eCommerce in the Middle East has seen rapid growth with more than 45% of shoppers beginning their purchase journey online. With the rise of accessibility to smartphones, high-speed internet and an overall choice of shopping from the comfort of their homes, the percentage of shoppers shopping online has increased in the eCommerce ecosystem.

If you are a retailer and selling only offline in the current times you may face the issue of selling in-store Inventory first due to the low footfall in malls and stores as more and more shoppers are choosing to shop from the comfort of their homes, without going through the hassle of stepping out. And so, by going online, you will not only be able to rotate the stocks on a regular basis but also increase the sales, improving your overall unit economics.

To make the switch from offline to online, this is the right time because not only will you find superior assistance in making the transition, but you will find a rather larger audience to make your mark on.

Going by the reports of Go-Gulf, online shopping is shaping up to be a big deal in the Middle Eastern countries with the biggest amount of shoppers coming from UAE and KSA at 60% followed by Egypt at 43%.

48% of UAE and KSA consumers explore hundreds of online shopping sites to know the price range and variations in products to get the right ideas and inspirations before making a purchase.

These numbers show a positive future for eCommerce in these regions and that makes up for a crucial factor to strengthen your online presence even more than that offline.

This article has been designed to help you make the right decision with a complete understanding of all the aspects you need to consider before and after making the switch. Read on to get useful insights on how to become a top eCommerce seller in the Middle East.

How to Take Your Retail Business Online?

If we look at the statistics, the audiences of the Middle East region accounts for 60% in terms of internet usage and has the highest social media engagement of 99% in the UAE and Qatar alone.

The consumers of today prefer more options of buying, delivery, payments, etc making it necessary for a retailer to not just limit their audiences to offline channels where the only way to make a purchase is by visiting the store in person, making payments and then taking the product home by themselves

Incorporating online selling creates a more flexible environment for your customers and that has become a major factor in deciding your overall profits and growth as a business. 

But even if you decide to take the route to online selling, the biggest concern you as a retailer will face will be about the right ways and strategy to start your eCommerce journey and what all you’ll need to be prepared for in the process?

Here are the top 5 requirements to sell online in the Middle East that will help your business make the shift, start the sales and maintain growth

1. Website Creation and Marketplace Integrations

Numbers show that over 56% of shoppers prefer to search for products on different marketplaces and or on the own website of a brand so it is a fundamental step towards building your eCommerce business.

If you wish to kick start selling without waiting up for too long, you can list your products on various marketplaces such as Amazon, Noon, Jollychic etc., but it is always better to have your own website while being present on these platforms as well because then you will have multiple options to cater to your audiences with and will not be restricting your online presence. 

Platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento., etc can help you create a unique website and promote your business in the way you want to. They provide you with hundreds of templates or personalized formats to choose from along with many other plugins to ease your process of selling online. 

2. Personalized Shopping Experience

Going by the reports of Go-Gulf more than 52% of shoppers in the Middle East buy products based on their popularity on social media platforms, making it essential for an eCommerce business to give their customers a sense of personalization when recommending or pitching products to sell them.

Over 42% of customers in the region prefer to shop from platforms that provide them with options based on their previous purchases or interests in a more personalized manner. To ensure that your customers connect well with your products, work with local language experts to revamp your website to have an Arabic version.

You can change the interface of your website as per the Arabic language, show more local faces and products preferred by the audiences, etc.

3. Payment Gateway

Once you have built your website or listed your products in any of the popular marketplaces and carts, the next big thing to ensure is the safety and security of your customers when they purchase products from you and this can be done only with a trusted Payments partner. 

In the Middle East, 62% of the shoppers still prefer Cash on Deliveries due to the very reasons of theft and fraud but with more and more advanced security features being added to several Payment Gateways, users have slowly started to place orders using credit or debit cards, prepaid, wallets etc.

4. ERP and Accounting Systems

Not only for payments but having a stronger system than can evaluate your total earnings, keep track of all payments and provide you with useful information on your accounting processes is also necessary. 

These are no tasks to be done manually and require precision and attention to detail which cannot be achieved fully using manual efforts.

Apart from these, the VAT system in the Middle East, effective from January 1st, 2018 makes it even more crucial to have a robust ERP and accounting system onboarded to handle your taxes, better understand the VAT laws and be aligned with government regulations.

Utilizing the expertise of technology, you can provide your business with the right tools to maintain, manage and keep records of all your payments, get error-free calculations on profits and always be one step ahead of your competitors.

5. Logistics and Delivery

When all the shopping is done and the payments are made, the next thing to take care of is the delivery of products on time and without errors.

