DUBAI
Dubai SME, the government agency responsible for developing the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, and online marketplace Souq.com on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help SMEs develop their online presence.
Under the deal, Souq.com will provide a dedicated team to assist Dubai SME members seeking to use its platform with their branding, display, electronic payments, delivery and logistics.
Abdul Basset Al Janahi, CEO of Dubai SME, said, “e-commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors, particularly in the UAE. Recent studies have shown that the UAE is leading the region in online buying.
“We are confident that our members will be able to leverage this growth and Souq.com’s popularity to expand their business.”
Souq.com primarily serves the electronic retail (e-tail) sector, though Co-Founder and CEO Ronaldo Mouchawar said the firm, recently acquired by Amazon.com, was looking into expanding into service provision.
Al Janahi said approximately 60 per cent of Dubai SME members were retailers. “Souq.com is a global platform that will enable our members to have access to a much bigger market,” he said. “The sky is the limit.”
He added: “When is comes to small and medium enterprises, out of a study we did three years ago, there is a barrier for getting into [e-tailing], when it comes to competition, technology, updates that they need to do.
“Today, a platform like Souq.com enables them to access the rest of the world instantly.”
Mouchawar said, “What’s specific to our region is that we have a young population, and we feel the SME is a big driving force not only in ideation, in creating the project, but also driving the economy forward and employment. It has been a key focus for us. That’s why, when we launched Souq initially we believed in the marketplace model, where we built the technology and distribution network and the payment facilities and we allow businesses to come join our marketplace and thrive as we give them reach — 23 million unique members and also 57 million visits a month.”
The next phase of the MoU plan will be to register interested Dubai SME members, then a series of workshops to train enrollees on launching their products on Souq.com. Monthly reports and statistics will help members achieve objectives, and identify the top 10 performers each month.
