E-commerce in the MENA region is picking up, a great number of websites selling goods online have been appearing as of late but it still not hasn’t reached its maximum potential a great article as to why can be found on Wamda. Anyone that has worked on an e-commerce website in the region (or at least in the UAE) knows that accepting payments online can quickly become a major pain. I have recently worked on a Ripe and found out first hand what is like to go through all the hoops of setting up a merchant account and talking to acquiring banks.

Interestingly I couldn’t find much information online about payment gateways in the UAE or the MENA, there are two good articles on Mizalla about payment gateway alternatives and payment gateways in Lebanon, and two really informative articles written by Omar Kassim (Founder of JadoPado) one on his personal blog and the other on the JadoPado’s blog. If your planning on launching your own e-commerce website in the UAE or would just like to know more about the requirements of accepting credit cards online I would definitely read Omar’s articles including the entire comments, because he goes into great details about charges and acquiring banks in the UAE.

Or you can skip all that and just go directly with the big players such as Paypal, Alertpay, Google Checkout, 2checkout etc… But I’ll tell you the major problem with those:

• Paypal doesn’t let you withdraw your money to your local bank account in the UAE it has to be a US based account, or UAE issued credit/debit card only. You can see what Paypal offers in different countries here.
• You can’t charge users in AED only in Dollars.
• Alertpay is a good alternative and lets you withdraw your funds to your bank account in the UAE but only in Dollars, Pound or Euro. But,
• When dealing with these companies you can’t pick up the phone and complain or have an actual relation with them especially from here in the UAE. When it comes to your money you want to be sure that in case anything happens you have someone to talk to.

So I have done some research and found the following payment gateways based here in the UAE:

1. CPSP: Owned and operated by CashU (Jabbar Group), I have a personal experience with them and would recommend them because they’re PCI-DSS compliant (industry standards). They have good support staff and a long list of big clients as well as an easy to use backend system to view/export your money.
2. Innovate: I have been in touch with them and they seem to be very responsive and helpful, however I haven’t worked with them but they seem professional through all my communications with them.
3. Prosum: If you can get a hold of the sales rep your my hero, I’ve managed to get a hold of him once and never again.
4. Etisalat: They offer the service but I’m not sure I’d recommend them, I couldn’t find a contact page or a number to call, but I’d leave them as a last resort option.
5. The Socially: I found these guys online and they seem to be based in Sharjah and the UK, but after communicating with them they made it clear that they work with partners in the UAE and then they stopped responding to my emails, so I would avoid them.
6. ShopMarkaz: This is not really a payment gateway, but I came across it in my search and thought it could be helpful. Its more of a marketplace where you can setup your own shop and start selling online. I have no clue how they’ve managed to do this in the UAE and how they’ve managed to overcome the trade licensing issue required to setup a merchant account and so on.
7. UAEnet: At first I wasn’t sure if they were based in the UAE because all the prices on their website is in USD, but a quick whois search revealed that they’re based in the UAE (or at least the contact person is). But I’ve sent several contact messages through the website and haven’t received anything back.

So there you have it, if you’re serious and would like to get more information I would start by contacting the first three providers they seem to be the most professional based here in the UAE. The pricing is almost similar with all of them, because they depend mostly on risk and monthly sales volume. And just a word of advice the prices with these guys are negotiable so make sure you don’t accept the first proposal.

If you have any more information or would like to know more get in touch with us.

It appears that Flip Media, a leading digital media agency in the MENA has been acquired by Publicis Groupe. The agency setup in 2003 by Martin Diessner and Dinesh Lalvani in Dubai will be folded into Leo Burnett Wordwide but will keep its name. Both founders will act as non-executive directors and Yousef Tuqan will remain the CEO reporting to Leo Burnett’s Middle East North Africa CEO, Raja Trad.

Flip has an impressive track record and very strong name in the MENA region, this move make sense for both parties Leo Burnett will have access to great online talent and Flip Media should get more business by becoming part of a global group (as an ex-Flipper I would hope so).

It will definitely be interesting to see how things may or may not change in the future, after all they’re no longer an independent agency anymore and things can get restricted when dealing with a global agency, but we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.

