News have been in the air for two years now that Bank Audi is planning to launch an online mall, with a grand event end of June, Audi has finally launched their Emall. Emall is not merely an e-commerce storefront for lebanese brick and mortar shops, it also has a daily deals arm, a US Shop outlet for shopping outside of Lebanon, an even section and other different sections targeted to promoting Bank Audi products. With this positioning, Bank Audi aims to overtake the virgin e-commerce market in Lebanon and also expose Lebanese merchants to buyers from abroad. But let us take a closer look at what has happened to Emall since its launch. Is it really what will finally spark online businesses to thrive in Lebanon or will it drive more nails into its coffin? Let us compare the idealistic and the pessimistic scenarios from some aspects of the platform that come to mind whilst browsing the site.
What does Emall offer buyers?
The optimistic view.
Buyers from abroad can buy Lebanese products, this has been the positioning of Audi at the press conference launch showing traditional Lebanese products such as sweets and hand-made crafts traveling across the globe from Lebanon. On the other hand local buyers would be How will Bank Audi ’s Emall impact e-commerce In Lebanon ? able to buy from the convenience of their homes and the items would be delivered to them within a couple of days by Aramex. An added benefit is the low 3% online transaction fee charged for credit card payments, which is slightly less than what you have to pay on other sites.
The pessimistic view.
Going through the merchants on the platform, there are not enough big merchants in the domain of Lebanese signature food and handcrafts and the merchants that are there are too few or have too few items listed in their storefronts. Is that enough to get the buzz from Lebanese expats?
There are so many risks that buyers can face on the platform. For starters you cannot consolidate your shopping cart which means buying from different merchants results in multiple shopping carts and multiple delivery charges. Another point is that deleting, modifying and returning orders and any other problems need to be taken up with the merchants online. So in essence upon making your order your money goes to the merchant while you are left to await and hope that the goods actually arrive and that they are as good as stated. Knowing the Lebanese embedded hesitation to shop online, the above will only cause more friction points leaving them feeling exposed and just browsing collections and then going to the actual stores if they are in Lebanon.
Looking deeper, as based on Emall’s subscription models, stores are only allowed to upload a maximum of 60 items. Emall would hardly replace the experience of going to the physical shop.
Another point to wonder about is whether the cost of delivery would actually make it worthwhile for you to buy the item online in the first place.
What does Emall offer merchants?
The optimistic view.
The low cost to entry, including a waived set up and maintenance fees for the first three months should get merchants jumping on the platform like bees on honey as building your own ecommerce site costs are in the tens of thousands.
– An added bonus is being amongst several other merchants which should increase the number of visitors and potential buyers on the site.
– What should act more to attract merchants is being a part of an entity built by one of the biggest banks in the country logically means that this platform would be well advertised and will have great mentions in the media which eventually should give more visibility to merchants.
– Additionally, merchants do not need to worry about delivery logistics as Aramex will take care of everything.
The pessimistic view.
This Emall model offers several limitations to merchants as well.
– Depending on the store level merchants choose, they can only upload a maximum of 30-60 unique products; which is a drop in the ocean to any store.
– Although delivery logistics are taken care of, merchants will need to figure out how they handle order management, order logistics, complaints, returns, CRM and many other aspects of shopping online.
– Knowing traditional brick and mortar merchants and the risks involved in e-commerce projects rollouts, it can be foreseen that many merchants may not update their storefronts in a timely manner, especially if the flow of orders is not there, and this can be a great potential risk to their credibility and the credibility of the whole platform.