Archive for e-commerce

Arab region bubble … My view

June 17, 2012 e-commerce, Uncategorized 2 comments

What you will read here is just an idea and personal analysis, if you do not like it stop reading at this point.

 

What is occurring in the region now is that there are a large number of projects  with high costs, zero profitability and non-existent returns.

No names here, but if you want a list, email me :D

The main objective of most “start-ups” in the region is to get funding to pay salaries, not to finance expansion or move to the next phase.

We now have projects in the region pumping millions of dollars per month for high salaries, huge marketing budgets, crazy advertising, premium office costs …. etc.  Few people in the region have the goal to build a profitable, sustainable business. Everyone is spend like crazy to build THE platform that will attract a buyer/investor from the West who will rescue their finances and somehow magically start turning their business into a profitable one.

This way of thinking and action can succeed by luck several times, but it is impossible for some of these “cool” or flashy projects to continue to exist. Looking at some of these marketing budgets I think the Middle East is ready for our own Pets.com. And it will not be just one!!

And this will happen soon and will be disastrous for many people. But it would be useful to correct the industry and get all the crazy dreamers out. Keep entrepreneurs who aim to build successful, REAL projects in.

Silaal is a free open source e-commerce system coming soon

March 2, 2012 e-commerce, PHP No comments

I have worked on many of the e-commerce systems like Magneto and Prestashop, and I built big e-commerce systems using a framework like Zend and Kohana but every time I rebuild many  same parts again and solve same problems related to shipping integration and Arabic language support and local payment Gateways integrations.

So a few days I ago I came up with the idea of ​​building an arabic e-commerce system using the fastest PHP framework, Yii.
I met with some friends (Moayed – Nawras – Issam) who loved the idea. We have started working on it, and we hope to launch a first version after a short period. Of course, the project is open to all developers.

 

Project site: http://code.google.com/p/silaal/