The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) launched today the eCommerce Acceleration Programme (eCAP), with the support of the ICC-ESCWA Centre of Entrepreneurship (CoE) and the International Trade Centre, to empower Arab small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through their transition journey into online selling.
The eCAP programme will build the capacity of up to 100 SMEs from the Arab region to transition into online selling, either by developing their transactional eCommerce websites or by selling on existing online marketplaces. Participating SMEs will benefit from business and technical expertise, one-year support and critical setup fees to build/optimize the online platform or sell on existing marketplaces, one-on-one coaching, in addition to exposure and access to networking opportunities.
Eligible SMEs must be registered and operational in one of the Arab countries and should have a working product or service that can be sold online. Moreover, SMEs must have an online presence through social media or through an existing website not fully optimized, and should be willing to dedicate 1-2 team members for the project.
SMEs can sign up to the programme here by filling in the online application form, which is available in English, Arabic, and French. The deadline for submitting the online application form is 20 April 2022 at 23.00 Beirut time (GMT+3).
source: UNESCWA
The Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority announced yesterday the agenda for the Dubai Technology Entrepreneurship Center (DTEC) forum, which is organized in cooperation with the Arab Entrepreneur Magazine.
The last session of this year’s Dtech forum is scheduled to take place on December 8 at 3 pm UAE time, in digital format, through the application of the virtual Holover platform, developed by OutReal XR, under the title ‘The reality of retail business in 2020: from Traditional to online selling.
Edward Sabbagh, General Manager of Farfetch Middle East, will chair the first session entitled ‘Digitization of the luxury experience’, where he will provide an overview of the impact of the Corona pandemic on the luxury and fashion sector, and the change of online buying habits in the Middle East and the world.
It will also address what small and medium-sized companies have learned from international brands operating in this sector.
In a panel discussion titled ‘From Traditional Selling to Online Selling – Leveraging the E-Commerce Boom, Tamara Bubik of Arab Entrepreneur Magazine hosts Khalil Al-Alami, CEO of Teller, Ryan Osseiran, founder of Shoreags, and Renault de Gonverville, CEO of Zuo.
To analyze the opportunities that the rapid growth of e-commerce has brought to the companies supporting the sector from distribution partners, payment gateways, and logistics service providers, due to ‘Corona’.
source: alkhaleejtoday
The main difference between traditional trade activity and e-commerce in the market. The market in essence is the space that provides information about the goods or services available by the producers.
Here lies the difference and importance of e-commerce at the same time. The consumer does not need the physical presence of the spatial space in which information is available about the item or service he wishes to purchase.
The "cash for product or service" deal between the product and the consumer can also be done via digital tools. This e-commerce feature provides the hassle of moving to the market, which may be in another country, and provides the ability to identify products that are much broader than those offered by the market Traditional Which is limited to limited geography while the electronic market is a global market without limits, but one of the most prominent obstacles to the electronic market appear in the reliability, in the sense that is the guarantor of the consumer that the product or service that will pay for it will be identical to what is displayed on the electronic platform, The case for the product provider, which wishes to receive the amounts due for its producer from the problem of reliability, which still hinder the expansion of e-commerce in the Arab region.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce and Investment has issued a new law regulating the electronic commerce process to enhance the reliability of electronic commerce in order to increase its contribution to the national economy to achieve the objectives of the vision of the Kingdom in 2030, according to the ministry's statement.
As for article 26 of the new law, the service provider is required to use the means necessary to protect the consumer data and not to keep it. And the responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of personal data declared by the consumer and to prevent any process of disclosure to any other entity without the consent of the consumer, as regards data on the service provider, Article VI requires the service provider to disclose the procedures B on the buyer to take to the conclusion of the contract and data relating to the service provider, the basic characteristics of the products or services, in addition to the total price, which includes all additions of fees or taxes and arrangements for payment, delivery and implementation.
The law also guarantees the right of the consumer to cancel the purchase of the "contract termination" within seven days from the date of contracting or receipt of the service, if not benefited from it, and to ensure the refund of payments in case the service provider delayed delivery of the goods / service for more than 15 days.
The details of the new law’s articles mentioned above and other articles indicate the possibility of expanding e-commerce exchanges in the Saudi market , while providing more reliability and transparency in electronic activity, which are essential requirements in the market ranked among the top ten countries in terms of growth of the e-commerce sector, The growth rate of e-commerce in the Kingdom to more than 32%, with a total volume of trade amounting to 80 billion Saudi riyals (about 21 billion dollars) in 2018.
