eCommerce in the Middle East is developing at a great pace and is expected to clock $ 49 billion in sales by 2021 which gives a highly positive indication for businesses looking to start selling online.
Online selling has become the new normal for retailers and brands in the Middle East due to a sudden shift seen in the behaviour of customers. Over 48% of shoppers in the region go on multiple online sites to look for products, make comparisons and to make a purchase.
The reasons for such a shift in behaviour is because of the variety of options available for consumers to shop from, the lower priced options and the convenience to get things delivered right at their doorsteps.
In order to make the most of the current situation of eCommerce in the GCC region, selling on the top online marketplaces and websites becomes important.
One of the biggest marketplaces in the GCC region is Noon, a fully homegrown digital marketplace that has been active since 2017 and has gained around 2 million customers over the years.
| Read this article to know more about the 2021 Omnichannel Retail Trends in the Middle East |
Noon is a well-renowned marketplace with the biggest number of online sellers and a variety of products available. The platform is suitable for sellers who wish to sell new, used or refurbished products with the freedom to have complete visibility and control over their sales, operations, etc.
The platform provides two modes of selling, one that is known as Noon FBN or fulfilled by noon and the other as B2B to give flexible options to businesses.
But you may wonder, why exactly should you start selling on Noon and what all benefits can the platform offer to your business? Read on to find out.
Why Become a Seller on Noon?
Noon had recently concluded one of the biggest sales in the Middle East named Yellow Friday Sale for a full week starting November 24th 2020 until November 29th 2020. To make the sale even bigger, Noon got the biggest Bollywood Starts including Shah Rukh Khan to encourage shoppers to shop during the sale by sharing a video message.
Promoting the event further, the Managing Director and CTO of Noon, Hisham Zarka, said that: “We have an important mission at noon – to help local businesses, SMEs, and entrepreneurs sell and deliver their products to a wider audience across the Middle East. Our Yellow Friday Sale was created to amplify this, to allow local businesses to join a global retail event, right here in the region.” according to a TradeArabia report.
The Yellow Friday sale was started in 2018 by the marketplace to engage more and more audiences, provide them with amazing offers and discounts and ultimately increase profits and boost sales. The event became a huge success in the very first year, and seeing that Noon came back with an even bigger sale this year, 25 million sized sales to be exact!
The leading marketplace offered discounts up to 80% on the original price and sold items from almost all product lines, including beauty, gadgets, accessories, clothes and a lot more, the sale saw a massive jump in terms of profits and customer footfall.
Prior to the sale, a Noon spokesperson estimated that this time the sale is all set to see over 25 million unique visitors on their website and app, making the Yellow Festive Sale a truly gigantic affair.
With such a large customer base and more than thousands of sellers already present on the platform, it is quite understandable why you need to start your eCommerce selling at Noon.
Apart from just the why, you also get a plethora of benefits when you begin selling from the platform, some of which include:
- Great exposure to audiences
- More traffic on your website/online store
- Increase in the pool of customers
- More trust amongst shoppers to buy from you
- Little to no requirement of having your own workspace
- Lesser manual dependency
- More to learn with the help of Noon support and teaching centres
Now that you know why, let us move on to the how, as in what are the methods and steps to start selling on the platform.
How to Become a Seller on Noon?
In order to begin your eCommerce sales on Noon, there are certain requirements that you need to fulfil based on which you will be eligible to become a Noon seller and take your eCommerce business to the next level.
1. For Registration
The first of it all is to own a valid trading license and be a registered company in the UAE, KSA and Egypt. For those who have a license, the next step is to create an account on Noon.com, submit copies of all the required documents and pay a small amount known as a noon seller fees.
The list of important paper you need to have by your side when registering on the platform include:
- Trading license or Commercial Registration
- Passport or Residence ID
- Residence VIsa for non-nationals
- Proof of purchase/invoice
- Letter from distribution authorization, or a manufacturer permit/certificate
- VAT certificate or VAT non-enrollment declaration for those who aren’t registered
Once you are done with the documentation process, you need to wait for a week in order for the noon seller support team to check and validate the information shared by you and help you with any noon seller training if required.
2. For Payments
After your account is live, you need to give bank details in order to receive payments for all your sales and purchases. For that you need to provide the below details on a signed and stamped company letterhead:
- Legal name of the company
- Bank account number
- Iban
- Swift code
- Bank branch
- Store currency (once chosen, it wouldn’t be possible to change it in the future)
- Cancelled check that has company’s legal name, the bank account number, and IBAN
3. For Fulfilment
Post activation of your account, you can choose either one of Noon fulfilment options that the platform offers or even go with both the options as long as your inventory is kept separately for each of the options.
- Noon B2B Fulfilment
Going for the basic B2B or Back to Back selling mode of fulfilment, you are in charge of handling and maintaining your products. Once you receive an order the Noon logistics team known as noon express picks up the order from your facility and takes it to their own fulfilment centre from where it is packed, shipped and delivered.
The advantage of choosing this mode of operation is that you get to have complete control of the pricing, processing and quality of your products.
| Read this article to know more about the Unicommerce and Noon integration: http://support.unicommerce.com/index.php/knowledge-base/integration-with-noon/ |
- Noon FBN
When you choose Noon FBN or Fulfilled by noon, you allow the marketplace to store your products in their own fulfilment centres, manage and maintain it and deliver to the customers from there itself.
The benefit of choosing this mode of operation is that you only have to focus on promoting your business and fixing the prices.
| Unicommerce provides seamless integrations with Noon FBN.
Read here to know more: http://support.unicommerce.com/index.php/knowledge-base/integration-with-noon-fbn/ |
All of these are the legal requirements that you must have in order to be a Noon seller but just beginning on the marketplace will not give you immediate profits, you require the right technology support to handle your operations, maintain your inventory, order and fulfilment, manage warehouse operations and much more.
Unicommerce is your one-stop solutions provider that can streamline these processes and generate profits for your business with its robust and highly advanced technology solutions.
Experience Seamless Integration with Noon using Unicommerce
The fully integrated system of Noon on Unicommerce provides your business with the ease to start selling right away and set up shop with multiple plugins to help you have a streamlined experience.
Unicommerce allows all the top solutions for your business to help you manage your operations, have seamless ecommerce integrations, and become a top seller on Noon, all from a single platform.
With Unicommerce you’ll be able to:
- Create your online site using platforms such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce
- Have a robust inventory management system
- Achieve successful order fulfilment rates
- Onboard top logistics partners such as DHL, FedEx, Aramex, etc
- Tackle ERP and accounting needs
- Handle invoicing and better understand the VAT laws in the Middle East