Archives for 2016

Global retail ecommerce sales are pegged to cross $4 trillion in 2020. Before your jaw drops at this whopping figure, pause to consider this: we‘re hovering about the $1 trillion mark this year itself. But ecommerce has been through a long journey before reaching the stage of exponential growth, and it keeps up this pace thanks to the innovation and dynamism shown by key … [Read more...] about What’s coming up: Ecommerce Trends in 2017

Arun Kumar, Head of Ecommerce at Embitel, recounts noteworthy happenings at Embitel in the last 12 months. "As the year started, we were certified as one of the few early Magento 2 Trained Solution Partners in India. We’ve successfully implemented projects on Magento for clients from various parts of the world, and we were excited to offer a new, more agile and scalable … [Read more...] about Looking back @ 2016: Our year in ecommerce

At almost 30% market share, Magento commerce is the most popular ecommerce platform globally. It’s not surprising—Magento is stable, cost-effective (especially for small and medium enterprises), offers flexibility and is compatible with a vast range of plug-ins and extensions. Magento’s capabilities make it a great choice for businesses in the Middle East. As one of the … [Read more...] about Magento ecommerce Implementation in the Middle East

Everybody’s talking about how ecommerce in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is still at a nascent stage. If you consider smartphone penetration in the region (over 65%), internet penetration (overall more than 90%), and compare it with the share of ecommerce in the GDP (0.4%), indeed there is immense growth potential. The GCC countries comprise Saudi Arabia, the … [Read more...] about How 4 Successful Ecommerce Companies in Middle East Have Overcome the Hurdles

The Middle East & North Africa (MENA) is the latest hotspot for online businesses, and with extremely high mobile broadband (wireless Internet access)penetration(over 100% in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates!), the mobile app is the dominating the buzz. What’s more, smartphone users in the Middle East recognize a good app when they see one, and don’t mind paying … [Read more...] about 5 Must Have Mobile Apps from the Middle East

Augmented reality is isn't just about Pokemon Go and gaming. Yes, the composite view created offers and immersive experience that transports the user into a near-alternate reality, but that feature doesn't have to be restricted to fictional games. What you do with augmented reality within your mobile app is up to you. It has popularly been used by home furniture stores such … [Read more...] about 5 Cool Augmented Reality Apps that Helped Businesses Boost Sales

Last week, India’s ecommerce giants Amazon and Flipkart started their war of words in anticipation of the festive season, claiming to respectively double and triple the previous year’s performance. There’s no argument about the importance of the “holiday season” in India for ecommerce retail. Referring to this pre-Diwali period of about 60 days, Rahul Taneja, a former VP at … [Read more...] about How to Get Your Retail Website & App Ready for the Festive Season

… [Read more...] about How much will an ecommerce website cost for your Small and Medium business?

What is digital transformation of a business? It is the use of technology to radically improve performance or reach of enterprises. The Guardian explains, it involves a “whole scale change to the foundational components of a business: from its operating model to its infrastructure. What it sells, to whom and how it goes to market. A transformation program touches every function … [Read more...] about Digital transformation for retail business 101

In our previous posts, we discussed the must-have features for the front end of a grocery webstore, tracing the customer’s journey right from browsing and selecting, to creating shopping lists and checking out. To enable these features there are several admin, operations- and logistics-related functions that should be supported by your ecommerce platform. Our SAP Hybris … [Read more...] about Online grocery webstore features for efficient operations and logistics – SAP hybris RDS demo (Part 3)

In the first part of our series on the features one must include when building an online grocery store, we discussed some of the front-end features for the customer’s browsing convenience. In this post, we discuss some of the features designed for a smooth checkout experience for your customers. As a low-margin but high-volume business in a country with a huge untapped market, … [Read more...] about Grocery webstore features for a seamless shopping experience – hybris RDS demo (Part 2)

You have a revolutionary business idea (B2B or B2C) and a passionate team who believes in this idea. You have identified your target market and are evaluating the most appropriate channel to help you reach your buyers. Or You are a successful offline business that has built a trustworthy brand over years of hard-work, persistence and adherence to quality.You have built a … [Read more...] about Launching an ecommerce website? Challenges faced by small and medium enterprises

As an FMCG and grocery retailer in India, when you take your business online, your webstore isn’t just another stream of revenue to supplement your brick-and-mortar outlet. To actually enjoy a share of the world’s fastest growing ecommerce market, your webstore needs to be designed and built in a way that ensures: an end-to-end replication of business operations … [Read more...] about Grocery webstore features for a seamless shopping experience – hybris RDS demo (Part I)

We’ve spoken about the rapidly increasing growth of ecommerce in the Middle East (Ecommerce trends in the UAE and rest of the Middle East) and shared success stories (Magento ecommerce success stories: Brands from the Middle East). But we aren’t going to tell you it’s a road paved with roses-every success story has its own share of hurdles. So what are the challenges you may … [Read more...] about What are the Challenges to eCommerce in the Middle East?

The Arab world is buzzing with potential for ecommerce and retail players, and early entrants are looking forward to gain the first mover advantage. To give you a lead on the competition, we’ve got all the stats on the buyer profile in the Middle East countries from Payfort’s State of Payments 2016 report compiled here. Ecommerce companies and retailers can use these facts … [Read more...] about Ecommerce in the Middle East – What are the demographics?

