How to Start an Amazon-style Marketplace in Saudi Arabia UAE?

Saudi Arabia is the fastest-growing region for the growth of the E-commerce industry. Despite the high eCommerce readiness index, Saudi Arabia never experienced an ample amount of growth in online sales for the longest time.

So, it is growing at a rate two times faster than the Asia Pacific. It’s a very good time to start your eCommerce Marketplace in Saudi Arabia.

Let’s have a look down to know how you can start your eCommerce Marketplace in Saudi Arabia. Also, you’ll get to know the benefits of focusing on the Marketplace in Saudi Arabia.

If you are planning to make an entry into the eCommerce Marketplace in Saudi Arabia, then you must have to know the scope and the reason to focus on the same.

As we know in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is one of the most populous and wealthiest nations. Also, it is popularly known as the heart of the Islamic and Arab world.

Nowadays Saudi Arabia is becoming the new commercial hub representing the largest economy and economic opportunities in the GCC.

There are a variety of investment opportunities for potential investors who are keen to invest in Saudi Arabia. And one of the sectors is e-commerce.

Saudi Arabia is expanding the quality of life along with a young and skilled workforce which helps a lot in boosting the e-commerce marketplace in Saudi Arabia.

If you have the plan to start an eCommerce Marketplace in Saudi Arabia, then in that case, you’ll be needing various components:

Web Hosting Service

Hosting is one of the most significant components for setting up an eCommerce marketplace. Check the below-mentioned list of cloud-based service through which the hosting can be achieved:

• Amazon AWS Stack
• Google Cloud
• Microsoft Azure StackSSL, wherein the requirement arises of the cloud support team, which Webkul Offers.

Domain Purchase

A domain name must be a unique name that signifies the registration of the domain to claim space on the internet. This registered name is used by the eCommerce business owner on the websites as well as in e-mail.

Inventory Management

Inventory/Stock management is the most crucial part when it comes to setting up a marketplace. Usually, the stock of goods and services is massive in the marketplace.

Thus, a good inventory management system is the must required feature of a marketplace. If it is not managed a proper way then it can become the biggest challenge to manage the records of inventory depleting and incrementing.

Payment

The main part of any online store is the payment procedure. It must be secure, safe, super convenient for the users. Any eCommerce business achieves success when it supports multiple payment gateways to allow an easy transaction.

Shipping

Shipment is the most crucial part of any eCommerce business. It has to be managed in a proper way with proper guidance.

There are various shipping providers available in the market. Select the shipping method as per your business requirement. Also, that best suits your customers.

Above are a few of the common considerations, if you are planning to start an e-commerce marketplace. No matter in which Geo-location you will start your online business.

However, if you wish to extend your marketplace to an advanced marketplace, then you can have a look at Webkul’s Plugins for the best solution, refer here.

Also, if you want to have your marketplace for a specific location, then you can opt for a Hyperlocal marketplace. Let’s discuss more hyperlocal.

Hyperlocal is information oriented around a well-defined area/community. Its have the primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that area/community.

There are two major dimensions of the hyperlocal have. One is geography and another one is time. The content of hyperlocal targets people or entities that are located within a well-defined area. Generally on the scale of a street, neighborhood, community, or city.

The hyperlocal eCommerce system helps the users to connect with local stores of particular geographical regions. It helps to give customers a better shopping experience by providing them fast delivery of their purchase.

Moreover, the Hyperlocal Marketplace is the next generation in transforming e-commerce for both the marketplace sellers and the customers.

Hyperlocal has become the most popular and effective marketplace these days. so let us discuss some of the benefits of the hyperlocal marketplace:

• The hyperlocal marketplace acts as a boon for local stores.
• It helps in giving a better shopping experience to the customers.
• Also, it helps in the fast delivery of purchased products to the door-steps of the customers.
• Its features help to increases sales and revenue which helps retailers to grow their business.

The hyperlocal eCommerce system helps the consumers to connect with the nearby stores. This will be helpful especially in particular geographical regions. It gives a better shopping experience to the consumers.

The Hyperlocal Marketplace is the next generation in transforming e-commerce for both the merchants and the consumers.

