By Shahd Alhamdan
Saudi Gazette
DUBAI — Believe in what you do, get to have an awesome team, be patient through involving in several experiments, and be creative while understanding the customers needs and habits were some of the advices that were given by the Co-Founder and the CEO of SOUQ.com, Ronaldo Mouchawar to be a successful entrepreneur.
SOUQ.com, who selling thousands of Saudi local products on their online market platform and focusing on Saudization when it comes to the jobs in the Kingdom, has announced on Tuesday the annual «White Friday 2016» sale event at Ritz Carlton Dubai. Saleem Hammad, General Manager of SOUQ.com in the Kingdom, told Saudi Gazette there is a high potential of e-commerce in the Kingdom and Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest markets when it comes to buying products from SOUQ.com.
Hammad said «74 percent of people use smartphones in the Kingdom and that give the chance to e- commerce and selling online to spread faster in Saudi Arabia. We have also more than 10,000 Saudis that are selling their products on SOUQ.com and we are focusing on grabbing the attention of more Saudi small businesses and new entrepreneurs to sell their products on our online market platform. We are focusing on Saudi youth and their employment since we have more than 400 Saudi male and female employees that are working in the Kingdom.»
White Friday 2016» will be held for the third time on Nov. 23- 26 for GCC region and Egypt.
SOUQ.com, which will launch 25,000 exclusive new deals, is expecting around 1 million items to be sold during the White Friday. The online shoppers can also benefit from the hourly gold deals in which super deals are launched in each category. Last year, 600,000 items were sold during the White Friday event.
This year event would be different since the company’s aim is for all deliveries to the United Arab Emirates to be dispatched within 48 to 72 hours of purchase. In the Kingdom, SOUQ.com has also partnered with Careem for additional support in the already robust delivery fulfillment. In Saudi Arabia customers can pay cash once they received the products and sometimes they can ask for receiving the products at the same day.
Mouchawar said «JUST a quick highlight about how the year has grown for us. This year, while I think retail in general is challenging as we see in Saudi Arabia quite challenging time in the market, we have been growing about 30 to 40 percent year on year. In Saudi Arabia we are growing over 50 percent year on year. So we are really excited about the event and the consumers who are buying from our smartphone application.»
He explained that around 75 percent of SOUQ.com customers are buying from the company smartphone›s application and SOUQ.com is working on the categories and products that are sold on its online market platform. Today the customers can find several categories including fashion, sports, and home products.
The company has also launched SOUQ Superstore on its platform earlier this year, which is an online hypermarket and customers can enjoy the offers and discounts on these products for the first time this year.
Customers can find household items and they can enjoy their monthly grocery shopping online at the most competitive pricing. SOUQ Superstore offers a huge assortment of products within six sub-categories — food and grocery, health and beauty, household needs, pets care, nutrition and supplements, and baby care and their food. There will also be curated store within the online superstore including an organic food corner, chocolate shops and food of the world.
During the White Friday 2016 event, thousands of chocolates, detergents, and toiletries and hairdryers will be sold with over 50 percent of the sales expected to be made up of non-electronics items.
