Mirna Mirna

From brick and mortar to the digital world, the traditional retail industry has completely evolved from a physical space where consumers walk in to discover and purchase products to a smooth e-commerce and social platform that clients from all over the world can buy from anywhere, anytime.
One of the first and most successful online stores in Jordan is Stylex Jewelry, founded by Zaid Sarhan in 2015. The high-quality silver and Swarovski incrusted jewelry has paved its way to the top and is now recognized as one of the trendiest sites to purchase jewelry from. Sarhan recognized the increase and popularity in online shopping and as a result extended his store to the by and large online world. It wasn’t late before many followed the path towards this promising trend.
When it comes to creating your own online store, the benefits that follow are huge. Not only will you cater to the vast majority of the world or country you reside in, but the cost is little to nothing in comparison to physical rental fees. At the end, it all comes down to taking the right effective steps to creating a successful online store.
We know that it seems overwhelming and confusing at first, but with the with the wide array of technological solutions and options we have online today, it’s safe to say that launching your store is now as simple as ever.
At our monthly workshop session held at The Tank, we were fortunate enough to hear from successful and spirited professionals eager to help you get started the right way.

1. Choose an e-commerce platform

First and foremost, you do not need a fancy custom designed website with a hefty price tag. In fact, some of the most successful online stores are built through an e-commerce platform. This way, all you’ll have to do is focus on your clients and the products you’ll be selling.
Nader Al-Azzeh, e-commerce consultant introduced us to MENA’s most popular e-commerce platform: ShopGo, all built in with MENA specific features. Don’t you just love it when people do all the hard work for you? You won’t have to worry about all the little details on your website as they take care of that for you.
From a range of beautifully designed and customized templates, you’ll find an array of stylistic choices that reflect your brand image. You can also add your own personal touch to perfect your website should you feel the need to.
It’s as simple as that: choose a template that represents your brand, fill in all the details and images, and get ready to start selling online.

2. All about the cash: how to accept payments on your online store

When it comes to selling online, you will need to make sure that all consumer payments and transactions are secure. This is where an online payment gateway comes in. It authorizes transactions and eases credit card and online payments online and transfers that information to the bank. Each and every e-commerce store should have one.

There is nothing more damaging than losing clientele trust over payment issues that could easily be avoided and protected. Yanal Rahim, Chief Business Officer at Hyperpay discussed the importance of this online payment service provider. Hyperpay will act as the purchasing backbone of your store, authorizing payments, making all transactions work seamlessly, and protecting both consumers and yourself from any fraud. It will ultimately take care of all payment integration for your site to be successfully up and running.

3. Shipping and delivery: what you should use to ship your orders

Congrats, you’ve just made your first sale and now it’s time to ship your items. Not only is competition growing in the e-commerce industry, but fast delivery is a critical indicator of how soon you can satisfy your consumers. Choosing the right mail delivery service will give your business a competitive edge in this extremely competitive and hyperactive market. At the end of the day, customer satisfaction will be at the heart of everything you do so fast delivery and innovative packaging is vital for making sure your items are delivered safely.
This is where Aramex comes in, the international express mail delivery service based in the MENA region. Customer Account Team Leader of e-commerce, Aysheh Azim, explained the importance of choosing a quality delivery service, such as Aramex for your business.
Customers need to trust you and offering them different tools of technology will simplify and please them with their purchase. Simultaneously, delivery services like Aramex offer a customer centric tracking experience, where consumers can track their purchases in real time and are always up to date on each stage their package crosses.
This simple yet effective solution makes your delivery a success and could increase your customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

4. Time to promote and boost traffic to your store

Randa Darwish, Business Development Director at DV8 provided us with a digital marketing session all about driving traffic to your online store. No store is complete without any interest and increase in traffic, especially if you’re a new player in the game.
If you are unfamiliar with strategies and tricks to flood your site and increase your selling power, DV8 will instantly lay a foundation and a path from start to finish.
Make sure you’re constantly active on social media platforms to promote your store with strong visual elements. These are the driving power to progress and increasing traffic, especially when it comes down to creating a viral marketing campaign or a promotional sale. All these could eventually convert followers and potential consumers to actual buyers.

5. How to register an e-commerce company

Many entrepreneurs find it puzzling to register their business, but we can assure you that it’s not rocket science. Nour Sultan, Managing Partner at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Jordan takes us through the legal steps and many hassles that you can avoid along the way to create a successful online business.