We got wind of some chatter that Joob is shutting down, the reasons are still unclear but it seems they’re financial. Joob, a company owned by the Jabbar Internet Group launched in April 2011 in the UAE and has been in Beta ever since.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Joob (which is maybe why they’re shutting down in the first place) its described on the Jabbar website as:

“Joob.com is an innovative online travel resource, available in Arabic and English. The name Joob.com comes from the Arabic word “Joob” which means to “roam” or “wander.”

By providing flight and hotel bookings at competitive rates, combined with a toll-free number linking to a call centre operating 24/7, state-of-the-art technology, and localised payment options for customers, Joob.com will redefine how leisure travel is purchased in the region.

The website offers extensive content in both Arabic and English, covering tailor-made destination information and travel products and services to help customers in the region to choose what is best for them.”

The site has officially gone into maintenance mode, we’re not sure if they’re planning on doing some changes or shutting down for good. But according to what we’ve been hearing it looks like things have gone bust for Joob. Which raises the following question what will happen to Sawty? Joob’s travel review website.

I’m just confused how a company backed by Jabbar could consider shutting down after a year of launching with no apparent marketing or advertising campaigns, was it bad planning, execution, management? Or simply a combination of all!

Whatever the reason I guess this will be a great learning experiences for Jabbar and hopefully they’ll come back with bigger and better localized products.

What are your thoughts? Let us know.

Bandoora.com is a music discovery website that aims to disrupt the current state of music in MENA region by presenting  independent and local Arab musicians. The site currently has over 250 Band/Musician covering over 32 Arab cities and providing 33 musical genre.

We had a quick chat with Abdullah Al-Khaldi the CEO and co-founder about bandoora, and he was kind enough to share with the us some information.

What is Bandoora.com?

The term “bandora” originally means Tomato in Arabic, we have it connected with music by the spelling it “BAND-oora”. Following up to the term; the website holds “Music from this neighborhood” as the main slogan to emphasis the localization of its content.

BANDoora.com is a music discovery website that aims to disrupt the current state of the Arab music by providing unique and high quality content for music lovers presented by independent and local Arab musicians across the MENA region.

How does Bandoora.com work?

Each band has their own dedicated page that includes their tracks, image, biography, social medial links, musical genre, and you may also like bands based on the musical genres.

At the moment, the only registered users that we have are bands, due to our focus on creating a community of independent bands across MENA and actually build a database of music to present it to listeners, doing this allowed us to have 100% legal content as each band and musician on bandoora.com provided us with their tracks, biography and images. The website is still under development and more features will be created in the nearest future that focus on listeners.

Where are the bands from?

Currently BANDoora.com has 250+ artists that provided 1000+ tracks covered across all MENA region such as Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, KSA, and UAE. Covering 30+ musical genres.

Are you carrying out any offline events/marketing or is it purely online?

Although our main function is online, but we also have an offline appearance, we organized our first musical event in Amman, Jordan on the 7th of Oct, where we gathered four independent bands (ElMorabba3, Gazdara, Tourabyeh, and Tareq Aljundi) with 4 musical genres (Post rock, Rap, Oriental and Funk) to present our audience with different musical experiences. And because we believe that artists are not our customers, but our partners!

We have also media sponsored several musical festivals and events such as: Jordan Festival, Albalad Festival, Music freedom day Festival, Mashrou’ Leila event, May Nasr event and many more events.

Do you have any partners?

BANDoora.com has been launched in partnership with several organizations, including Jeeran.com, Albalad Theater, and Jordan’s No 1 station for independent music Radio Albalad.

Can you give us an idea of how the site is performing?

The traffic is steadily increasing each month, as of November we were able to get 59,910 unique visitor, and on  66,000 unique visitor in December and it seems we’ll be crossing the 70,000 milestone by the end of January 2012. A main reason for this is that our partners Jeeran.com are providing us with free targeted ads spots on their portal.

What are your plans for the future?

Our future plan is to support artists financially through profit split by online music sales, and subscriptions.

A big thank you to Abdullah Al-Khald for providing the information, we wish them all the best. Do you have any comments, let us know what you think?

The latest report from effective measure displays site rankings in the GCC for December of 2011. The report states that there was a growth of 12.5% in the number of unique browsers in the following GCC countries:

1. Bahrain
2. Kuwait
3. Oman
4. Qatar
5. Saudi Arabia
6. UAE

Which sums up about a total of 46 million unique browsers in the GCC and 91 million unique browsers in the MENA region for December 2011.

