A little pretext - I am a non UAE resident born and lived my entire life in Dubai (apart from Undergrad in the US).
My family has a reasonable family business in Dubai and I've been working there for the past 3 years supporting my Dad as he gets older and closer to retirement.
For some time, I've been itching to start and operate my own business. I am blessed to have my family and father's financial support, advise and access to our resources in Dubai.
Now, I've always enjoyed trading and arbitrage (from a young age, I used to get things like candy or cheap gimicky watches and sell em for a healthy profit to kids in 1st and 4th grade.
With that in mind, I want to dip my toes in trading, perhaps importing things from China/other low cost countries and sell them through online mediums targeting the MENA region.
As I think this sub is a better indicator of the real UAE/Dubai sentiment than other official sources, there are a few questions I would love to hear from you guys about! Besides the below questons and words of advice/comments or suggestions of how bad of an idea this is are also appreciated!
Thanks
tl;dr Looking for some guidance/help answering the below questions regarding starting a new e-commerce business.
- Is there any particular niche that is not well represented in any online e-commerce platform?
- How likely are you to use Souq over any other less known but still safe online e-commerce platform?
- What is your favorite/preferred online platform for online shopping?
- Do you prefer Cash on Delivery or pay by Credit Card, especially if there is an additional cost for the COD option?
- Which class of products do you prefer to purchase online?
- Which class of products would you NEVER purchase online?
