Matajer: A Hosted Arab E-Commerce Solution For Online Stores

E-commerce could very well be one of the hardest areas for an online startup from the Arab world to establish itself in, with many attempting to make breakthroughs in this space over the years and only a few barely making it, even though we have yet to witness THE big success.

Matajer is taking a stab at this space from a different angle, not by launching their own store or trying to become the one central shopping destination for regional users, not even by jumping on the daily deal bandwagon, but rather by providing a comprehensive solution to enable companies to easily create their own online stores to start selling their products online right away.

By doing this, Matajer is mainly focusing on providing the technical platform required to run an online store, but leaving the actual running and promotion of the store to the companies who choose to start them up.

The solution covers all areas of running an online store from tools to set up and design the store itself, to covering product inventory, handling payments, calculating shipping fees, offering promotions and many more essentials of operating an e-commerce store.

Even though it’s the sellers’ responsibility to market their stores, the platform does also integrate some marketing features into it, most important of which is the possibility to integrate with Facebook through an application that enables sellers to link their stores and have their products show up on their Facebook pages to be able to promote their products on the social network. The platform also provides SEO features to make the stores more search engine friendly and enhance their rankings, as well as integration possibilities with Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing.

Sellers are presented with a range of paid subscription plans with different options to suit their needs. Plan prices range from 499 Saudi Riyals (US$133) to 999 Saudi Riyals (US$266), with the possibility of a custom plan being put together for companies. No free option is provided.

Matajer was launched in January, and have announced that over 190 companies and independent dealers have signed up to use the service so far. The team behind the site are currently seeking investment in order to move on with their plans for the site and develop it further with more features and services.