E-Commerce In Lebanon – What Are Your Options? Before the Coronavirus pandemic business owners in Lebanon literally didn’t believe in selling online. Only few of them developed their e-commerce platforms the years before Covid-19 as a strategic choice for their organizations. Today business owners and marketers and considering this option seriously specially after the lockdown and its repercussion on their revenues.
If you have a grocery store, if you’re a wholesaler or a retailer or a service provider selling online should not be an option. But what are your options now. And the most important are you able to invest in such a project. If you are then those are your options to create your e-commerce platform. (Keep in mind thinking about your SEO strategy before selecting a CMS is a crucial very important step).
What Are Your Options
Option 1
1- If you don’t have an established IT / digital marketing department, using subscription-based softwares that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell product online could be an option.
An example of such platforms are the Canadian multinational Shopify and the Lebanese platform Weevi. You can compare the features and prices by visiting their websites and see what works better for you. You need to be able to prepare your products visuals properly with descriptions capable of projecting useful information for the website visitors. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Your ordering system and operations should be properly established and you should be able to manage it internally.
There are many other points to consider, example, what do you expect from the platform? What features are you looking for? Do you plan on having discount promo codes or packages, or … etc.? Do you want users to pay in USD or LBP? Which bank are you dealing with? Usually in this option you don’t have a lot of control over the design of the website. You can create a general branding for it, as the supplier allows it, but that’s it.
Option 2
2- If your online presence is already established with a proper IT / digital marketing department maintaining your current website, it would be good to consider your own customized CMS. Content Management Systems are very diverse, and there are many out there. If you’re a small business we do not recommend custom CMS because you might end up paying for more than we will use. A custom CMS needs development and much more elaborated design. Again it all depends on your needs and can offer much higher performance if properly done. On the other hand it will be much more expensive.
Option 3
3- Open Source CMS. This third option might answer your needs if (and you should) you are considering to implement a fully integrated SEO elements in your site with a proper SEO strategy for your e-commerce website. The most famous and recognized open source CMS are WordPress, Drupal, Magento You can find others like Wix, etc. The advantage of this option is you can easily achieve an enterprise-level solution with platform support, when you choose the correct open-source platform, or plugins and design. The cost of this similar to the first option, sometimes a bit less something a bit more depending on the features you are looking for.
E-Commerce in Lebanon
Choosing wisely your e-commerce platform is a delicate process. Your strategic goals should be very clear, your targets as well. Keeping in mind your SEO and your strategies to rank high in Google Search for your targeted keywords is super important to consider from the beginning. After all you are paying a considerable amount of money for this project and you will be relying on it to generate income. That is why having a premeditated Marketing plan is essential as well to promote your digital presence, so Social Media and other channels.
Read Also: 7 Tips On How to Rank High in Google Search Ranking for Products’ Reviews
Here is another good read about the transition to a digital economy in Lebanon.