Quick Overview:

1. Leading website sabq.org grew by almost 10.5% compared to November 2011, recording over 6 million unique browsers in December.
2. Arabia.msn.com grew by almost 56.6% compared to November 2011, recording over 5.7 million unique browsers in December.

List of top 100 best performing websites in GCC:

A new application from Dubai is looking to give consumers a way to feel good about their purchases. The application which is developed by the Dubai based Innoventa, a leading provider of integrated solutions in management and marketing focusing mainly on the internet and mobile spaces, was recently launched and is a great and simple idea for people to shop, get rewards and help a cause.

CareZone has a neat design and is easy to use. It is basically a location-based mobile app that suggests and rewards users for checking in at specific retailers that have already partnered up with Carezone. The rewards are given as coins or “CareCoins” (which go to charity) and “MyCoins” (which you can redeem at any of the partner retailers.) Users would also be eligilble to receive more coins if they make a purchase from that retailer.

The platform uses a location-based mobile app that identifies an extensive selection of retail partners participating in CareZone. Users can see messages from brands that have made a conscious decision to be socially responsible. CareZone will also come with a social media component that allows users to share their good deeds with followers, friends and family on Facebook and Twitter, thus encouraging them to support a cause through CareZone as well.

Carezone benefits both companies and consumers while facilitating support for various charitable causes. This new mobile app aims to bridge the gap between brands and consumers in a socially responsible manner.

Which is where the beauty of CareZone lies, half of all the coins collected will be donated to a charity you support in a couple of simple taps from the app and CareZone has already teamed up with a number of leading charities, including Dubai Autism Centre, K9 Friends and the United Nations World Food Programme, among many others. Also, if any users would like to support any other charities all they have to do is contact the CareZone team and they will get in touch with that charity and add it on board.

Ritesh Tilani Innoventa CEO, explained, “Mobile search and location-based software has changed the way millions of consumers decide where they are going to eat, drink, shop and entertain themselves and their families. CareZone not only places brands top-of-mind and prominently on search results, but also gives its users a direct incentive for simply visiting an outlet. Users get further rewards and benefits for their causes if they make any purchases with a partner outlet.”

CareZone is currnetly available for the iPhone and in the UAE only, however plans to expand and move onto other mobile platforms are in the pipeline. You can download the application here.

This is a continuation of our previous article about Marka VIP’s operations and marketing the questions are answered by the founder and CEO Ahmed Alkhatib.

General & Operations

How does MarkaVIP view e-commerce in the region?

The current state of e-commerce in the Middle East is comparable to the U.S. 10 years ago or Turkey seven years ago. However, despite the relatively nascent state of e-commerce in the Middle East, we firmly believe the untapped potential of the region far outweighs the current barriers to entry.

If you look at the projected figures for online users in this region, the growth potential for a business like ours becomes quite clear. For example, in 2010 there were 135 million users online in the Middle East and North Africa, and this figure is expected to grow very rapidly to 241 million by 2015. If you also factor in the young population in this part of the world – take Saudi Arabia for example, with 40% of its population under 25 – the potential for success in this market becomes very clear.

By bringing global standards of e-commerce to the Middle East, we believe we are contributing positively to the development of a robust and trustworthy e-commerce sphere.

Why should users use MarkaVIP over their competition Sukar?

At MarkaVIP we overcome logistical cross border issues well known in the Middle East, by establishing a distribution hub in each of our markets. This ensures we have the fastest delivery times for our business model in the region.

We have experienced buyers on our team from some of the world’s top department stores, who source premium products for us to offer to our members at great prices.  Our buyers’ have a strong network of leading suppliers and are experienced at identifying emerging brands and stand out items, meaning that our members benefit significantly from our hand-picked product selections.

Because we have limited payment gateway options in this region, we created our own secure payment gateway through Belgium which ensures a fast, trouble free check-out process for our members.

Our commitment to not spam consumers, to protect them online, offer a slick and secure shopping experience and ship goods efficiently from our in-market hubs, are all examples of the steps we have taken to ensure a world-class shopping experience for our members.

And what is the percentage of return buyers?

