Search Results for : Commerce

Social Bakers, a global AI-powered social media marketing company has released the Q3 edition of their social media trends report. The report reveals where the industry is currently standing with regard to spending and engagement globally. Here are the key findings – ADVERTISING Worldwide ad spend increased by 56.4% in Q3 compared to where it […]

Communicate sits with David Fregonas, Accenture Interactive lead, Middle East to learn more about the company’s latest brand move and their recent shift in operations to the cloud. What is the strategy behind this new initiative? We’re following the same advice we give our clients in this time of relentless change: act with great agility and […]

Kaizen is less of a productivity system and more of a philosophy. Earlier this year, when employees were forced to work from home due to the impacts of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, there were many outcries of employees struggling with the stress of the pandemic and finding a distinction between work life and home life. […]

In a newly released report, US-based content generation and analytics platform, Cohley and media publication, Digiday explores the changing state of user-generated content (UGC). The sweeping changes driven by a global pandemic and the resultant quarantine have scattered creative marketing teams, but they have also opened brands’ and agencies’ eyes to the promise of UGC […]

Google pledges to mentor local businesses and help them grow online in the UAE, especially those in retail and tourism. Google announced today ‘Grow Stronger with Google’, a new program to accelerate the MENA region’s economic recovery through digital transformation, by offering digital tools, training, and financial grants to support local businesses and job seekers. […]

Zeina Estwany Barakat, CCO ME & Partner at Product of the Year, on how innovation can be sparked by chaos. Businesses simply cannot operate as they used to. What made an organization successful in the past will no longer be possible after the Covid-19 crisis. Considering where we stand today, a quote by Albert Einstein […]

World’s leading evidence-based insights and consulting company Kantar and multinational holding company WPP, have released the BrandZ study, which highlights the most valuable brands in the MENA region. With a combined value of $50 billion, the ranking includes consumer-facing brands from across a range of categories, from food to energy, which reflect the changing lifestyles and […]

Launched in 2008, the Annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey is the largest survey of its kind of the Middle East and North Africa region, covering its largest demographic – the youth. The findings of the survey provide governments, the private sector, civil society and academia with insights into the hopes, concerns and aspirations of […]

At the beginning of September, Snap Inc appointed Jake Thomas as the Head of UAE operations. This comes as the company rapidly expands its local partner ecosystem and seeks to deliver more opportunities to consumers and brands than ever before. Communicate spoke with Thomas to understand how he plans to grow the company’s vision in the […]

Marwa Kaabour, Head of Marketing & Corporate Communication at Al Masaood Group, on how digital innovations are driving auto dealership forward. The state of global affairs is changing, probably at a faster speed than what a speedometer could track. The future is uncertain, and many businesses are worried about where the road ahead leads. To […]

WARC, the global marketing intelligence service, released its latest report that highlights the rise in advertising spending on e-commerce platforms- as brands look to capitalize on the boom in online shopping, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. Advertising investment across e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Tmall and Rakuten, omnichannel retailers such as Walmart and […]

Global e-commerce consultancy, Wunderman Thompson Commerce releases the 4th edition of their Future Shopper report. The report seeks to identify trends in consumers’ digital buying behaviors, with the aim of helping to influence organizations’ strategies and to ensure that they are ready for the consumer and the channels of the future. Here are the key […]

By Darren Hodgkin, CEO of PPMG A website is more than a window to your store. In 2020 it is your store; as important as your brick and mortar, stand, or stall. For web-only brands, it is the one sales environment they have and as crucial as the products they sell. While visual merchandising tells […]

The growth of e-commerce was accelerated across the globe due to the pandemic and the measures that were implemented to curb the spread. Advertising investment has shifted into shoppable and e-commerce formats, and many companies have had to develop their e-commerce strategies on the fly. This is driving growth of the big platforms. But many […]

Last June, Snap launched Dynamic Ads, a new e-commerce offering designed to help brands grow their online business by simplifying the consumer purchase journey and driving measurable ROI – especially at a time when the Covid-19 lockdowns got many businesses to quickly expand their e-commerce efforts in response to consumer demand. Shayan Rahimi, Head of e-Commerce – MENA […]

