Middle East-based express and freight carrier Aramex has partnered with payment provider PayPal to launch a new online marketplace with the aim to simplify cross-border shopping for consumers.
Called www.ishoptheworld.com, the platform integrates shipping and payment solutions enabling online shoppers to buy from merchants spread across 15 countries in the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia and Africa and pay for all the items in just one transaction. It will also help companies export to over 60 cities where Shop and Ship is active as a service. This offers consumers a wider selection of products that are not easily available locally.
Aramex explained that the new marketplace is in line with its commitment to “further growing the e-commerce sector and provide more customers with a highly efficient and convenient online shopping solution by improving the global supply chain between sellers and end-buyers”.
Mazen Mourad, Senior e-Commerce Manager at Aramex, said: “With this innovative marketplace, merchants from across the world – from the USA to China – can list easily and free of charge, with no hidden costs such as transaction fees. This is a unique proposition like no other, in the now cluttered b2c marketplaces. In addition, the marketplace eliminates all the hassles of cross-border logistics for the merchants, when it comes to export documentation, customs, clearance and costs.”
Kivanc Onan, PayPal's regional director for Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, said: “Today’s online customers are increasingly discerning when it comes to goods bought online – they search for specific products from specific countries, often unavailable in their home country – and ishoptheworld.com allows these consumers to shop for products from almost anywhere in the world.”
The global e-commerce industry is estimated to have grown by around 17% to around $1.8 trillion in 2015. It is further anticipated to reach $2.4 trillion by 2017 and over $3.5 trillion by 2019 – accounting for 12.4% of total retail sales, according to eMarketer.