Our return rate at MarkaVIP is less than 5%, a figure which we are very proud of. We believe this figure is low due to the fact that our buyers select great products, we take care to photograph them accurately, and include useful sizing charts and photo zoom functions, allowing our members to really know what they are buying before they commit.

How is MarkaVIP planning on dealing with the customs and tax issue within different countries?

We avoid hassles around customs and taxes by shipping from our in-market hubs, ensuring the fastest shipping time for this model in the region, and meaning that the customer is not surprised with any hidden costs upon delivery.

Marketing:

What is the marketing model followed? Is it purely online? How did MarkaVIP manage to become one of the biggest brands on Facebook at 140,000 users?

We heavily target our online advertisements – mostly to people between the ages of 18-34 who are internet and lifestyle savvy.

Social media and word-of-mouth buzz are the main ways in which people discover our website and become members. Actually we recently reached 150,000 fans on Facebook, which is quite significant given we have only been in operation since November 2010. Because you need to be invited, referred or approved to join the MarkaVIP club, our members are keen to keen to refer their friends and spread the convenience, value and quality of our offering though their social circles.

We also have exclusive deals for our Facebook fans, which helps to increase the numbers of our engaged and active Facebook community.

What should start-ups from the region focus on when marketing their products/services?

They should focus on being local, understanding the target market’s needs and sensitivities and creating awareness through PR. Customer care cannot be underestimated and it is also important to be transparent and reachable through social media channels.

What are the main differences when marketing such a website in the region vs. in the US/Europe?

There is not as much need for market education around the private shopping club business model in the US as there is here in the Middle East. In the US, the method of sale is already well established and understood – but in this region, in order for our business to succeed we also have to invest time and resources into educating people about the model and how it works. Generally speaking, people in the region are not as accustomed to online shopping as they are in more mature markets, so part of our message also has to be about the convenience and security of shopping online with us, to help instil e-commerce confidence in our members.

We’d like to thank Ahmed Alkhatib for taking the time to answer our questions, and we wish him and the entire Marka VIP team the best of luck with their future plans. If you have any comments or feedback let us know.

The portal which is still in Beta and in Arabic only hopes to achieve finding and identifying the new leaders of tomorrow. Whether they be political, artistic, professional or even cultural leaders, Qa2ed.com would like to add them on their portal and become the first pool of knowledge about individuals in the region making a difference. The reason Sana finds this as an important issue is because:

1. There are a great number of personalities that aren’t getting the respect they deserve
2. A large percentage of the population don’t really know any of the modern day leaders in the region
3. Its very difficult to find any information on modern day leaders and thinkers
4. Lack of useful Arabic content on the web

Currently they’ve managed to collect over 1,400 individuals and articles about them. The majority of the individuals are from Eypgt, Syria and Palestine. Registered users of the site can refer or suggest people to be added as leaders, then the team from Qa2ed will get in touch and verify the information.

The site has a great deal of content about the leaders, users can even carry out campaigns in support or opposition of a certain individual where they can urge fellow users of the site to add their opinions about the leader.

In my meeting with Sana, she mentioned that they would like to move away from historical figures because information about them is found in abundance, and she would like to focus on the youth who are still not in the limelight. She also pointed out that another area of interest is in research, apparently all the universities in the region don’t add their research and findings online all of it is left in the libraries in the forms of books and journals, she would like one day to have all this content and the authors acredited on Qa2ed.com.

We’d like to thank Sana for her time, and wish her the best of luck with this very informative initiative.

How many times have you went shopping for a specific product only to find yourself visiting different stores and driving all over town to buy what you were actually looking for? This has happened to Lisa Kawar as she was looking for a 2-in-1 washing machine/dryer; she wasted some valuable hours spread over several days wandering around Amman until she finally found the product she was looking for. Lucky for us, she decided this problem must be solved. That’s when she started working on her startup, menwayn.com (which means in Arabic “from where”), The startup was incubated at Oasis500 since May 2011 and is quickly progressing towards general availability.

Lisa, the founder and CEO of menwayn.com, believes that technology can transform the way we shop, giving consumers a transparent market, valuable relevant information about products in their local market, and empowering them to make smarter shopping decisions. This is her vision of menwayn.com, which, according to Lisa, is the first portal of its kind in Jordan and the MENA region, that connects brick and mortar stores with local consumers, creating a strong online presence for any offline retail shop.

