eCommerce is booming in Qatar! Here’s how to choose the best platform for your business.
The global eCommerce industry is valued at $4.48 trillion!
If you’re thinking about making a move online, now is the best time for your business to enter the digital space.
But to be successful at eCommerce, you need the right foundations that help you achieve the goals you set out for yourself. Choosing a strong eCommerce software is one way to build up a framework that helps you realize your business’s true potential.
If you need help getting started with your eCommerce platform research, we suggest you start with these five companies that are gaining popularity in the MENA region:
The ultimate starter-pack for an eCom platform:
Ease of setup and customization
You want a platform that will let you represent your brand exactly as you want, without it taking forever to customize or requiring an expensive developer. That’s why the best eCommerce platforms have handy templates that help you achieve the look and feel you’re after — minimal technical skills required.
Ease of navigation
As online technology becomes ever smoother and customer expectations rise, the websites that fall behind will stand out for all the wrong reasons. We’ve all been there. You may be willing to forgive a bit of bad design if you’ve found something you REALLY must buy, but there comes a point when even the most dedicated of shoppers will give up.
Online shoppers are ready to spend, but frustrating checkout processes and a poor user experience will send them running to one of your competitors. Choose an eCommerce provider that prioritizes ease of use for your customers and keeps on top of all the latest industry developments.
This, of course, includes security. Platforms that support HTTPS/SSL will give customers the reassurance that their details are secure when they shop from you. Nobody wants to foot the bill for some random stranger’s vacation, after all.
Ways to pay
It’s no good having a great website if your customers reach the checkout and don’t find a convenient payment option. Their credit card is in the next room, and getting up to fetch it would just be too much hard work. So, make sure you can offer alternative payment methods like Dibsy, Payfort and Checkout to make the process seamless. Buy-now-pay-later options are also becoming more popular, giving shoppers greater flexibility. But before signing up to them all, you should also check out the fees and decide which are the best match for your business.
Mobile-friendliness
Desk-what? Mobile shopping is where it’s at. This trend has always been on course for steady growth, but the global pandemic has given even more fuel to the fire. Almost 80% of shoppers say they have been shopping more via mobile since the COVID-19 outbreak began. And mobile spending in the US is projected to reach almost $340 billion in 2020, a whopping increase of 26% on the year before.
With this in mind, your eCommerce platform needs to give mobile users a smooth and enjoyable experience with your brand. A simple way to research this is to browse the provider’s site on your smartphone. If there are any red flags, cross them off the list. After all, if they can’t get their own website right, do you want to trust them with yours?
SEO-friendliness
You might have the most amazing product in the world, but if potential customers can’t find it online, you’re not going to get any sales. After developing a solid SEO strategy, don’t forget to choose an eCommerce platform that complements it. Content marketing via a blog, optimizing product descriptions, adding metadata, and collecting customer reviews will all help with that holy grail of organic traffic.
Third-party integrations
As an online business owner, you no doubt already have a ton of different channels, platforms, and management systems to juggle. Choosing an eCommerce platform with limited integrations will simply magnify the amount of manual work required to make all these systems fit together. Instead, you want one that will integrate with whatever you already use, whether that’s Instagram or a CRM.
Also, check out the range of plugins and extensions available. You may not really need them now, but if you’re planning to expand your business, they could be useful later on.
Reporting and analytics
It’s hard to run a business if you don’t know how much money you’re making. You’ll also want to monitor some other important metrics like average spend, cart abandonment, and traffic types and sources. All of this insight will enable you to develop your business in the right direction, so make sure your eCommerce platform makes it easy to access the numbers you need.
Technical support
This may not be such a biggie if you’re gifted with a technical mind. But, even if you do know your way around HTML and JavaScript, we’re guessing you have better things to do with your time than fix little bugs in your website. When something goes wrong or you need help with an update, being able to reach out to a real person can save you a lot of time and stress.
Fees
For every eCommerce platform you research, there’s a different pricing structure to understand. You’ll find that some charge a tiered monthly fee, some charge per transaction, and others have add-ons for the different services you might want. This makes it hard to compare them side-by-side, but it’s worth taking time to crunch the numbers. Also, think about whether they will be able to grow with your business so you don’t find yourself wanting to switch providers a year down the line.
The takeaway from all of this is, simply put, that your choice of eCommerce platform should make users remember your brand for all the right reasons. Not because, after wasting 25 minutes of their life on your infuriating checkout process, their credit card got hacked because you skimped on security.
Your choice of eCommerce provider will go a long way towards making or breaking your business, so choose wisely!
Dibsy offers affordable and straightforward onboarding and fast integration with simple APIs. With the tool, business owners can accept payments through their websites, apps, or messaging platforms. Merchants that have not yet moved their businesses online will significantly benefit from a technology and send payment links to customers using SMS, WhatsApp, email or on social media platforms.
