By Sachin Kumar
DOHA: The government is planning to take several measures, including opening up the postal service for competition, to boost e-commerce market. H E Dr Hessa Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, said yesterday that the government has put a policy in place to liberalise the postal delivery.
“We are opening up the postal services market to competition. The government has put a policy in place to liberalise the postal delivery and also making suitable amendments to the Postal Law,” said the minister addressing Qatar’s e-Commerce Forum held at Ritz-Carlton Hotel yesterday.
Opening up the postal service, where Q-Post is the sole player currently, would likely allow other private companies to enter Qatar’s logistic market.
Other measures to encourage e-commerce sector include enforcing e-transactions law and empowering merchants, consumers, start-ups and e-commerce service providers.
“We are enforcing e-transactions law by issuing the suitable set of policies and guidelines that will be developed by stakeholders coming together as joint working groups,” she said.
“We are implementing the Qbuy Programme as an information hub to empower merchants, consumers, start-ups and e-commerce service providers in Qatar,” she added.
Dr Al Jaber said that Qatar’s e-commerce market is poised to grow in the future.
According to ‘Qatar National e-Commerce Roadmap 2015’ report released yesterday at the forum, Qatar’s B2C (Business-to-Customer) Market, currently estimated to be around $1bn, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 percent over the next five years.
The B2B (Business-to-Business) market, currently pegged at $1.3bn is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent, a rate higher than global average.
“We found that a number of inhibitors are impeding the development of a robust e-commerce ecosystem in Qatar. We are working to overcome some of those inhibitors,” said Dr Al Jaber.
The minister added that the biggest challenge for most e-commerce businesses is to collect, store and organise data from multiple data sources.
“There is certainly a lot of data waiting to be analysed and it is a daunting task for some e-commerce businesses to make sense of it all,” she said.
“Big Data paves the way for more organised data and enables business owners or marketing managers to track and better understand a variety of information from many different sources”.
Q-Post Chairman and Managing Director Faleh Mohammed Al Naemi gave an overview of success of Qatar’s modernised delivery system.
Along with ictQatar and partners, Q-Post has processed close to 400,000 transactions over the last three months, he said. He added that Q-Shop would be launched next year.
Experts said that building consumer trust by assuring them security of critical personal financial data will propel e-commerce in Qatar.
Secure payment gateways, safe online transactions, protecting consumer’s financial data and building logistics network will spur e-commerce in Qatar.
“Online payments have to be secure. They should give consumers confidence that their transactions are safe.
“This is where banks come in to provide secure payment gateways with through credit, debit, click cards or e-wallet,” said Suresh Bajpai, Head of Retail Banking, Doha Bank.
CEO of Qatarbestdeals Dr Aiman Erbad said: “E-commerce is evolving, it is yet to mature in Qatar.
“The local market is thirsty since e-commerce penetration is around 14 percent”.
The Peninsula
