Screen shots of items being sold by social commerce merchants in Qatar
Qatar’s thriving social commerce market, where merchants who are usually home-based entrepreneurs sell items through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms, needs to be regulated. This will boost confidence among local home-based entrepreneurs, as well as protect consumers from falling prey to fake products, an expert has said.
Previously, local social commerce industry has been estimated to be worth $22m. However, new figures indicate that Qatar’s social commerce market has significantly grown to be worth over $80m.
“A Qatar Development Bank (QDB) study found that there were a total of 1,458 home-based entrepreneurs or social commerce merchants in Qatar in 2015. With a conservative approach of a 10 percent growth rate, the number of home-based businesses has now increased to 2,348. But still, there are many home-based entrepreneurs who are not registered and are operating in Qatar using social media channels, and no estimation has yet been made for them. Everyday the number of social commerce merchants is growing. Currently, Qatar’s social commerce market is estimated to be worth over an $80m industry,” Waqas Iqbal, Digital Payments Manager at Twyla Technology, told The Peninsula.
Iqbal was the featured speaker for the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ (MoTC) digital session on ‘Social Commerce in Qatar’, which was held recently as part of the MoTC’s ongoing series for its ‘Digital Transformation of SMEs’ programme.
He added: “Right now, another problem faced by social commerce merchants is their electronic set up is not recorded. They need to be unified in a platform, such as a central invoicing solution, or a single application that facilitates all of these merchants to generate orders electronically. Having prepaid payments instead of the cash on delivery system will help merchants prevent last minute cancellation orders. For the consumers, it will be highly possible that merchants will only send authentic products because they are registered.
“It’s digitising the entire value chain, and the Qatari government is basically looking into it. With the 2022 World Cup coming up, there will be much more social commerce merchants here in Qatar. So definitely there is something we are expecting from the Central Bank on this,” Iqbal added.
According to a study conducted by the MoTC, about 17 percent of social media users in Qatar harness social media networks for social commerce, with Qataris and females being the most likely to do so. Instagram is the leading social network for social commerce among Qataris. While Facebook is the primary social network for social commerce for non-Qataris, with 8 percent using this network for this purpose, compared to just 2 percent of Qataris.
The report also highlighted the payment method for social commerce, which works by users placing orders for goods via social media channels, but still paying for their items in person, instead of via an e-commerce platform like PayPal or PayFort. The study reiterated that understanding the growing trend in social commerce can help inform policy and practice as Qatar seeks to develop its digital economy.
