Noon to see light of day this year

Dubai - The online venture has been beta-testing its site

The much-anticipated $1 billion e-commerce venture Noon.com is on track to launch this year, its founding partner has said.
The online venture has been beta-testing its site since the past few weeks and will launch its operations simultaneously in the UAE and Saudi Arabia this year, Mohamed Alabbar, who is also chairman of Emaar Properties, said in a statement to Khaleej Times on Tuesday.
"I am pleased to confirm that noon is on track to launch this year. Our beta programme has been very insightful, and all the feedback we received from our early customers has allowed us to test and refine our technology and fulfilment model," Alabbar said.
The e-commerce venture, which was announced in November last year, is the latest that Alabbar has been associated with outside Emaar. Last week, Reuters quoted that a technology fund led by Alabbar acquired the e-commerce and online marketplace website JadoPado. The transaction comes soon after Amazon's acquisition of Souq.com in April.
"Noon will lead the way in regional e-commerce. We aim to deliver a market-leading customer experience by leveraging great supplier relationships, reliable technology, robust payment systems, and highly scalable fulfilment infrastructure," Alabbar said.
The e-commerce website will boast an inventory of 20 million products including fashion, books, home and garden, electronics, sports and outdoor, health and beauty, personal care, toys, kids and baby products, and more. The retailer is building a 3.5 million sq ft warehousing facility - the size of over 60 football fields - in DWTC. Other such centres will come up in Riyadh, Jeddah and other eastern provinces in Saudi Arabia.
"We are establishing strategic partnerships with an extensive range of regional retailers, distributors and global brands. These partnerships will allow noon to provide its customers with a broad catalogue of products across categories. With noon, we aim to deliver an e-commerce platform that creates long-term economic value, is truly relevant to the region and supports its home-grown enterprises," he added.
The region's largest e-commerce company will initially start off with operations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with its head office in Riyadh. It is equally funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and another group led by Alabbar and other GCC investors. The firm could be listed in five to seven years.
"Following the launch of noon, our permanent operational base will be in Riyadh, and we are currently scaling up our resourcing and operations there. This allows us an excellent opportunity to bring into the organisation some of best new young Saudi talent working in this field," Alabbar said.
The ecommerce venture aims to grow online sales in the Middle East from 2 per cent of the total market to 15 per cent within a decade. The Gulf region's e-commerce market is expected to grow to $20 billion by 2020, according to global consultancy firm A.T. Kearney.
"It is vital that all our systems and processes work at the highest possible level. The coming months will be spent to ensure this, particularly with some of the many supply chain innovations we have been developing," Alabbar said.
"We are excited by what our team has been able to achieve in a short time. In the past few months, we have onboarded additional expertise to enhance our management team and help execute on our plans," he added.
At the launch event, the online retailer also promised same-day delivery through NoonTransportation, an in-house express delivery service. Payments will be through NoonPay, a secure and fast payment gateway. Noon will also have a mobile app. The courier and logistics company Aramex in which Alabbar Enterprises purchased a stake will back noon's operations.
Alabbar said noon has the potential to disrupt the nascent e-commerce market in the region. "I would like to thank our partners, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, for their continued support and guidance through this process, and our highly dedicated team of experts from a variety of fields, now working around the clock as we translate our vision into reality," he said.