Digitalization of the Biggest Arabic Bookstore

One of the most identifiable brands in the Gulf, Jarir Bookstore, is owned by Jarir Marketing Company; and the chairman and CEO of the company are brothers Muhammad and Abdulkarim Alagil.

The Jarir Marketing Company is a tycoon in selling Arabic and English books, office supplies, and electronics in 41 supermarkets in four countries, such as Kuwait, Qatar, and the U.A.E.

The company semi-officially launched an online shopping platform in January 2016, with less than 1% of its earnings coming from online orders. Jarir experienced a recession on consumer spending and witnessed a sales decrease of over 25% in the first quarter of 2016 quickly realizing that its lag was from lack of digital strategies.

Alagil admits, “We are late on this, it took us a lot of time.”

He also states several factors that caused the delay of the online shopping platform: the complicated logistics of e-commerce in the Middle East and the shortage of extensive use of secure online payment systems.

The CEO of the company targets its customers as families with young children, who like to shop on outings and, at present, most of the items sold online are expensive items, such as MacBook Pros for $2,600 and GoPro camcorders for $530. Later the company expects to sell office and school supplies as well.

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