Doha: Qatar’s e-commerce market is expected to grow $3.2bn in the current year that is evident by its positive growth. Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is helping develop e-commerce in Qatar by establishing regulations and requirements to be trusted and has introduced several initiatives to support ideas of entrepreneurs in the field of e-commerce according to a Newsletter released by the ministry, recently.
With the growth of e-commerce in Qatar, the need for additional high-value services is also increasing. “Online business owners are increasingly outsourcing professionals in areas as diverse as fulfillment, delivery, web hosting, technical support, website development and design, customer service, and administrative support. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology cooperates with local companies to provide the best solutions for eMerchants, ensuring the country’s e-commerce ecosystem’s growth and competitive constituency.
In Qatar, there are three types of service providers in the e-commerce system: eCommerce Website Services, Payment Gateways & Payment Solutions, Logistics Providers,” the August 2022 eCommerce publication said.
The e-commerce portal includes several benefits to support companies registered in Qatar and the website is designed to streamline e-commerce companies’ communications services and processes online. “The e-commerce market in Qatar stood at $1bn in 2014, increasing to $2.4bn in 2020 and is expected to reach $3.2bn in 2022. According to Qatar Central Bank data the value of transactions made through e-commerce channel stood at QR0.68m in 2018 reaching QR2.8m and QR7.2m in 2019 and 2020 respectively,” it stated.
Qatar ranked number one globally in Internet Adoption according to The Global State of Digital 2021. MCIT has developed the eCommerce Guidelines to guide and help Qatar’s eMerchants understand and achieve eCommerce best practices. They are formulated with key input from industry experts and are the first of their kind in the country which include security, technology, terms and conditions user experience, user interface design.
The publication further said that 12-seminar series of e-commerce for current and future eMerchants were held to provide information on practices and guidelines related to online business in Qatar. The total number of webinar participants were 2,430. The webinars aimed to teach e-commerce merchants about e-commerce fundamentals, best practices, and international standards and address the challenges that e-commerce businesses face and the attendees benefited from Theqa certified SMEs’ experiences and success stories.
Theqa is Qatar’s e-commerce trustmark, is an active programme that will certify local online merchants based on a set of identified criteria and monitor its members adherence to the code of conduct. It empowers consumers and companies to quickly and safely grow the local e-commerce market. There is a total of 269 certified eMerchants. Every eMerchant in Qatar is eligible to proudly display the e-commerce Theqa badge after fulfilling the conditions for obtaining a Theqa mark by the e-commerce team at MCIT.