After choosing a name for your business, your next step will be to register your company. From there, you should receive your business license as well as your business license and permits, ensuring that your company is in fact legal. Being unfamiliar with the process is normal so make sure you actively ask the company or lawyer that is registering your company questions concerning any tax sales and legal issues etc.

So, are you now ready to start your own online business?

Wi-Fi is how we connect most of our devices to the Internet. The technology creates local area network using radio waves, and allows mobiles, tablets, laptops and other devices such as gaming consoles and smart TVs to get connected. Wi-Fi has become ubiquitous in both public and private spaces, with businesses and local governments providing it for free in most major cities across the globe. Li-Fi is a technology that uses light waves instead of radio waves to transmit data, and at a far greater speed too. This begs the question, will Li-Fi really replace Wi-Fi? The answer is not as straightforward as you might think.

What is Li-Fi?

The term “Li-Fi” was introduced to the world in a TED Talk in 2011 by Herald Haas. It was used to describe data transmission between devices using light, whether visible light, ultraviolet or infrared. At the moment, only LED lights are capable of transmitting data using light. Li-Fi does so by turning the light off and on at a speed not detectable by the human eye.

In other words, your overhead LED lights, or your bedside LED lamp would be lighting your room, but also connecting you to the Internet at speeds that far exceed Wi-Fi. Lab tests showed a possible maximum of 224 gigabits per second for Li-Fi, compared to the standard 1300 megabits per second for Wi-Fi.

Advantages of Li-Fi

Apart from the obvious speed advantage, Li-Fi could theoretically be more secure and less susceptible to hacking given the connection needs the device to be in direct sight of the transmitter. That’s because light cannot go through walls, like radio frequencies used by Wi-Fi can. This means that unless a hacker has a direct view of the bulb, or is using advanced tools such as a telephoto lens and a specially tuned optical sensor, they would not be able to try and hack into the network by simply being in the general vicinity of where the router would be, such as with Wi-Fi networks.

Disadvantages

Of course, the need for an uninterrupted line-of-sight puts Li-Fi at a big disadvantage compared to Wi-Fi. If your router is in your study, you can still easily connect to it from another room separated by walls and doors. In the case of Li-Fi, you’d have to have these special LED lightbulbs in every room to ensure an uninterrupted, direct line-of-sight with your devices. Another major downside to Li-Fi, is it basically cannot work outdoors in sunlight or in environments with a lot of light pollution. This largely restricts Li-Fi use to indoors with standard lighting.

The Future of Li-Fi

You might be wondering why is it that when you visit your grandparents’ house, there are rooms or areas in the house where you can’t connect to Wi-Fi. That’s probably because that area is a “wireless dead zone”. As mentioned earlier, Wi-Fi uses radio waves, which can be interfered with or blocked by items such as large metal objects (large metal cabinets, steel wiring in walls, etc.). In such places, Li-Fi does have an advantage and could be a viable alternative for Wi-Fi in such wireless dead zones, or an area with high radio frequency congestion.
If data is transmitted with light, Li-Fi needs LED bulbs to remain on. However, that doesn’t mean that your room or office needs to be well-lit 24/7. The LED bulb can be dimmed enough to utilize light frequencies beyond the spectrum of light visible to the human eye. So, you can get a good night’s sleep without having to keep the light “on” to stay connected.
Despite its exponentially greater speed, Techcrunch, the online publisher of technology news, points out that Li-Fi will probably not replace Wi-Fi on a wide scale in the near future. It might start making an impact in niche areas, such as labs and research libraries at universities and at large corporations, but its inability to function outdoors, as well as the need for a direct line-of-sight means that most consumers and manufacturers will probably stick to Wi-Fi for now.
Further down the line, devices, homes and public buildings might be built and equipped with Li-Fi in mind, making the possibility of shifting from Wi-Fi to Li-Fi more manageable for end users. Till then though, perhaps your best bet is to upgrade your Wi-Fi routers and make sure you place them in the ideal spot for best coverage in your home or place of business.

Objective Alignment

As far as fundamental principles go, it is highly essential that the grant writer finds a common trait between them and the organization. In other words, your objective, mission and interests should align with that of the sponsor’s to guarantee an effective proposal.
Moreover, make sure you aim to be as accurate as possible in your writing. A Grant Proposal should not be too wordy or fancy, but rather portray a logical approach in your ideas, creativity, and reasoning. It should answer all questions in all different areas of your project that the sponsor may have. First impressions are highly important, especially when it comes to Grant Proposals.
So, be sure to be compelling and engaging with your wording and overall language and be sure to present the project in a clear, concise, and comprehensible way to hook your readers.