New Lebanese online marketplace Mawsam aims to connect local producers to a larger audience. More often than not, and especially for the past year, news from Lebanon have not been good, if not outright bad. The country’s economic, social and security turmoil is getting worse by the day, amidst concerns of violence and even civil […]

Global marketing agency, Dentsu Aegis Network has launched the latest edition of its Digital Society Index (DSI) survey. The study highlights the change in relationship between consumers and technology, as consumers have begun interacting with technology in a more positive way than ever before. The survey ran between March-April 2020 – the peak of the […]

Group M releases their mid-year report for the MENA region, which forecasts the future of spending in the region’s media industry for the remainder of 2020 as well as 2021. In 2019, MENA advertising spend declined by 5.8%. This year, the number is expected to reduce even further as the industry faces a dual-shock from […]

Ayman Haydar, CEO of programmatic marketplace provider MMP World Wide, talks about how the tech giants are entering the world of e-commerce and the changes in sentiment towards digitization.  10 weeks. 70 days. 1,680 hours. Far too many Netflix binges to mention. Meaningless stats at any other time, but in the context of the coronavirus, […]

As life in China slowly begins to return to normal, the draconian measures that were earlier implemented to curb the spread of the virus have taken a toll on the country’s economy. The two-month-long pandemic forced businesses to halt operations and residents to remain indoors, causing a stint in the country’s economic growth. This also […]

By Sanjit Gill, GM, Middle East at Collinson The rise of digital-native retail brands offering highly competitively priced products with rapid home delivery services continues to increase pressure on the wider retail sector. Amazon, for example, with its low overheads and streamlined distribution service, has expanded into markets globally at the expense of many traditional […]

Amazon’s advertising business continued its ascent last quarter, hitting $2.2 billion in revenue – a growth rate outpacing even optimistic forecasts for the company. Yesterday, Amazon reported second-quarter results and advertising was again the brightest spot for the e-retailer, growing at 132 percent, its fastest-growing segment by far. Amazon’s total sales hit $52.9 billion, an […]

By Adrianne Pasquarelli (Illustration by Doug Chayka) At the SoHo flagship of fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff in New York, the shelves are stocked with XXS, the smallest size available. But the store is not sizeist – those floral dresses and blush-pink leather jackets aren’t just for the petite. Consumers who grab a frock off the […]

By Meghna C. Hazarani, senior UX analyst, RBBi Last year I got the opportunity to work on an e-commerce site which was not only enlightening as a ‘UXer’ but also, as a user who finds an excuse to shop pretty much every day. The small details that lead to cross-selling, up-selling, and plain old selling […]

Snapchat and Instagram are stepping up their shopping rivalry as they both work e-commerce into new areas of their apps. Instagram On June 12, Instagram brought shopping into Stories, the vertical-video section that was copied from Snapchat. Brands on Instagram will now be able to drop shopping bag stickers into their Stories and sell products […]

A year after what Goldman Sachs labeled the “the biggest M&A deal in the Arab World” i.e. the Amazon/Souq deal, Noon has announced its strategic partnership with US-based online auction platform eBay. About the deal The e-commerce platform, which saw a major investment from Alshaya late last year, will now fulfill eBay orders made on […]

Taxation is a globally accepted practice by the state to generate revenue and subsequently fund expenditures that sustain the operation of the government. For so many years, the people of the UAE were basking in the glory of a tax-free lifestyle, however, a year ago the government announced that VAT would finally take effect in […]

With e-commerce being valued as a $10 billion industry in the GCC, it only makes sense for brands to jump onto the e-commerce bandwagon whether it’s through their own online stores or marketplaces. Moreover, moves by Amazon, Souq and Noon.com, are changing the rules of the game for retail. Where do agencies fit in? As […]

By Waseem Afzal, general manager of OMD MENA’s e-commerce arm, Transact Every year, Seamless Middle East brings together experts and businesses from all over the region to discuss the future and challenges of payments, fintech, e-commerce and retail. In its 19th edition, I had the opportunity to moderate a roundtable discussion with some of the brightest […]

Facebook has announced the launch of its Marketplace feature in Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, enabling people to use the platform to discover, buy and sell items. Available in Arabic on mobile and desktop, the feature is expected to be rolled out to iOS and Android users over the next few weeks to users in these […]

