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TMCNet: Online 'Friday Market' clicks with buyers [Kuwait Times]

[March 12, 2010]

Online 'Friday Market' clicks with buyers [Kuwait Times]

(Kuwait Times Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 12--For sale: a vintage American car; a Persian pregnant cat; a used Jet Ski; a brand new video game CD. Wanted: A three-bedroom apartment for rent; a 1990's navy blue 4x4; and a video game console. With the help of the Internet, buying and selling has become easier than it ever was. In Kuwait, a number of online forums have become very popular for announcing property, items, gadgets, vehicles and job vacancies.


Think about it as a trip to the Friday market -- only this time it is any day of the week, any time you choose. All you have to do is a few clicks and you're there. One online shopping forum, mazadq8.com (mazad being a transliteration of the word 'auction') lists over 5,000 registered users. I logged in to the website to see the statistic page, and it had over 1,400 users who were logged in on a Tuesday afternoon.

Ali Boland, a 32-year-old who frequents the website, said that what makes him spend hours there is the fact that it is more convenient than going to a market. "If you're buying something you'll eventually go and see it in person, but browsing on the Internet is more convenient because we all spend a long time on the web every day," he says in response to a question this reporter posted on the forum's message feature.

Boland's interest is in exotic pets: lizards, snakes, iguanas. "My experience buying pets on the website is much more positive than when in a store. The stores in the Friday Market that sell pets don't take proper care of the animals. They don't know how to deal with them most of the time," he writes. With online users who are enthusiasts about this hobby, Boland finds tips to share and more things to discuss than with a shop keeper.

When shopping on the Internet, it is easy to move from one 'store' to the next with a few clicks on the mouse. Tariq Al-Jady, a 28-year-old who buys and sells mobile phones as well as laptops and personal computers says that this specific feature made him take the online shopping business seriously. "I don't make much; what I do is that I offer what I have, let's say, a mobile phone, on an auction and wait to see what price it reaches. Sometimes you get lucky and you find an enthusiastic person who is will ing to pay 50 percent more of the price you bought the phone for, and sometimes you find no one who is interested in the device. It really depends, you have to know what people want but you have to also know how available it is in the market," he says.

For example, now that Kuwait has the Blackberry craze, one might think a Blackberry is the right product to make money out of. Al-Jady says that through experience, he learned that it is not true; you can't compete with the big phone companies. What he does is find smart phones that are similar to the Blackberry in terms of features, but are not as widely available.

You'd be surprised at how people really keep up with the technology here, and how a lot are willing to pay money just to try a phone that they might not actually like," reveals Al-Jady. Having thought of opening a business, the 28-year-old now thinks of going online. It is easier to manage, and costs way too less.

Abu Bader, a 45-year-old bird keeper turned trader says that what makes an online website more suitable is the clients who choose to browse through an online store in comparison to those who go to an actual shop.

He says: "When someone logs on a website and chooses a specific page for birds, chances are they know how to deal with birds. So when they post inquiries about the price and the bird's features, you know that once you sell the bird they will take good care of it.

Abu Bader buys birds often, and with time he has to give away one or two. Instead of giving the bird away merely to someone willing to take it, or putting it in a pet shop for people to come and buy it, Abu Bader likes the tech-savvy option of placing it on a forum for people who know how to look after birds.

Birds make wonderful pets but you have to know how to deal with them. Most of the people I see in the pet market don't even know how to hold a bird properly. I wouldn't want to sell a bird I have to someone like that," he says. But selling online comes with its flaws, too. Abu Bader says he scheduled meetings with numerous people on various occasions, but they would cancel on him last minute.

For that, he placed a notice on his personal page asking that people only schedule a meeting if they are seriously interested in buying. For those who want to look at the bird, Abu Bader has pictures and videos of the parakeets and parrots he owns.

To see more of The Kuwait Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kuwaittimes.net/.

Copyright (c) 2010, Kuwait Times Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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