Delayed e-commerce platform Noon.com is ‘coming soon’, according to an email message to sellers seen by Thomson Reuters Projects.

Sources familiar with noon’s launch plans told Thomson Reuters Projects that the platform is expected to go live next week.

Dubai billionaire Mohamed Alabbar, the founder of Noon, announced in November last year that the $1 billion shopping portal was due to launch in January 2017, with a lineup of 20 million products.

In an email to sellers on Monday, the company stated: “Get set, noon is coming soon...”

The subject of the message said that the “final countdown has begun”. 

The email to sellers shared tips on how they can get “a head start” and ensure they are ready to “sell to millions of customers and maintain a top score as a seller”. 

'Use competitive pricing'
The advice included recommending that sellers regularly update stock levels so their ratings are not affected by products running out. It also recommended that sellers “always use a competitive pricing strategy”, and cautioned them to ensure orders are ready for pick-up within the promised processing time.

It added that cancellations or late processing of orders would affect a vendor’s score under a programme set up to monitor vendors’ performance.

Last week, Kuwaiti franchise operator M.H. Alshaya bought a stake in Noon, but the size of the investment was not made public. Alshaya is the first retailer to announce a partnership with the company.

Noon announced in July that it had appointed former co-founder and managing director of Middle East fashion online retailer Namshi, Faraz Khalid, as its chief executive officer.

Dubai-based Emaar Malls, the shopping malls and retail business division of Emaar Properties, announced in May it will acquire a 51 percent stake in Namshi for $151 million. Alabbar, who is also the founder and chairman of Emaar Properties, said in July that Noon was “on track” to launch this year with final work on its fulfillment infrastructure and payment systems being completed.

He said several of the region’s leading brand owners and suppliers had come on board and that he was confident that new CEO Khalid would “deliver an e-commerce platform like no other in the region”.

Noon has faced several issues since the venture was announced in November, including the departure of its former CEO Fodhil Benturquia, its newly-appointed chief technology officer, and other staff.

Sources attributed the exits to teething problems.

“Due to the shift in our operational base and the need for even greater efficiencies, there have been nominal staff reallocations and changes,” a Noon spokesman told Reuters in May.

Noon is a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and a group of prominent gulf investors.

The acquisition of Namshi and online marketplace Jadopado came soon after American e-commerce giant Amazon won against an $800 million bid by Dubai’s Emaar Malls to acquire 100 percent of Middle East online retailer Souq.com.

Global consultancy A.T. Kearney said the Gulf region's e-commerce market is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2020, according to a report published last year.


© Zawya 2017