If one has to do an analysis of the UK’s retail industry in recent times, an upsurge in online sales will be seen across sectors. According to the UK Office of National Statistics, £7bn was spent in each week of April by retail consumers. Of this 13.4%, or £886.6m, was spent online. When compared to the same time last year, this is a 9.3% increase in online sales. The biggest … [Read more...] about Online retail in the UK: digital commerce success stories

Gartner’s 2016 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce evaluated 21 ecommerce platforms across 4 categories based on the completeness of their vision and their ability to execute. One of the digital commerce platforms that gave a tough fight to the Leaders (who really are an affordable option only to those with large businesses and deep pockets) is Magento Commerce. We aren’t … [Read more...] about Why Magento Enterprise Edition is one of the best digital commerce platforms for SMBs: Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report (free download)

Gartner has released its ‘Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce’ for 2016, and SAP hybris commerce has emerged as a ‘leader’ along with IBM, Oracle and Demandware. The quadrant splits digital commerce technology vendors into 4 categories-leaders, challengers, visionaries, and niche players-on the basis of completeness of vision and the ability to execute. The Magic Quadrant … [Read more...] about SAP hybris – a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce (free download)

The Middle East is a burgeoning region for the ecommerce industry. With the highest penetration of internet users per capita, the rapid rise of m-commerce and eagerness of the population to avail of the conveniences of online shopping, it’s a market waiting to be tapped. Yet there are reasons why the market is in its current nascent stage: The customers’ reluctance to … [Read more...] about Magento Ecommerce Success Stories: Brands from the Middle East

A sure sign of the immense potential of the ecommerce market in a region is when payment gateway companies flock to the region, working hard to document the scope and attract ecommerce players to the region. So we have MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, all presenting reports on the state of ecommerce in the Middle East. It’s not surprising though. The Middle East is well known for … [Read more...] about Ecommerce trends in the UAE and rest of the Middle East

When Magento Commerce announced Magento 2 platform with much fanfare, the question asked everywhere was obvious – is it really so much better? So the brand decided to put the new platform to test. It compared the performance of Magento 2 against Magento 1.14.2 on several parameters. The results speak for themselves.   Magento 2 features Magento Commerce promises … [Read more...] about Magento 2 v/s Magento 1.X benchmark tests: Results reveal why magento 2 migration is a good idea

Magento’s success as an ecommerce platform is official !   In a recent study of the list of Alexa top 1 million websites, Magento platform stores comprise the largest chunk of ecommerce websites.Alexa, the information analytics giant, provides a list of the top 1 million websites based on traffic. Ecommerce extensions provider aheadWorks studied the list … [Read more...] about Magento stores dominate Alexa ecommerce site listing

Magento has been the Ecommerce Platform of choice for many successful online businesses, and with good reason. With Magento, a business can build a stable Web-store with vast scope for customization. This ensures all your unique business needs are implemented and your customers have a convenient shopping experience. In order to get the most out of this powerful ecommerce … [Read more...] about Top 5 Magento extensions for your Ecommerce Web-store

When gender parity was announced as the theme for International Women’s Day this year, we got thinking. The need to call for parity arises because there is discrimination—but then how do we have so many women achievers at Embitel? Turns out behind every successful woman are two differentiating factors: First, a spouse or family that defies conventional thinking and … [Read more...] about Celebrating Gender Parity this Women’s Day | Stories Worth Sharing

"Your Online Grocery store can now go Live in just 100 days!" Technology is a great enabler of your ecommerce business ideas.But at times project over-run costs can severely impact not only the bottom-line but also your time-to-market. In order to safe-guard your business from such repercussions, our team of Ecommerce Business and Technology Consultants has designed a … [Read more...] about hybris based Rapid Deployment Solution (RDS) for Online Grocery business

"Omnichannel Jarir Experience across web-store and in-store" Jarir Bookstores is one of the very special, challenging and fulfilling projects for my entire team. HQ in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jarir is a one-stop shop for office and school supplies. Designed on Magento Enterprise Edition, Jarir.com has evolved as an online channel to deliver an un-matched expereince for Jarir … [Read more...] about Omnichannel Jarir Experience across web-store and in-store

"We are now a Magento 2 trained Solution Partner" With great pride and honor, I extend my best wishes and heartiest congratulations to the entire Magento Ecommerce team for completing Magento 2 certification. I would also like to thank Magento Commerce team for choosing us as one of the very few Solution Partners from India to participate in Magento 2 program. Having … [Read more...] about Magento 2 trained solution partner

… [Read more...] about Why You Should Be a hybris Developer @ Embitel

When the last year ended, our ecommerce team did a quick appraisal and found they covered a lot of ground in 2015. From making structural changes within the team and projects going live, to new partnerships, Embitel’s ecommerce team was always on their toes! Looking at the projects pipeline, the team is anticipating an even brisker pace in twenty 16. Amidst all the team … [Read more...] about Throwback 2015 – Embitel’s Ecommerce Wins

For Nancy Nithya, Embitel’s Quality Assurance manager, 2015 was a year of continuous progress and learnings. As she looks back, she shares her accomplishments during the year and her plans to intensify Embitel’s quality assurance efforts in 2016. Quality Assurance for maintenance projects “For our projects, following correct process is all important for maximum efficiency … [Read more...] about Embitel’s 2015 – QA Initiatives that Made a Difference

With customers interacting with brands across online (app, social media and web-storefront) and offline (stores, kiosks) channels, businesses realized the need to deliver a seamless experience to the customer across touch points – a customer can ‘add-to-cart’ through app, complete payments on website and pick-up product from store. 2015 marked this realization and witnessed … [Read more...] about Retail Technology in 2015: A Look Back at the Trends in Omnichannel Commerce