Omar Ashour and Hamad Al Khamees.
With Qatar’s retail sector seeing an increasing demand for digital services, hybrid stores – those that operate through the traditional brick-and-mortar shops while maintaining their online sales channels - are now considered the new normal in the retail world post-COVID-19.
According to market experts, many businesses in Doha have been quick to transform digitally out of necessity during the pandemic. However, there are still other businesses which were not successful to fully transition online. And they need to quickly adapt to the fast changing retail landscape in the country.
“For businesses to basically be anti-fragile and not be dependent on a single sales channel, they need to be flexible in their offerings. And being online is definitely important, and having the hybrid commerce is smart. This is the way people shop already, and I think this is the solution to prevent so much business going to international websites. This is the way we can help the local economy,” Omar Ashour, Co-founder and CEO of E-Butler told The Peninsula recently.
E-Butler, which was awarded by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) with the ‘E-Commerce Solution of the Year’ award during QITCOM 2019, was one of the forerunners in helping businesses shift to online channels during the pandemic. “Having competence in selling online and fulfilling customers’ (satisfaction) is the key. It’s a priority of business owners. They need to make the customers happy. Businesses not only have to focus on physical presence. They need a beautiful interior on their showroom and a professional approach to customer service. But they also need to start to really invest in their digital presence,” added Ashour.
According to the Founder and CEO of ASAPP Smart Solutions, Hamad Al Khamees, the reopening of malls and restaurants, as well as the future distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, will not hinder the growing demand for digital services, particularly in the F&B sector.
“I don’t think the vaccine will have a direct impact into what our business offers right now. What we do think though is that considering the times that we’re in today, people do want more digital services, whether there is a pandemic or not. So having an added service for people to actually tap into is quite beneficial for the restaurants, because we’re keeping up with the times,” he said while addressing the QDB’s Investment Forum recently.
ASAPP, which streamlines pre-orders for drive thru and pick-ups at coffee shops and restaurants across Qatar, also sees a projected growth of QR14.2m within Qatar’s F&B sector.
Meanwhile, E-Butler, which has been dubbed as Qatar’s one stop app for any service needed, has successfully raised a total of QR3.4m in a seed round from Qatari Angel investors and the QDB recently. This amount will be used to expand the company’s offerings to help more businesses recover from the pandemic by adopting hybrid commerce. The company now represents over 300 merchants in its online platform, and has over 50,000 downloads for the app.
“We are offering a different view of how marketplaces should be in a world where SMEs desperately need other sales channels and a quicker way to reach their customer, and not necessarily only paying advertising money on Facebook and competing on marketing spot. Having direct consumer online channel allows for scalability and makes the business more lean,” added Ashour.
