Middle Eastern consumers have strong spending power, but the platforms are generally not powerful. So can small and medium-sized sellers build independent websites like big sellers? Is it difficult to operate? Is it costly?
First of all, the Middle East is very suitable for building independent websites. More than 20 Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Morocco, all use Arabic. English as a second language has also been widely popularized. With a unified language, basically one independent website can cover all Arab countries. Secondly, the difficulties of building independent websites in the past: website building and logistics, are no longer a problem in the past two years.
1. Simple and convenient website building
In the past two years, in the Middle East, website building tools are very rich and complete. It is very simple and cheap to operate an independent website. If you want to build an English independent website like Souq and Shein, Shopfiy and Magenta can easily do it. If you want to build an Arabic independent website like Noon and Jollychic, you can use local Zid and Salla. In terms of payment, the usage rate of local payment platforms such as Mada and Sadad is over 90%. In terms of operation, the Middle Eastern countries are basically Google, Youtube and Facebook, which are some well-known traffic diversion websites. At the same time, there are many Deal websites that can be used in Middle Eastern countries, which are very practical.
2. Gradually mature logistics support
In the past, the logistics in the Middle East made sellers very uncomfortable. The freight of express delivery such as UPS and DHL was very expensive, and COD (cash on delivery) was not supported. You should know that nearly 70% of Middle Eastern consumers like cash on delivery. In addition, due to the vague addresses in the Middle East, the high rate of name duplication, women are afraid to receive goods, and have multiple phone numbers and other uncertain factors, the delivery rate is very low, basically below 70%. However, in the past two years, with the popularization of special line parcels, the logistics in the Middle East has become very mature, and the timeliness, cost, delivery rate, Cod, etc. have been greatly improved.
Good Middle East logistics special line service standards
① First of all, Saudi customs clearance is strict, and they need to assist sellers in Saudi customs clearance review.
②Secondly, in Saudi Arabia, local delivery will make 3 delivery attempts + 3~6 SMS reminders + 3~6 follow-up calls, and provide Cod collection service.
③Thirdly, each undelivered order will provide a reason explanation to facilitate the seller’s after-sales processing.
④Finally, there is a local warehouse to support the secondary sales and delivery of undelivered packages, which is efficient, convenient and low-cost.
In general, the conditions for sellers to run independent stations in the Middle East are very mature now, which is also an important reason why the Middle East independent station can become popular again this year.