LINK Development introduces Mobile Point of Sale to Qatari Businesses

LINK Development today announced that the adoption of mobile payment and point of sale technology in Qatar is growing in line with the global rates of 70%, on the back of a booming local economy, highly connected and affluent youth and a retail market that is more responsive to international and regional trends.

LINK Development has just completed the implementation of a project for Qatar Red Crescent Society to introduce an m-POS solution for their donors to be able to pay their donations online through their mobile phones and handheld devices or at a Red Crescent stall in any mall. The solution is a fully automated system that will allow online payment transactions using multiple methods. It will allow Red Crescent to manage all its campaigns from its backend system and collect instant data of the total amount on donations for each campaign. It will also give donors a history of their entire donations, with details about the project or campaign these donations were allocated to. Donors will be able to follow the status and monitor the progress of these projects.

Qatar Cool has also introduced a similar payment gateway designed and developed by LINK Development to offer its customers an easy and secure way to pay their bills online. The solution can track, monitor and report all the transactions.

Hossam Khalifa, Qatar Country Manager at LINK Development, an OTVentures subsidiary said: “Businesses in Qatar, whether charity, utility or now retail businesses are all gearing up to service the next generation of consumers which is clearly demanding to receive fast, quick, efficient, transparent and high quality service when they need it and where they need it. They want to be able to browse, shop and pay at their convenience, anywhere they are by using their smart phones, tablets or PCs. We are talking here about the next generation solutions for the next generation consumers.”

A recent study unveiled that 83 percent of Qatari youth believe in the power of online business, with 47 percent of them expressing their intention to start an online business and 13 percent having already done so.

“This is fantastic news for e-commerce and m-commerce, but this also means that the market needs to be ready to embrace this trend, by adopting new technologies that will cater to the needs of businesses and consumers alike,” explained Hossam Khalifa, who said that they are seeing customers from all sectors, whether charity organizations, retail businesses, utility companies or government entities looking at introducing their Mobile Point of Sale (m-POS) to their clients.

Fadi Antaki, CEO of OTVentures, a pioneering digital and technology solutions provider for both online and mobile platforms, said: “The region is witnessing an expansion in online shopping and the market is expected to grow to $15 billion by 2015. The m-POS system created by LINK Development is an innovative creation that will drive the Qatari market growth and build an eco-system that will link all merchants and customers in seamless efficient transactions.”

“E-commerce is forecast to reach QAR4.6 billion, or US$1.25 billion, in Qatar by 2015. M-commerce is forecast to grow to over QAR1.7 billion (US$0.45 billion) over the same period of time, driven by a rise in sales through smartphones. E-readiness has become a must and not a choice for Qatari businesses, especially the retail ones, and they know that. They are currently in advanced stages of putting together the blueprints for their e-commerce and m-commerce strategy” explained Fadi Antaki.

Qatar is forecast to have an annual average retail sales growth of 6.7 percent until 2016. Expanding into online operations that cater for an emergent and demanding e-community will support this growth. Results of a MasterCard survey on online shopping behavior revealed that 49% of shoppers in Qatar access the internet for online shopping. Qatar represents the third largest share of the Middle East eCommerce market with an estimated US$375 million is sales last year.

Hossam Khalifa concluded: “The m-POS ecosystem has emerged and is here to stay. It is transforming traditional checkout, payment acceptance, and merchant supply chain by enabling improved interaction between merchants and customers.”