Chalhoub Group, which partners with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior Couture, Fendi, Louboutin, Berlutti, Saks Fifth Avenue, Loewe, Carolina Herrera, and Michael Kors, is set to take its digital transformation to the next level through e-commerce. Some of its brands such as Level Shoes, Wojooh, Tryano and L’Occitane are already e-commerce friendly. However, the […]

The e-commerce landscape has seen a great deal of movement in the past year. November 2016 saw the announcement of Noon.com – which is yet to be launched, following several delays and an investment by Alshaya – followed by Amazon’s acquisition of Souq and Emaar’s acquisition of Namshi this year. At the time of the […]

By Sanjit Gill, General Manager, ICLP While many of us have been busy preparing our summer getaways, one retail event has been dominating the conversation across Europe and North America. Unsurprisingly, it comes from the world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon. Launched in 2015, Prime Day has grown to become one of the biggest one-day retail […]

MEC has launched its specialist e-commerce consultancy, MEC Commerce, in the MENA region. The new division combines the services of a media agency with consultancy and delivery of e-commerce strategies. The new division is part of the EMEA hub in London and will be supported by a regional team. Julio Cesar Rodriguez will head the […]

The e-commerce space in the Middle East – the UAE in particular ¬– is becoming very exciting. It’s an era where we’re seeing a number of startups gain traction. Online marketplace Souq.com has become the region’s first “unicorn,” or billion-dollar company, indicating that investors are willing to back successful ideas that have a proven track […]

Visa Inc. introduces a new specification to enable palm, voice, iris, or facial biometrics for chip card transactions. The framework is designed for the EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) chip industry standard. This type of biometric verification aims to provide easier and more secure payment options. Biometrics are never exposed or stored on central databases, as the specification supports […]

Visa Inc. and mobile and online payment provider, Stripe, announce a strategic partnership in support of net technologies and online payment experiences for global merchants, developers and consumers. Stripe will continue it’s international expansion in emerging markets, specifically. To support this growth and joint long-term initiatives, Visa has also made a strategic investment in Stripe. The […]

E-commerce in the MENA region has grown and continues to grow at a rapid pace. In May 2013, Go-Gulf estimated that the value of e-commerce in the Middle East would reach 4.9 billion US dollars by 2015. Half-way through 2015, UAE based online retail specialist Awok.com aims for 25 percent of the retail space. The UAE is […]

Security of payment card data, the future of online payments and growth of e-commerce will be highlighted in the first Middle East Payment Forum hosted in Dubai at the Conrad Hotel next month. The day-long event, scheduled to take place on March 19, is organized by PCI Security Standards Council, the US-based global authority on […]

Two years into running PayPal MENA – after a longer stint at PayPal Asia – Elias Ghanem’s hopes of growing the payment gateway in the region were quickly shattered by one realization: “It was much easier to sell PayPal to MENA than it was to sell MENA to PayPal.” When, in early 2013, Ghanem allegedly […]

  If payment gateway PayPal’s estimates, which put e-commerce in the MENA region at $15 billion in 2015, prove accurate, future prospects of the regional online payments industry look rather rosy. Over the past year, a slew of reports has come out confirming that it’s set for exponential growth. According to the State of Payment […]

  The decision of an established e-commerce player to drop COD (cash on delivery) services would garner little attention elsewhere in the world – and, in fact, would only be considered a natural progression of the business. But regional e-commerce platform JadoPado’s recent announcement that it would stop offering COD as a payment option got quite mixed reactions in a region where a […]

Multi-currency and multi-lingual payment gateway for SMEs Telr  – founded and headed in the region by ex-Paypal MENA managing director Elias Ghanem –  has announced its merger with payment processing company Innovate Payments. Through this merger, Telr will strenghten its payment gateway, unified logistics and payments APIs offerings, alongside its cash management solutions. “Telr’s ambition to revolutionize the payments landscape […]

  Social entrepreneurs in developing countries are using mobile phones and the controversial digital currency bitcoin to increase the speed, and slash the price, of international money transfers, raising the prospect of a revolution in the $600 billion annual global remittance market. Soaring rates of mobile phone use in developing countries are helping the entrepreneurs compete with […]

  Airline Etihad Airways keeps pushing on digital, recently announcing a partnership with Google to make it more convenient for travelers to view the airline’s flight schedules and fares on the search engine’s Flight Search tool. Using Flight Search, travelers in the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Ireland […]