Souq, Noon, and Namshi: Online Conversation Drivers and Sentiment

In the last 5 years, e-commerce companies like Souq.com and Namshi have exploded in popularity. Internet retailing increases by 40% in current terms in 2016 to reach AED 4.8 billion. The ease of online payments through other applications have made people more fond of online payments for e-commerce, thus increasing internet retail by 40%.

In this section, and using Crimson Hexagon technology, we look at two major e-commerce trends.

• Product shopping
• Service shopping

Souq vs Noon

Souq.com is an e-commerce platform, often described as the Amazon of the Middle East. It is the largest e-commerce platform in the Arab world. On March 28, 2017, Amazon.com Inc. confirmed it would be acquiring Souq.com for $580 million, which leads to the reason behind the sky high peak of mentions in the graph. Souq.com has the highest number of mentions across all e-commerce platforms in the middle east with 31K unique mentions in 2017. Conversation about Souq.com has risen rapidly, mainly due to the adaptation of the American Black Friday to the well known Souq.com mega sale White Friday.

Noon.com, the $1 billion e-commerce joint venture co-founded by the Emaar-Founder Mohamed Alabbar, and by top tier Saudi investors was finally live for customers in the UAE on October 1st. There are already 3,400 mentions about noon.com. This has been the most highly anticipated news of the year. Due to the founders background and the hub from where it is launching, customers are mainly proud of the news and support the websites launch. During the next few months, mentions are expected to rise once the trust is built about the new website.

Namshi

Dubai-based Namshi.com which is funded by a Berlin-based internet firm, launched in December 2012 and sells clothes and footwear to GCC countries and Egypt. Namshi is one of the most popular online shopping sites compared to Sivii and even international sites like Shein.com. There are 15K mentions on Namshi in 2017. Behavior on Namshi.com is very different from other sites, quality is non negotiable since the website buys cloths from popular stores like Mango, Forever21, Topshop. Conversation on Namshi are mainly about the items the website are selling and the service it is providing, and not about the sales and discounts provided. Namshi’s activities on twitter and constant ads are working positively for them, customers even publicly praise them for their targeting and ads creativity.

Country Split

People that talk about Souq.com are mainly coming from Saudi Arabia. Studies have shown that Saudis are more price sensitive than other GCC nationals. Souq.com has even partnered with Flynas and other online products to give their customers benefits of using Souq.com, aside from the ease of use, fast service and variety of products.

Since Noon.com is co founded in Saudi and UAE, it is seen from the country split that the love for the brand is coming equally from both countries. Noon.com has officially launched in UAE only, this is because UAE residences are more open to trying new e-commerce website. UAE has an already built structure for e-commerce services, couriers and a big audience hungry for convenient shopping.

Although Saudi’s population is almost 4 times more than UAE. UAE has contributed 40% of the mentions about Namshi.com. The website is popular in both countries. In Saudi mentions are mainly about the promo codes and different offers and promotions, while in UAE mentions are mainly about the service and the quality of the products.

Difference in Behavior

What is interesting to see is how these two platforms being positioned in the consumers mind. When comparing the three brands together based on number of mentions, we see that there are a couple of major peaks. Peaks for Souq.com where either about the acquisition of Amazon.com to Souq.com, there were comments of instantly mentioning Noon, such as “Great move Amazon, but you are getting a big new competitor named noon”. All of the other peaks were about major sale happening on the website, such as summer sale, white Friday and other types of sales. When noon first launched on October 1st, mentions were peaked, people were testing the competitiveness of the platforms by asking for the best electronic/iPhone deals. Both Souq.com and Noon.com are price sensitive, mentions rise and fall based on sales and promotions. Namshi’s mentions have a different behavior, as seen on the chart, Namshi doesn’t have an obvious peak of mentions, mentions are just gradually increasing in time. People who mention Namshi are not price sensitive, they are more concerned with other factors such as consistent positive customer service and good quality.

Media Split on SOUQ

Twitter is a dominant media for conversation about Souq.com. It is much easier and smoother for people to talk about the offers and promotions on Twitter than on Instagram or any other platform. 28% of the mentions were about the price/offers followed by 17% about quality of the products and 9% about customer service. The rest of the mentions (46%) are general news articles, recent updates about the website and neutral topics. As seen from the percentages, price is the most talked about topic, secondary concern is the quality and authenticity of the products and the third concern is the customer service and delivery time.

Souq's Conversation Drivers

Positive and negative mentions are almost equal, as it has been previously mentioned. Positive mentions were mainly about sale points and prices, the National website has even took the liberty to compare Souq and Noon prices, it was obvious that noon was trying to take over Souq’s customers by slashing their prices. People praise Souq for their price deduction but attack them for the fake products they sell. Customers are finding it hard to trust some electronics on Souq as they might be fake, or highly priced by the suppliers, they want Souq to have a better quality check before agreeing on the suppliers.

Media Split on Noon

Just like Souq.com, Noon’s comment base is mainly on Twitter, where most of the mentions are coming from males. Since Noon recently started operating, most of the comments have been motivational and supportive, people were sharing their first experiences with the brand, the most two topics mentioned where the speed of delivery as well as the price cuts.

Noon's Conversation Drivers

Positive mentions are double the negative mentions, as previously stated, people seem to be very excited about the website, they want a competitor to souq.com so that companies really up their game of e-commerce. People who were complaining about Souq.com were advised to give Noon a try.

Media Split on Namshi

As seen from other e-commerce websites, twitter is a dominant media for conversation about Souq.com as well as Noon, while it is still dominant on Namshi as well, we can clearly see that Instagram is rising. Females high participate in the conversation about Namshi.com, they even post professional images on Instagram just to show what they have recently purchased from Namshi and how it look son them.

Namshi's Conversation Drivers

Positive mentions are at a rise due to their punctual service and next day delivery on all items. Customers really value the return policy service as well as the constant updates on promo codes. Shoppers are willing to pay extra on the cloths if the items arrive the next day. Namshi provides a convenient experience that other platforms have failed to offer. Shoppers can buy cloths from more than 30 brands from the same location, without get lost in Dubai mall.

Although shoppers are very price sensitive on Souq.com and Noon, it has been proven that they care about quality and customers service more when it comes to clothing stores such as Namshi. Shoppers were comparing prices between Souq.com & Noon.com with actual stores like Sharaf DG, but when it came to clothes shopping, shoppers were only comparing Namshi’s great customer service to other e-commerce websites. There are no posts showing comparison between Namshi’s prices to the actual stores of Mango/Topshop, although it is very possible that prices might be cheaper in store.

Conclusion

The most complained and praised topic is the customer service, shoppers shop online for convenience and they want to make sure that this is delivered with the product, next day delivery, easy exchange/refund policy as well as fast response on twitter and call customer service centers.

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