Consumer confidence in eCommerce grows steadily in the UAE

Coupled with its usual escrow, cash on delivery and secure credit card payment services, it enables sellers all over the UAE to confidently accept credit card payments online.

The UAE has the largest number of Internet users per capita in the entire Gulf region. In keeping with these national trends, Souq.com, with a registered user base of 45,000 users has also shown consistent positive growth. In November alone, the online auction marketplace, that listed over 18,000 new auctions, recorded over 5 million page views, and traded nearly 6 million AED in Gross Merchandise Volume.

Adding yet another laurel to its cap, Souq.com was awarded the Gold 'UAE Web Award' in the 'Best e-commerce website' category on the 9th of December. The UAE Web Awards is created to recognize excellence in web design and development skills in the UAE.

"We owe this award to our users, whose overwhelming support has driven us to the next level in improving existing features and allowed us to introduce new ones over the course of the past year," said Sameh Lutfi, Sales & Marketing Manager for Souq.com.

"The past year has been an exhilarating one for us,' said Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO of Souq.com. "We've achieved significant milestones, been beset by a few challenges and we excitedly look forward to many fulfilling years to come."

Further underlining its commitment towards e-commerce by providing an alternative to the online auction style trading format, Souq.com has also introduced a 'Buy Now' service which allows users to buy and sell fixed-price items online.

"The new BuyNow service will be of particular use to the thousands of retailers, SMEs as well as individuals that use Souq.com as a reliable platform for their online transactions as it facilitates immediate buying and selling of products," added Mouchawar. "It eliminates the lead time between listing a product and its eventual sale and offers a quick transaction to the seller and instant gratification to the buyer."

"The BuyNow feature in combination with all the other services on Souq, which include the escrow, payment and delivery services, is another first in the region. Souq was, is, and will always stay at the cutting edge of new e-Commerce breakthroughs; it will continue to add increasingly more sophisticated services while maintaining a simple user interface," he concluded.

Along with the Cash on Delivery Service (COD), payment by credit card for items on Souq.com is also growing; as always, Souq.com implemented the process with high security for the buyers. Buyer Credit card details are never revealed to the seller and funds are not released to the seller immediately. Instead, Souq.com acts as an escrow, holding on to the funds and releasing them only once the buyer has received the product and is satisfied with it.

In turn Souq.com accepts the credit card payment securely on behalf of the sellers, without them having to go though all the long procedures that are required to set up their own online payment gateways.