In UAE, the retail sector is transforming rapidly to the ecommerce platform rather than traditional shop concept. Consumers in UAE are more comfortable buying staff from online rather than physically visiting the retail shop. It saves their energy, time and money. On one hand, e-commerce sales are poised to reach $28 billion by 2021, while on the other hand, traditional stores continue to struggle.

These online shoppers are increasing day by day. Because they prefer their time and saving cost by buying things from online. Even the most prominent retailers have had to adopt ecommerce platforms, such as establishing presence on online retail marketplaces like Amazon, Noon, Homebox etc. advertising on social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and offering online sales and hassle free home delivery. E-commerce’s prompt delivery and hassle-free shopping experience has changed market dynamics and consumer expectations especially in UAE.

According to the Alpen Capital report, “The GCC’s two largest e-commerce markets–the UAE and Saudi Arabia–are expected to continue leading the region, cumulatively accounting for over 79 percent of the region’s total e-commerce sales by 2021. The report states that customers prefer buying online by digitisation trends, rising awareness of e-commerce benefits (discounts, offers, sale, etc.), increasing millennial and expatriate population, government initiatives, launch of secured payment gateways, and improving delivery channels.”

So how can you set your successful e-commerce business in the UAE? Here are a few tips:

Tips#1: Bringing Your Business Online through E-Commerce Website: You don’t need to be afraid of using an ecommerce website if you are a non technical guy. It’s so easy to maintain. You can put all your products on that ecommerce website with images, prices, descriptions, categories, offers, cart, checkout and easy payment method for your customers. Then you can provide your ecommerce website link to your customers through whatsapp. You don’t need to rush to your store, just sit anywhere, operate your business with a mobile in your hand. A smart ecommerce website will  save your business 2021.You can also place your ecommerce website link on your facebook page and instagram page. A study shows by bringing your business online your sales grow higher, customers start to order online. Comparatively your sales will  grow higher to 120%. You don’t need to maintain my account books, no need of many staff, no need to print brochures. Your simple ecommerce website will save you a lot of business. 

Tips#2: On-Demand & Easy Point-of-Sale: Your point-of-sale system should help customers engage with the e-commerce platform, browse and view your products, and purchase at their convenience. Make your product’s presentation more eye catchy with lucrative offers and taglines. Offer personalized services such as a saved wishlist and an order history that allows consumers to conveniently compare and reorder to consumers.

Tips#3: Integrated AI and Selling Reports: Your online shop has the best feature name “Artificial Intelligence” whereas the traditional shop doesn’t have this technology. That’s why they are struggling to gain more customers and profit these days.  You can utilize AI tools to gather, study, and personalize the shopping experience from beginning to end. Integrate AI to create an efficient way to analyse consumers’ browsing and shopping habits. These will help you identify which products are more popular to your clients, which clients are browsing your online store. So that you can send them a newsletter thus increasing your sales and brand awareness.

Tips#4: Payment Flexibility and Security: As the UAE government initializes many security tools to make the online payment more trusted and secured, your customer can easily make you the payment ranging from credit cards and digital wallets to cash and on-delivery payment. Whereas traditional shops cannot offer these payment flexibility to their customers.

Tips#5: Multiple Shipping Vendors: Offer a variety of choices to help meet the needs of customers in different phases of the purchase process. For example, offering free shipping that may take a few days longer along with faster shipping options for an extra fee attracts those who want to save as well as those who want their purchases sooner.

Tips#6: E-commerce Localized for UAE: Ensure your website has an Arabic version. Don’t just translate your content, but go beyond to provide a personalized experience for Arabic speakers, such as changing your Arabic website’s orientation to left-to-right. Offering localised content in Arabic will be a key differentiator in the GCC market.

Tips#7: Sell Through Multiple Channels: Your own Online Store offers you unlimited sources of earning profit and generates more sales. Your online store enables you to sell through as many channels as possible such as your own e-commerce platform, third-party marketplaces such as Noon, Amazon, and Alibaba.

It is crucial to build your e-commerce platform to take advantage of shifting trends and dynamics in the retail sector. As the UAE continues to lead the market in the Middle East, your multi-channel e-commerce platform could be uniquely a successful business story.