Online retail gains ground in Lebanon after COVID-19 outbreak
Source: Xinhua | 2020-08-30
Online retailing activities have increased remarkably following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Lebanon, industry experts say.
"We were going to reach a point where online businesses will become the trendiest but COVID-19 outbreak fastened this process," Samer Semaan, co-founder and managing director at Sync Digital Solutions, told Xinhua.
Semaan explained that the culture for online purchases was not ready in Lebanon but now it has become easier for people to buy online and the surge will continue in the coming three to four years.
Semaan sells to his clients platforms that can be customized for each business or retailer in terms of design and then it can be up and running within three to four months along with a mobile application.
He noted that he is currently working with three big retailers while he saw great demand by small to medium retailers.
"We used to work on 3 to 4 e-commerce platforms a year but now we are doing one or two per month," he said.
Lebanon's fight against COVID-19 started on February 21, creating panic and fear among the Lebanese prompting the health ministry to take tough precautionary measures which reaped great benefits at the beginning.
However, when Lebanon opened its airport, COVID-19 cases surged as arrivals did not commit properly to quarantine measures.
Lebanon's number of COVID-19 cases currently exceeded 15,000 while death toll stood at 148 so far.
Sara Sayegh, who has an online business selling clothes, said that people were shocked when COVID-19 started in Lebanon and they feared online orders because they were not certain about the hygiene situation of the products they planned on buying.
However, she added, when people gained awareness about proper hygiene methods, they started buying all over again.
"People are buying more online for now especially clothes that can be worn at home since people are not going out much these days to protect themselves against the virus," Sayegh told Xinhua.
Sayegh, who owns Sarah Selection on Instagram, said her marketing strategy has changed as she started promoting clothes that are mostly in demand by people and affordable for most of them amid the current economic crisis and steep hike in prices.
She noted that people are much more into buying online that they have been demanding from her to create a section for men which she will be starting very soon.
"I believe that this trend will continue for the future in Lebanon especially that most online retailers are offering 'cash on delivery' choices which is the easiest for most people," she said.
Meanwhile, Nisreen el Amin, marketing manager at GiftonClick, an online solution dedicated for gift shoppers within Lebanon and abroad, told Xinhua that GiftonClick has been able to attract more suppliers to post products on their platform since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Lebanon.
"People have started demanding more products online and sales have increased," el Amin said.
El Amin, who also works for a gym in Beirut, said that even gyms in Lebanon have started posting videos on their websites and social media accounts to keep people posted about their online activities and prevent their clients from going to other gyms.
"Lots of gyms did this to remind their clients that they are still in business and they have shut down temporarily only due to COVID-19," she said.
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