Satyendra Pathak
Doha
In a major boost to Qatar’s e-commerce market, Souq Al Baladi, Qatar’s favourite market, launched the biggest online shopping platform in the country ‘Baladi Express’ for customers during a glittering ceremony held at the Velero Hotel in Lusail on Saturday.
The launch ceremony was attended by Al Baladi Holding Group Chairman Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Attiyah and FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta. A number of dignitaries, industry officials, and media persons were also present on the occasion.
Aimed at making online shopping easier for people in Qatar, the ‘Baladi Express’ has the largest selection of brands with over 150,000 items including deliveries from over 3,000 restaurants in Qatar.
An audio and video presentation to navigate through the online shopping platform was also made at the launch event.
Commenting on the launch of ‘Baladi Express’, Al Baladi Holding Group Chairman Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Attiyah said, "We have launched Baladi Express with a promise to make it the Arabic equivalent of Amazon and Alibaba. It is an e-commerce platform born from the renowned Souq al Baladi, a subsidiary of the al Baladi Group. Our mission is to grow and thrive as a local and regional online retail brand.”
"We have plans to take it to other countries in the GCC region and beyond. Our vision is to be number one in Qatar first and then we will roll out this experience in different countries in GCC, Middle East and Africa, Europe, and other countries around the world,” Attiyah said.
As pioneers of e-commerce in Qatar, Attiyah said, "We are proud to be Qatar’s most trusted platform for online shopping and the best delivery service. Your order is safe with our delivery heroes. Our items are exclusively delivered by cars to guarantee the freshness of your order.”
"We built the Baladi Express platform with a huge IT team, very experienced and very skilled people from around the world from India, Pakistan, and Egypt. It’s a huge team consisting of consultants, experts in global databases, system analysts, system architects, and others,” the chairman said.
"We have also built hardware infrastructure. We have built the cloud. It’s a private cloud with a huge data center, locally hosted here in Qatar. In the security and security tools, we have very strong tools to secure our data and our application. The platform is built upon the latest technology with the most recent programming language,” Attiyah said.
Speaking on the occasion, Al Baladi Holding CEO Hany Al Sayyadi said, "It is a pleasure and honour to introduce to you our latest project, the launch of Al Baladi Express, a project that took years of hard work, dedication, and gathered experts from all over the world to present to our dear costumers the best quality of service.”
"Baladi Express is a delivery platform for all essential requirements from food, fresh, health and wellness products, flowers, fashion and so much more. We believe that this platform will be a revolution in how people buy and receive their food, groceries, and essential products,” Sayyadi said.
With Baladi Express, Sayyadi said, "We are not only targeting the local market but we aim to reach out to the international market and here we start our big aim for the world.”
"We built a strong infrastructure for Baladi Express using the latest technology and tools. And to optimise our services we stand independent in terms of supply chain management and fleets,” he said.
While we are very sound technology-wise, Sayyadi said, "Business-wise, we aim to deliver everything to everywhere in Qatar with free-of-charge fast deliveries 24x7, high-quality products at low prices. These are the key features and the key added values that we will add in addition to the varieties of the items and products.
"Our application contains over 150,000 items categorised and classified in the application in a very proper way. It’s an easy, user-friendly application with different payment methods. Loyalty programmes and rewards points are included in the application.”
"You place your order, and we will deliver within a maximum of 60 minutes, most of the time within 30 minutes. Not only that, we promise to preserve the quality of your items with our "best delivery service” system across Qatar. Whether you place your order from Doha, Al Khor, Wakrah, Al Shamal, or even if you are camping with friends in the middle of the desert, we will deliver to you within our promised time,” Sayyadi said.
To provide efficient after-sales service, Sayyadi said, "We have the biggest call center for this application. One can just dial 8006000 and a big team in the call center will be available to answer and solve customers’ problems at the same time. There is compensation for any defects or any problem faced by any customer. We are committed to providing full satisfaction to our customers and changing the mind of people about online shopping and e-commerce.”
He said, "We ensure that all items marked in the application including grocery, food, non-food, household electronic devices, pharmacies, medicine, medical supply, flowers, gifts, chocolates, and others are readily available for delivery from our six warehouses exclusively for e-commerce and over 50 Express Stores spread across the country.”
To ensure that all the products that the platform is offering are available all the time for customers, he said, "We have launched the biggest e-store with space of 15,000 square meter in Barwa Commercial Avenue. Besides this, we also have five more warehouses in different locations in the country. Our application is programmed in a very smart way to identify the location of the customer. The moment an order is placed, it will reach the nearest warehouse and the delivery will be done in the shortest possible time.”
Providing more details about the platform, Baladi Express General Manager Dr Mohammed Ali Othman said, "Based on our belief that innovation and technological advancements are the driving forces behind the development of the e-commerce sector, we have built this largest online shopping platform in Qatar. Baladi Express introduces a new and innovative concept to enhance the online shopping experience, providing users with an easy, flexible, and secured shopping journey that ensures complete satisfaction.”
At Baladi Express, Othman said, "We have a dedicated team of experts and consultants in the field of information systems and technology, they are involved to build this robust and powerful platform. It is built on an infrastructure that adheres to the latest global systems and standards.”
Highlighting that the company has built the largest private cloud environment and a secured data center by using state-of-the-art technologies, he said, "The platform relies on a massive database and utilises the latest systems for managing operations, inventory, financial management, map management, and geographic information systems (GIS).
"Our comprehensive platform offers a wide range of products, exceeding 150,000 items, making it the largest application in the field. We are committed to providing the best shopping experience for our customers, and we will continuously work to improve and develop the Baladi Express platform to meet the expectations and needs of our customers.”
About the investment made by the company in the online shopping platform, Othman said, "We have invested huge money in the technology to build this platform. More than 30 experts and consultants from different parts of the world are working on it. Also, we have made huge investments in hardware, security tools, firewall switches, and high-speed lines from Ooredoo and Vodafone. Besides, we have also invested in having a satellite line, just to ensure that all options are available and the operations never stop. Considerable investment has been made to ensure that this comprehensive system is scalable and applicable in multiple countries worldwide.”
"Also, a huge investment is made to have a fleet of 2,000 cars and 1,000 bikes for delivery. Accordingly, we have over 5,000 drivers to deliver orders on time. We have already invested a lot in the training and obtaining driving licenses for these thousands of drivers,” he said.
Revealing that local sporting icon Nasser Al Attiyah and the world champion Ronaldinho will be the brand ambassadors of ‘Baladi Express’, he said, "With such huge stars as our brand ambassadors, I am sure it will have a big impact on our popularity that will ultimately result in cementing the position of our brand in the market.”