The Shock of E-commerce Sites

This historic crisis has revealed many things that will certainly be studied in many universities and addressed in lectures, but we need to pause at one of the biggest points that concerns us specifically here in the United Arab Emirates. Our topic today focuses on e-commerce, and we have many pauses to make on it after the first shock we faced with it.

Talk on paper

Many stores claimed to own, in one way or another, an online store, but in reality these sites were merely 'talk on paper' that had not been tested and had their capabilities scrutinized, even with the first days of the crisis and the start of usage, let alone the period of intensive usage and the real challenge, after which we were surprised by the collapse of the sites one after another, from cooperatives and major retail stores with assets worth millions. It is clear that they did not test even the simplest e-commerce scenarios properly, nor the training and preparation of the delivery fleet that must be readied and prepared for electronic orders. Often, some of them were content with signing with one or two existing stores, or assigning it to a department or perhaps a small team, without caring about it as a source of income and an important vital sector, and few were spared from this challenge.

The collapse of weak sites

Most of these cooperatives and major retail stores postponed delivery, or cancelled orders and returned the money to their owners after a period of time! With some of them it reached two weeks from receiving people's money, and the procedures for returning the money took another while. Some of them established their right by converting the money into points to guarantee the customer's purchase again from their store, and this act in itself requires accountability, for what is the fault of the customer who did not know that the simplest of orders, such as frozen chicken, rice, and milk, must be waited for two weeks because he trusted this online store, and did not know that his order, after all this waiting, would be cancelled! While he could have gone during this period to the nearest store and bought all his necessities without relying on such stores! The pioneering, wise leadership, thankfully, guaranteed the people food, medicine, security, safety, and stability, and there is no shortage in products at all; the questions are only about online stores in this article.

Scarcity of stores is the biggest cause

The well-known major online stores are only 2, and as for the others, they are not at the required level so far. Even so, one of them held firm and the other stumbled severely, for many reasons I cannot mention. But the important point is the clarity of our need for major new players in this important market, and we cannot rely only on the existing stores. This is a great opportunity to invest properly and thoughtfully, for the great openness now to online ordering has become palatable to everyone, indeed it has become a general habit for many after it had been limited to a small group.

Electronics stores

The strange thing is that the experience was different with electronics stores, for in an experience with a number of the biggest electronics stores such as Sharaf DG, Jumbo, and others, delivery was fast and accurate; indeed some of them sold non-electronic items in a clever and commendable step to cover the shortage occurring from the other online sites.

A positive mutation for restaurant ordering applications

Perhaps ordering from restaurants declined by varying degrees, but one of the biggest of these applications quickly remedied the matter by including pharmacies, small shops, and some other stores and others in delivering what people need. This act shows how a flexible and rapid positive mutation is required in all circumstances. But the problem of the coverage area for these companies remains a difficult matter for users, and the licensing authorities need to be more flexible to support such projects that serve large segments of society. Perhaps a federal license could be created that allows them to deliver from various cities, with automatic coordination of fees between the covered cities; just a suggestion.

Delivery stumbles

One of the big knots in this chain, sometimes with delay, sometimes by delivering only one item from the long order list, and at other times by cancelling the delivery after a period of time, as we mentioned. These companies need to schedule deliveries, for delivering one item daily from the list until they finish it only increases the loss of customers' trust. 'Half a cup is better than an empty one' - perhaps this is their principle, who knows.

Fresh-produce delivery companies

Here the same scenario is repeated, for despite some of them having their own warehouses and their own fleet, perhaps the intense pressure and the resetting of safety standards to their utmost degrees were among the causes of the stumbling and made them review their plans and expansionary outlooks.

Price inflation on online sites

Prices rose on some huge sites by varying degrees, reaching in some of them 20% to 200%, and prices are still wobbling at varying degrees faster than global stock exchanges. Sometimes you see the same goods with their price risen by 400 dirhams, and you find another risen by a thousand dirhams, indeed more than that sometimes. This exploitation, if the expression is correct, shows us all the importance of having many alternatives for a market that lacks real competition and the struggle of big merchants and investors.

The beginning of promising steps

Many have begun serious planning to enter the market and compete directly and indirectly, and let us look forward optimistically to what is coming, God willing, for it will be much better than this situation. Let whoever exploited the situations know that the time has come to correct their course, otherwise the choices will be bigger and better.

Al Roeya UAE newspaper