Digital Economy Solutions (DES) has announced a joint venture between emaratech and the Department of Economic Development of Dubai (DED) to launch DubaiStore, billed as the first local online marketplace to focus on SMEs and home-based businesses in the country.
The association with DED and other government bodies such as the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection is aimed at increasing consumer confidence and will guarantees shoppers’ rights and fair trading. To sell in the marketplace, merchants will need be licensed by the government. So for the time being selling is only open to UAE based merchants but they plan to open the programme up to other countries in the region in due course. But crucially Dubaistore’s USP is that it is open to SMEs and home-based sellers and the aim is to provide shoppers with a diverse range of unusual and handmade items.
We plan to launch the online marketplace in the third quarter this year. DubaiStore aims to support the economic growth of Dubai by encouraging e-commerce as an efficient trading channel, governed by Dubai’s laws and regulations. It is a government initiative under the operational control of DES. DubaiStore is the perfect gateway for you to exponentially grow your business via a host of notable features, many of which are unique to DubaiStore in the region.
– Abdallah Hassn Ahmed Hassan, CEO of DES
Dubaistore promises an array of features for merchants including your own dedicated webstore on the marketplace and various messenger and social media integrations including WhatsApp and Facebook. Obviously, they will be taking care of marketing and promotional activities too. As is typical in the region, payments will often be taken on delivery, but there will also be an integrated ‘noqodi’ payment gateway to facilitate online payments as well as integration with ZAJEL courier service to help seller make deliveries.