Shipping products on time and making sure they reach the last mile is what will set your eCommerce business apart from all others. Onboarding third-party logistics and shipping providers that have strong local ties to ensure your orders can reach the farthest of the end, will help you create a happier and bigger pool of customers.

Look for partners that provide multiple options for delivery such as same day, next day, etc. This will allow your customers the convenience of getting orders at their own time.

Your eCommerce platform will need to have complete automation of services to tackle the demands, sales, deliveries and much more, all at the same time and that can be achieved only when you have all of these 5 crucial aspects in place to ensure a seamless transition, better management and overall higher profits for your business.

Establish your Business With the Right Solutions!

Accomplishing all 5 of these highly important aspects to take your business online may be difficult if you do not have the right support by your side but with Unicommerce you’ll be able to check all the boxes and scale up your eCommerce business in the most successful way possible.

Unicommerce is a leading supply chain technology solutions provider that ensures complete simplification of all your eCommerce needs be it managing your inventory, orders, warehouse, returns and much more!

Unicommerce has been catering to hundreds of sellers, retailers and brands emerge as thriving eCommerce businesses and create new opportunities of success for them. 

To know more about our services, technology solutions or to get a free demo, speak to one of our experts right now.

Start your eCommerce journey with us today!

Request a Demo

The post Start a Profitable Ecommerce Business in Gulf Countries: 5 Requirements to Begin Today appeared first on unicommerce.com.

As the Corona outbreak has forced consumers to rely on the services of online platforms to fulfil demands, there has been a steep slope of changing consumer behaviour towards purchasing goods right from their homes and this trend is sure to last as the world is now adapting to new practises of strong hygiene and social distancing. 

Due to these, eCommerce businesses can expect a huge surge in demands, customer queries and expectations of faster deliveries. However, restrictions imposed by the lockdown resulted in severe on ground disruptions for logistics services, along with the migration of many labourers back to their hometown forcing the e-commerce players to revisit their operations and reduce dependence on manual tasks. 

For all eCommerce sellers to be able to address these challenges, it is highly necessary to incorporate important tools and technologies that can enable automation of services to ensure no more delays in business operations

To be able to address these requirements, we have compiled the list of some of the most useful tools to help you focus on potential solutions to improve profitability, increase productivity and handle operations during this time enabling a better future for your eCommerce business.

Shopify

Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform with 1M+ brands and businesses across 175 countries running their eCommerce store-fronts on it.

Shopify enables retailers to move their business online to focus on their online growth. 

With plug-and-play themes to choose from, the platform enables businesses in developing store designs, management of products and collections, enablement of marketing campaigns, etc.

Businesses can easily automate manual tasks such as order processing, marketing campaigns, analytics and reporting, customer communication and launch any new feature or integration with third-parties as well. 

With Shopify, your business can incur low development and resource costs along with zero maintenance costs all of which can help scale up profits, proving for this platform to be a topmost technology to onboard in your business. 

Razorpay (Thirdwatch)

Razorpay Thirdwatch provides an in-depth AI/ML based solution for eCommerce companies to tackle Return to origin (RTO) orders and Cash on Delivery (COD) fraud, which allows businesses to increase their operational efficiency and reduce losses.

With surge in demands, cancellations or RTOs increase as well and for businesses to maintain a profitable flow, it becomes crucial to focus on restricting these returned/cancelled orders to cut back on any extra costs of shipping. 

Thirdwatch analyses over 200 parameters about each eCommerce order placed in near real-time to recognize various patterns like address issues, fraud behaviour, suspicious email IDs/phone numbers, impulse purchase behaviour etc 

These checks enable businesses to prioritize genuine orders for fulfilment, management of undeliverable orders, and to flag out suspicious/fraud orders making this platform a highly essential tool for your business.

Yellow Messenger

Yellow Messenger is a leading conversational AI platform that caters to over 250+ enterprises across the globe, handling over a billion conversations quarterly.

The platform allows businesses to directly reach out to their customers via their preferred channels, eliminating the need for aggregators. This is especially crucial in these unprecedented times where digital commerce is on the rise and consumers are looking for an exceptional brand experience.

Yellow Messenger enables enterprises to leverage WhatsApp Business accounts to drive end-to-end eCommerce and support. The advantage here is that with a channel like WhatsApp that has a pre-aggregated audience, you can easily start with a basic WhatsApp Business account with little backend requirements. This enables you to kickstart impactful conversations with your customers without having to wait for all the pieces of the selling ecosystem to fall into place, making it one of the fastest ways to interact with your customers.

