This is a reply on an article by Mo Ali Yusuf on wamda
Great article; I think this is the right time to seriously think about finding solutions about issues that you have mentioned, and maybe i can help add some value here:
1- Payments:
PayPal: You can only withdraw money from your PayPal account to your Credit Card, the amount you can withdraw depends on your account limits, of course once you account is verified by PayPal they should lift those limits, generally you can withdraw $500 on daily basis and you will charged $5 per withdrawal initiated by you, for more information visit https://www.paypal.com/
2- Skrill / Moneybookers (Previously): They are my favorite payment processor
you can think about them as a global payment solutions provider, they allow you to withdraw money from your eWallet directly to your Bank Account, and this is a big +, of course like everyone else your merchant account will have sending and withdrawal limits, these limits can be lifted to a No-limit account once you are verified, to know more, visit http://skrill.com/
With regards to local payment gateway providers, no offense, but are you kidding me!
Important note: i am not talking about CashU nor OneCard (both are little expensive from a merchant perspective but very well-respected solutions)
About logistics; drop shipping is great when we are talking about large companies or distributors with large volume of goods in a large country, but for smaller companies this might not be an ideal solution, some would argue that a Shared-Drop-Shipping-Facility might work for midsize companies, but generally requires a very advanced inventory management network solution. If you are on about cross-border selling, shipping should be your priority concern, it’s customs and duties – levied by the destination country – we should be worried about.
Arabic language is an integral part of the success of any e-commerce project in the middle east but it would take some time before “Standardizing Arabic e-commerce language” across all e-commerce websites in the region, meaning; to create a standard language and translations for e-commerce related content such as product naming, category and specifications
I would like to mention my friends a Dakwak.com they are creating a new technology for translating websites to multiple languages instantly, check them out!
having said that, we will be soon launching our website dokkkankom.com which is an e-commerce shopping marketplace tailored for the Middle East.
Dokkankom allows individual sellers, midsize merchants and product manufacturers to sell their products online locally, regionally and even internationally without having to worry about software installation, configuration or managing servers, we handle the technology so merchants can focus on running and growing their online stores.
Have a great day everyone!
Anas Alshanti