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits of the hyperlocal marketplace:

• The hyperlocal marketplace increases the demands for the local stores in a particular geographical region.
• It helps in providing a better shopping experience to the consumers.
• Enhances the delivery procedure of purchased products by the customers.
• Also, it helps in increasing the sales and revenue of the retailers to grow their business.

The payment is the most crucial and sensitive part of the eCommerce marketplace. However, let’s have a look here, how payment processing is done in the marketplace –

• Default Payment Flow
• Split Payment Flow

In the Default Payment Flow, the payment made by the customer for their purchases will go directly to the store owner’s bank account.

And then, it’s their responsibility to pay the respective sellers out of the e-commerce platform such as NEFT, cheque, bank transfer, etc.

Take a look at the below image, to have an idea about the payment flow in Default Payment Flow:

However, Split Payment Flow allows splitting the payment made by the customer as per the orders and commissions among multiple vendors. That too from the single transaction made by the customer.

Take a look at the below image, to have an idea about the payment flow in Split Payment:

In split payment, the payment will automatically split between the seller and the admin as per the commission set by the admin in the marketplace configuration.

The seller will receive the payment in its linked payment account concerning the payment gateway which the seller is using. And the admin will get the commission in their payment account.

After the payment, shipping is the most crucial part of any eCommerce business. The eCommerce owner needs to handle this part of online business with sensibility.

After the customer has done the payment of their order, they will look for their products to deliver on time.

Thus, Providing convenient shipping service to your customer is equally important as providing payment options.

Therefore, you need to choose logistic options that charge a reasonable price to ship the products depending on the size and weight of the product.

Moreover, the best shipping is required because the customers will not prefer to purchase from your store if the delivery is delayed. Also, if they find the shipping charges too high.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently in years has shown a very keen interest in online shopping.

Currently, there are about 12.95 million e-commerce users in the country with an expected increase of 6.34 million by 2022.

Internet Usage in Saudi Arabia: On average from a survey, Saudi Arabian desktop users spend 3 hrs 25 minutes per day on the internet, whereas mobile users spend 3 hours 51 minutes.

Now, before moving further, let’s have a look at the challenges which you’ll face in the Saudi Market. So, you’ll get ready for that.

• The cost of owning or creating an online store in Saudi Arabia is quite high, which is one of the most common challenges.
• In Saudi Arabia e-commerce market, one of the biggest problem and challenge is the lack of a large number of solutions that provide e-stores that fully supports the Arabic language.
• Also, one of the major challenges facing by e-commerce in Saudi Arabia is the logistics available in Saudi Arabia.
• The low prevalence of credit cards is also a part of the challenge for e-payment in Saudi Arabia, which also hinders the e-commerce growth in Saudi Arabia.

After the challenges, let’s have a look at some strategies which will turn into a benefit in the Saudi Market:

• Always try to distinguish yourself from your competitors is crucial for standing out and attracting new customers for your e-commerce business.
• Order fulfillment should be outsourced to a third-party fulfillment company so that it increases efficiency.
• Website owners must pay attention to digital marketing and also develop marketing plans and strategies that will help to make the online store a success.
• Choose the platform of your e-commerce store which supports the Arabic language as it is a must having feature for your website.
• Provide the mobile-based solution to the customers, it will ease their work and increase their interest as well.

Though English is widely spoken in Saudi Arabia. But we know Arabic is the official language of Saudi Arabia. And it requires RTL compatibility.

In order to target the audience from these places, the business must need to curb out the language barrier. Matter of fact multi-lingual is one of the biggest necessities of the eCommerce business.

This will help the business owner to stay ahead of competition, as it ease out the shopping experience of the customers.

RTL compatibility ensures that you are serving right to your customers in Saudi Arabia. And they are getting all they need in their native language.

RTL helps the eCommerce business to establish a better customer interaction.

Multi-currency improves the customer’s satisfaction by letting them transact and settle in their local currency. Also, keep the accounts for the different currencies used by different countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region.

If you are looking to spread your eCommerce business, then there has never been a better time to be in e-commerce in Saudi Arabia. It is a peak time that you invest in the Saudi market and look for booming growth.

In case of any query or more details, kindly contact us at https://webkul.uvdesk.com/.