In short, conversational AI in conjunction with a communication channel like WhatsApp opens up a low-investment, high-reward channel for direct commerce

ClickPost 

ClickPost is a logistics intelligence platform which helps eCommerce companies rapidly optimize their operations, logistics costs in order to improve customer experience.

With AI-based selection of courier partners and pre-integrations with 100+ courier services, the platform ensures lower logistics costs for businesses with the ability to onboard partners within a day making the entire process seamless. 

Clickpost allows real-time tracking of orders with constant updates via email, texts, etc. to reduce manual efforts and increase accuracy of deliveries all of which lower the rate of RTOs and hence an improved customer experience.

ClickPost helps companies automate their tracking & customer communication to allow better customer experience and enhanced satisfaction making it an extremely useful tool for your business.

Payoneer

Trusted by more than 4 million customers, this cross-border payments platform empowers small businesses, marketplaces and enterprises to grow their global commerce, serving around 200 countries and territories.

Payoneer’s technology, compliance, operations and banking infrastructure empowers businesses by delivering a suite of services that includes cross-border payments, tax solutions and risk management.  

Businesses get the option to instantly connect with customers around US, UK, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia and Mexico with accounts in multiple currencies having the freedom to receive payments in different formats including Credit Card, Debit card, etc, view payment history and receive notifications about key financial transactions, special offers, and other account activities.

Payoneer allows you to tap emerging opportunities and expand to new markets making it a necessary tool for your business.

Shadowfax

One of India’s highly reliable last-mile delivery platforms with a network of more than 25,000 delivery partners, more than 5000 vans active across 65 cities in India,  Shadowfax is a cross-category crowdsourced logistics platform offering tech-driven solutions towards optimizing partner efficiency and providing a cost-effective express logistics solution for eCommerce, restaurants, FMCG, pharma as well as online & offline retailers. 

Shadowfax ensures deliveries even to remote areas with an omnichannel offering specifically designed for essential businesses to help them service the complete city within 24 hours.

The logistics platform allows best-in-class rider serviceability, multi-modal delivery options via vans or bikes, and flexible delivery schedules like hyperlocal in the vicinity, next day in farther areas. Apart from this, Shadowfax has exclusive tie-ups with Indian Railways, airlines and leading trucking operators to maintain an uninterrupted intercity supply of goods

All of these features make the delivery provider a profoundly important technology for your business to have in order to increase business profitability. 

Shiprocket

Shiprocket is India’s leading eCommerce logistics aggregator, serving 40,000 active Direct to Consumer sellers with its lowest shipping costs, widest pin code reach and dedicated customer service. Providing bulk shipping rates with no minimum order requirements.

The company optimizes existing logistics infrastructure using data and AI to offer seamless shipping solutions for every online seller. Shiprocket is partnered with as many as 17 expert courier partners enabling sellers to ship products across 26,000+ pin codes in India and to over 220 countries globally.

With Shiprocket’s Logistics Aggregator Model, Courier Recommendation Engine (CORE), Shipping Rate Calculator and more such services sellers get to choose the right courier partners for each shipment, cost efficiency for the given pickup and delivery pin codes and transparency about the relevant shipping costs for their delivery areas.

Shiprocket provides better coordination with the buyers according to their shipping requirements and ensures a higher chance of delivery by optimizing cost per shipments making it a highly recommended tool for workflow automation for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). 

Unicommerce 

Unicommerce has been simplifying supply chain operations for 10,000+ eCommerce sellers, retailers, and brands by automating their operations across online & offline sales channels.

A one-stop solution for all eCommerce needs, the platform provides integration or has partnership across all domains of the eCommerce ecosystem. The solutions are designed to benefit eCommerce businesses by enabling sustainable operations that result in growth, cost efficiency, and an overall increase in productivity.

Unicommerce enables processes such as multichannel order, inventory and returns management, advanced warehouse management, dropship fulfilment solution, omnichannel selling across 40+ online marketplaces, website platforms, offline stores and much more.

With 30+ pre-integrated Logistics providers, and 10+ ERP & POS systems, Unicommerce provides a single source of various technologically backed solutions to increase productivity for all business operations making it a top requirement for your eCommerce business.

In Conclusion 

These tools and technologies can help you eliminate any more obstructions and lack of services that may put your business at risk.

The effects of Coronavirus have given way to new trends and practices indicating how technology will take over and a restricted approach to manual dependency on things is going to drive the way eCommerce operates henceforth and so it becomes necessary for your business to incorporate high-end services to quickly tackle losses and bring back your productivity and profitability that will ensure a better future for your business.

For queries, request a call back!!

The post eCommerce Essential Technologies & Tools: Increase Productivity of Supply Chain Operations Today appeared first on unicommerce.com.