Today, nobody disputes the importance of e-commerce. It makes people’s lives better and links east and west. Anyone can purchase any goods from anywhere in the world. This increased reliance on e-commerce and it being consumers’ first choice to shop, made it incredibly successful. The number of electronic stores around the world has dramatically increased, and they continue to.

The Middle East is a fertile environment for the growth of e-commerce, and experts predict that this growth will accelerate increasing the industry’s value to exceed $20 billion in 2020. Today, major companies are racing to take their place in this growing market, which will play a big role in the near future. Amazon, for example, acquired Souq.com with this in mind.

Syrian entrepreneurs are aware of the importance of e-commerce, which has led them to invest in it and start various projects based on the goods or target market. Today we will tell you the success story of five online stores established by Syrians only to become some of the most important stores in the Middle East and perhaps the world as well, and we will start with Souq.com.

Souq.com One of the largest Arab acquisitions ever

After a series of negotiations, one the largest acquisition deals in the Middle East was announced. In March 2017, Amazon’s $650 million acquisition of Souq.com was finalized, marking an important turn in the story of souq.com in particular and in Middle East e-commerce in general.

The company has passed through important stations that played an important role in its success. The company was established in 2005 as a bidding site. Samih Toukan, Hussam Khoury and, of course, its CEO, Ronaldo Mashhour, were behind this establishment.

The company continued as a bidding site until 2011 when it transformed to become a digital trading platform serving the Middle East and North Africa. During this period, the company acquired a number of investment tours and raised funding from a number of important international companies.

During the last of these investment tours the company raised $300 million to enter the Unicorn club and exceed $1 billion in valuation, the first company to do so in the region.

Souq.com has acquired a very large market share in Middle East e-commerce, which is proven by a staggering 45 million monthly visits. The company’s market share reached 80% at some point, providing millions of products covering a variety of fields.

Samma3a.com: Your portal to the world of great audio

To succeed in the world of e-commerce, requires a number of very important conditions. The most important of all is to find a gap in the market, allowing the store a strong point of entry. As is known there are many gaps in the Arab market in particular and the Middle East in general. Here enters Samma3a.com to specialize in consumer technology in general and acoustics in particular.

The store was designed by a group of music enthusiasts and audiophiles in Dubai to provide customers with a unique experience to satisfy their passion for everything related to audio, such as speakers, loudspeakers, microphones, music production and DJ equipment, not to mention games and accessories, mobile phones and wearable devices, and the product range is gradually expanding.

Project Gyalpa: To restore the traditional products status

Handcrafts do not stop at being art but can be an opportunity to work as well. Hence, the Gyalpa project was launched to take advantage of Syrian handicrafts such as shoes, clothes, cups and utensils, even home decoration and many other things.

The Gyalpa shop aims to market traditional products in a modern fashion and benefit from the e-commerce revolution, so that the sale of clothes and handcrafts helps women to improve their income.

This electronic store was established in Germany and functions in it. Lana Idris and Lina Abu Nabout started it as one of the solutions to help Syrian women enter the job market, to help themselves and their society, as well as to introduce German society and foreigners in general to our traditional products that we are proud of.

To learn more about this store and its beautiful story, we invite you to read this interview with Lina Abu Nabout.

Go to the world of electronic commerce

E-commerce opens wide horizons, and Shop Go focuses on one of the most important. On the one hand, you can start with an online store to sell a product, but on the other you can offer online stores and support them, and this is exactly what Shop Go does.

Many today want to start their own e-shops, but without the software experience they are not able to do so. Instead, they have to go to a programmer, explain the problem and get into an endless cycle of operations, let alone the enormous costs they will have to pay.

Fortunately, projects such as Shop Go help anyone who wants to start their e-shop in the Middle East. Shop Go’s e-commerce solutions are designed to fit the Middle East and North Africa, helping to build an e-project targeted at the region.

Whether you want to run a small business, an expert in electronic payment methods and local shipping companies, Shop Go will support you every step of the way to give you a focus on your project’s strengths. As starting your own business is a journey, the company will be keen to support you throughout your career.

Shop Go has about 22 employees, 130 business customers, 65% of them from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the cost of subscription is very acceptable and appropriate. According to its founder, Muhannad Ghashim, a Syrian entrepreneur, the company plans to launch its website in London and is working on a new product to help small shipping providers access the Internet. Ghashim hopes the product will have the potential to go international.

eWhale.co: Wholesale E-Commerce!

Selim Aqil, the founder of eWhale.co, began his entrepreneurial career very early in his undergraduate studies, seeing that there were countless opportunities in the vast world of the Internet. He began building websites for small businesses in Syria.

In 2011, he moved to the United Arab Emirates, specifically to Dubai, to start his way again with just $ 30,000, barely enough for a global city like Dubai, but he nevertheless managed to establish his new idea.

eWhale.co connects vendors and manufacturers with e-shop owners. This project does not compete with e-shops but complements them. If you want to start an e-store, just go to eWhale.co to get products that fit your target market. eWhale.co now has more than 300,000 products that include almost everything, and Aqil seeks to grow it to a million products, in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

The world of e-commerce is an almost never-ending world and the opportunities are almost countless. Everyday we see something new in this world. Despite everyone’s desire to start their business online, there are still many opportunities. You only need a crazy idea and good execution. Success will be your ally.

What do you think of the five projects? What is your vision for the future of e-commerce? Please share your comments with comments.