Menwayn.com, which is available now in beta version, can be used in both English and Arabic languages, and contains so far over 1500 products available in over 25 stores in Jordan, focusing on home electrical appliances, computers, and photography. These numbers are rapidly increasing as more retailers see the value in an online presence. The goal is to become the first destination for consumers to look for goods and products before taking their decision of purchasing.

Menwayn.com offers visitors of the website the ability to search for products by brand name, retailers, price range and product features. In 5 simple clicks, you could find the nearest location offering the latest iPad, or the cheapest available oven made by a certain brand  of a specific size. At this stage, menwayn.com provides users with information about products and stores’ location with their contact details, but with the launch of the website’s alpha version, users will be able to buy online, with exclusive prices and offers for the website users only.

As for the retailers, their participation in Jordan is free, which means that they can list as many of their products as they wish with no charge at all. Lisa mentioned that menwayn team is working closely with the retailers to upload their content and providing them with basic training on managing their own inventory on the website in order to promote their products. She views this as a win-win situation since retailers will gain more leads from extending their products onto another channel.

As for what the future holds, Lisa is sure that menwayn is solving a real problem for consumers, and providing real value for retailers – so she is optimistic about the company’s prospect of being a success. She is realistic about the hard work needed to make this happen, and hopeful that in the future this will be further expanded to the whole of the MENA region.

We wish the menwayn.com team good luck and hope one day it will become one of the success stories in the region.

Mark your calendar for The Total Marketing Summit 2011, this conference will be held in The Address Dubai Mall in Dubai, UAE between the 20 – 23 November.

The summit which addresses marketing strategies that meet the growing needs of the increasingly integrated marketing responsibilities that marketers face today. The list of speakers at the summit is impressive with speakers from companies including: Coca Cola, EMI Group, Ducab, Red Bull, Vodafone Group, Phillips Healthcare EMEA, Pfizer International, Nissan Middle East, Dubizzle. Be sure to view the entire list of speakers.

The summit promises to be more than just case studies with results and statistics the speakers will delve into their own processes and progress too. There is also a decision making and creative thinking interactive session with leaders from different industries.

Registration & Discount:

So here’s the good news: The Total Marketing Summit in association with InteractiveME is offering all our readers an exclusive 20% discount off the full conference price. To claim your discount all you have to do is quote IME_D20.

To register and secure your place call: 971-4-3352437, email: register@iirme.com, or book online: www.totalmarketing2011.com/register

WHATS NEW THIS YEAR?:

B2B marketing – Business and corporate marketing are a key focus for marketers across many key industries (more than half of the 100 top global brands for 2011 are B2B or have a B2B focus) – Head To ‘B2B vs. B2C Marketing – Head To Head Learning’ On Day One at 11.55

Back 2 Basics - Refreshing traditional above the line spending and getting a new take on what it means – Expansion of digital has meant neglect of traditional marketing despite it still being the biggest guzzler of your budget! – Head To ‘Reinventing The Wheel And Staying In The Driver’s Seat’ on Day One at 13.40

Integrated Skills - Expansion of digital and changing savvy consumer behaviour means it’s not about one campaign, one idea or one person – so how do you raise your marketing teams abilities to become more than the sum of its parts? – Head To ‘Marketing Revolutionaries Roundtable: Developing An Integrated Team With An Integrated Skill Set’ on Day One at 09.55

Interactive Learning - Interactive learning takes the information and multiplies it by the power of You! Don’t miss your chance to see some of the biggest brands represented in live discussions on the hottest topics and throw in your 2cents to get tailored answers from top minds on your biggest questions! – Head To ‘Brands And Their Human Characteristics – How To Win Friends And Influence People’ on Day Two at 13.55

Online/Offline Convergence - Drive engagement, loyalty, advocacy and champions by funneling your offline audience to your online portals to give them more information (and get more of their info!), more opportunity to get on their soapbox with feedback and more to measure ROI – Head To ‘Become A Marketing DJ: Media Mixing The Perfect Ingredients’ on Day One at 16.25

For further information please visit www.totalmarketing2011.com and you can also follow #TotalMarketing on Twitter for updates.