Tejari, the Middle East’s leading business-to-business online marketplace, marked its sixth anniversary today, representing an important milestone in the growth and development of e-commerce in the Middle East region. In the last six years, Tejari has provided a secure and affordable online business platform through which more than $3 billion has been transacted between more than 5,000 trading partners from across the region, with the capacity for 70,000 more businesses through its mylinkDubai.com tie-up with the Dubai Department of Economic Development.
To foster greater adoption of online procurement, Tejari is aggressively targeting new franchises in key Gulf markets as well as territories across the broader Middle East, Africa, and the Asian Subcontinent region.
Commenting on the company’s sixth anniversary, Omar Hijazi, CEO of Tejari said, “Direct procurement savings of 15-20 percent plus indirect savings of more than 40 percent are what both the public and private sector have told us that they’re achieving by trading online through Tejari during the last six years.”
“Our focus now is to continue delivering benefits through all stages in the online business cycle – from the initial meeting stage in mylinkDubai.com to the online auctioning on the Tejari marketplace to the spend analysis and strategic procurement consulting provided by our ‘Tejari Expert’ service. Tejari growth is encouraging on both volume and financials; when comparing 2005 results over the previous year, we recorded a 50% increase in the total number of auctions on the marketplace, combined with a 25% increase in revenues and a three times increase in profits,” Hijazi added.
Hijazi was appointed as Tejari’s CEO in June 2005, to succeed HH Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the company’s founding CEO, who remains on the board of directors for the online marketplace. In his twelve months at Tejari’s helm, Hijazi has developed and deployed a range of new initiatives, driving further growth for the company.
Tejari Momentum Pushes into Seventh Year
Tejari is now utilizing its success as a horizontal online marketplace to create online portals or hubs for specific industries and groups. To meet the needs and demands of its growing partner base, Tejari designed customized online portals for various communities such as the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), Dubai Tea Trading Center (DTTC), and the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED).
The partnership between JAFZA and Tejari will help more than 5000 companies located in JAFZA to send and receive trade leads, create online company profiles and product showrooms, and find suitable trading partners through Tejari’s secure business-to-business environment.
With an aim to maximize trading potential of the business communities in Dubai, Tejari in co-operation with the DED recently announced the launch of ‘mylinkDubai.com’ for all businesses registered under the DED. Benefiting tens of thousands of Dubai-based companies, this innovative new service is assisting companies in knowing more potential partners and doing more business in the region.
In addition, Tejari introduced a new strategic consulting service this year called ‘Tejari Expert’ to help companies manage their buying and selling practices in a structured and organized manner. Organizations such as Gulf Extrusions and Dubai Municipality are already reporting benefits from using ‘Tejari Expert.’
During the last twelve months, Tejari recently opened new offices in Oman and Saudi Arabia having seen a rise in demand for online procurement of services from these countries. Moving forward, Tejari plans to introduce new locations to better serve its existing and potential partners from the region.
Photo caption: Omar Hijazi, CEO of Tejari, is this week celebrating the sixth anniversary of the Middle East’s leading online marketplace.
About Tejari
Tejari is the Middle East’s premier online business-to-business marketplace. Tejari enables buyers and sellers to transact and share information about a variety of goods and services via a secured Internet environment. Tejari provides a single point of contact for an open and growing community of buyers and suppliers, permitting spot-purchasing and on-line auctions that enable participants’ real-time access to new markets and greater cost savings. Visit Tejari at http://www.tejari.com
