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Qatar Foundation (QF) and major retailer LuLu Group International have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to establish an online shopping portal for Qatar Foundation community members. |
The agreement, the first-of-its-kind for Qatar Foundation, includes a home delivery service and will initially be operated on a trial basis.
The MoU will not only allow the QF community to purchase goods at the click of a button, but could subsequently expand to support the local and regional online retail sectors.
The agreement also marks one of the milestone projects that will contribute to transforming Qatar Foundation into a smart and sustainable city.
The MoU was signed by Ali Abdul Rahman al-Muftah, executive director of Support Services at Qatar Foundation, and Mohamed Althaf, director of the LuLu Group, in the presence of engineer Jassim Telefat, group executive director, Capital Projects, Qatar Foundation and Stuart Davidge, group deputy retail operations manager, LuLu Group.
Al-Muftah said: “This agreement is the first step to what will hopefully become a prosperous partnership between Qatar Foundation and the LuLu Group.
“This online shopping project is the first-of-its-kind within the Qatar Foundation community. It will provide our community with the convenience of buying online and the convenience of having goods delivered to homes.”
Althaf said: “We would like to thank Qatar Foundation for its faith and confidence in the LuLu Group as we are delighted to be associated with such a prestigious organisation. Through this agreement, we hope to add value to the lives of those within the Qatar Foundation community, as the upcoming online shopping portal will extend beyond the borders of a mere online supermarket to become an interactive platform for the whole community.”
The Middle East e-commerce market currently accounts for $33.8 billion sales annually.
Yet, compared with the rest of the world, the region is still in its infancy in terms of online sales.
According to eMarketer, a global authority on digital marketing, media and commerce, the value of the global online shopping market is set to reach $1.5 trillion
this year.
