credit will result in reduced cost of operations for suppliers such as warehousing, logistics, marketplace commission, etc. as they will now be able to take the credit of tax paid on inputs, which was until now adding up to their cost.
• Unified common national market in India for the goods and services, regardless of whether they are sold at physical stores or online. GST will bring greater access to the customers across the nation for sellers.
• Prevent cascading of taxes as Input Tax Credit will be available on goods and services at every stage of supply.
• Simplified and automated procedures for various processes such as registration, returns, refunds, tax payments, etc.

As a supplier, it is important to plan for the GST regime. Awareness of the compliance requirements under GST like registration for GST number, documentation, filing of returns etc., planning and preparation for entering into GST module of taxation will ensure that suppliers can capitalize on the new era of e-commerce in India.

Discover Unicommerce’s Success Story with Leading Brands –

• Mamaearth Attained 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate
• Dhani Healthcare Streamlined Operations Across 166 Facilities
• Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in Sales Volume
• Plum Goodness Streamlined Inventory Operations with 69% Growth Rate in Sales
• Marico Achieved 100% Growth in Sales
• Bulbul Simplified Selling Across 200+ Vendors
• Chumbak Lifestyle Boost Sales Across 58+ Retail Stores
• TCNS Achieved 9X Growth in Sales
• Hamilton Housewares Attained 96%+ Pick Accuracy Rate
• Vidiwell Health Achieved 230% Sales Order Growth

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