There is a belief, perhaps a myth, that ‘digital’ in the MENA region is somewhat behind the rest of the world. I’d challenge that assumption. I’d argue that overcoming some of the nuances and restrictions that are particular to the region mean that digital solutions need to be more clever than markets like California and London.
There are few decent events and conversations around ‘Digital’, and there are even fewer decent events that tackle Ecommerce specifically, so I was keen to see what the new Digitalks series would offer.
The event was advertised as:
Digitalks first edition will focus on “The Rising Ecommerce Trends in the Middle East”, addressing MENA’s online commerce market.
Unfortunately, there is a tendency by Marketing people to overestimate their role in the multidisciplinary business process that is Ecommerce. The topic is so vast, that even a discussion around trends is hard to fit into a few hours.
A few insights…
- Pureplay online marketplaces need to be taught how to merchandise certain products and categories. Understanding of customer shopping behaviour is where retailers and brands can add value.
- Install a ‘conversion pixel’ if you can. (Of course this scares some people as they may have to account for their results.)
- Don’t choose your influencers based on number of followers.
- Social selling is not disruptive, it is just another channel.
- Out of Stock is just as much a problem online as it is offline, perhaps. (Though integrated marketing tools solve the issue of advertising a product that is out of stock, without needing to crawl a site.)
In the interests of objectivity, I paid for a ticket to the event. As a paying customer, I truly believe that the events business in the GCC is broken. The practice of charging delegates to be sold to and charging sponsors for an opportunity to sell to that same audience is cynical and doesn’t help either side.
If a vendor has the most engaging speaker, who is a subject matter expert, with real insight, then why should they have to pay to have that person impart their knowledge to an audience?
If a delegate has paid money to be at an event, they shouldn’t be subjected to generic ads that they could watch on a company’s YouTube channel if they wanted to.
So the subject matter ranged from generic overseas examples (mention of Amazon should be banned in any MENA ecommerce discussion), to thoughts about UX, the pursuit of personalisation, value of influencers and use of data, but very little discussion about online shopping, let alone commerce in the region.
How you can do a session on Ecommerce UX in the GCC and not even mention payments suggests that many people still think that the customer experience ends when the buy button is clicked. Details like payments, returns, customer service and fulfillment just magically happen.
I’m not saying that the subject matter presented was not important or interesting, it just had very little to do with the advertised topic.
There was no mention of business models – whether marketplaces would continue to be preferred over stand-alone brand sites. There was no discussion around ecommerce platform options – whether local businesses were moving towards SaaS or PaaS systems. There was no discussion around the regulatory environment, the implications of VAT or even regional demographics. No mention was made about the ability to attract and retain talent, or what skillsets were needed.
I pondered whether to write this blog. I thought perhaps I was being too negative and then I saw an article by the Khaleej Times and wondered – were you even at the same event? “Visionary Keynotes?”
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