We spend a lot of time on our UI, trying to make things easier and nicer, but we’re always receiving queries on how to use the site. Hopefully it isn’t an issue with our UI not being intuitive enough and possibly has more to do with the newness of e-commerce both locally as well as regionally.

The solution was our first ever screencast! So without further ado, “How to Buy Stuff from JadoPado”. No excuses now!

It’s been 329.1 days since we launched JadoPado on the 20th of March 2011. It’s been an exhilarating ride.

We’ve hit a top line revenue number of USD 1 million in 10 months and 10 days.

Thank you to absolutely everyone. It’s been an absolute pleasure serving all of you. We really really appreciate the tremendous support from all of our customers, partners and vendors.

When we started planning JadoPado in September 2010, the idea of a self delivering, full inventorised e-commerce business based of Dubai serving only Dubai was a gamble. Today, not only have we seen some of our competitors follow suit in terms of our self deliver model (yes, we’re looking at you ) but our experiences thus far have shown that not only is Dubai (and the rest of the UAE) a pretty early adopter “let’s-give-it-a-shot-cause-it’s-new” market, it’s quickly turning into a very hot e-commerce market. Onwards and upwards.

Here are some of the things that we felt were important in getting to this milestone:

1. Live Social, Stay Social. Facebook, Twitter and just talking to customers over the phone has become a cornerstone of our business. We’ve built our selves to be available across multiple channels for as much of the day as possible. On occasion we tweet at midnight just because we feel like it. We discuss the best cheesecake in town because it’s heaps more fun than shouting out the latest and greatest promo the world has ever seen. *yawn*. Customers are intelligent, well informed and it’s important to talk to them rather than at them. It’s a missed opportunity if you waste their time with pointless drivel.
2. Build It & They Will Come. We’ve not spent much money on marketing or getting the word out, but we continue to spend a lot of time designing, building and tweaking our look and feel. It’s all in the details. Why did that button not click as nicely as the other one? Adjust by one pixel. Do you really need a billing address? (Long experienced answer: Yes – for fraud management). Do you need to create an account with us to check out? (Answer: No. Absolutely not. 44% of orders are from Guests). We’re strong believers in doing it really well or not doing it at all.
3. It’s all in the Pricing. Pricing your product or service correctly is absolutely critical. A little too high and your customers move over to the competition (while letting you know – publicly!) a little too low and you’re eating into your margins. The right balance to bring in your customers while giving them better value than what they may get elsewhere is essential. Our strategy is to be as competitive as we can be, across the board. One important choice that we made was to never charge for delivery. We treat it as an overhead that we have to manage.
4. Under Promise. Over Deliver. Every Single Day. One of our key differentiators has been to not sell anything that we don’t have available in our own inventory. This is important so that we don’t commit to a sale when we dont’t actually have the product available. Local and regional supply chains tend to be fairly unreliable. We coupled the inventory approach alongside using our own delivery fleet in order to be able to tweak our delivery model on the fly and on occasion satisfy some very time sensitive customers. We never allow ourselves to commit to something that we can’t deliver on. Under promise with a three hour delivery slot and then try hit it out of the park by delivering in two.
5. Believe In Yourself. It’s easy to get weighed down when things aren’t going right, when you find yourself fighting tooth and nail to be heard, to remain relevant. Believe in yourself when no one else will. Fight for yourself and your business. The vast majority of the time your sheer determination will win the day. Inshallah. Eventually.

In the larger scheme of things our milestone is a little one, however we’re hopeful that it is a strong indicator of what is to come for the industry. The regional e-commerce market is growing quickly as consumers start treating online as a serious consumption channel. Our numbers also hopefully bode well for the local start up scene and may even provide a bit of impetus to those sitting on the sidelines wondering if they should jump into the fray. Seize the day.

It’s been a long time coming, and here is the oft promised continuation of my initial post on payments options in the UAE on my personal blog. Take a look if you want a bit of background information, the comments are a great read.

Online payments and their inner workings are unfortunately a very misunderstood area both locally as well as regionally. Payment services that are available across the region are generally similar, with slight variations in the quality and extent of services depending on your location and market.

There is a tremendous amount of conflicting information both online and offline with very few people and resources that are actually able to tell you in easy to understand terms what it would take to set yourself up for processing and accepting credit cards on your website.

To try to make things a bit easier, I’m going to define our current understanding of the online payments space in the UAE. Read more…

With the UAE’s 40th National Day just around the corner, I decided to grill the JadoPado team for their favourite memories of living in UAE or on anything that they loved about their life out here. A few of us were born and bred here, some of us have been here for a long time, and the likes of me moved here just a few years ago!

There was only one rule: Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind.

Omar – The Boss: Omar is one of the team’s UAE lifers. He grew up in Dubai and recently discovered that he likes Dijon Mustard.

I love winter in Dubai. It’s an entirely different experience to anywhere else in the world and such a stark contrast to our hot, humid summers. Winter is when Dubai kicks into high gear and really comes into its own. If you’ve got a convertible, you’ll know what I mean.

Oh and I love it when it rains. Yes I know, it’s the long term residents cliche.

Samar – JP’s Resident Jabber:  Samar moved to UAE 4 years ago as a newly wed and a fresh grad and hasn’t looked back since. 

The one thing that stands out about my life in UAE are the picnics. I’ve never had more picnics in my life than I’ve had in the four years I’ve been here. The minute the weather starts getting better, BBQs, beach trips, road trips and outdoor dining become my one true calling.

The way I see it: The more, the merrier – both people and picnics!

Karlo – The Corporate Clown: Karlo loves to travel and moved to the UAE 6 years ago.

Watching the first ever Formula 1 race to take place in Abu Dhabi is one of my nicest memories of living out here. Bahrain had the F1 before we did, but the Yas Marina Circuit is a testament of everything that the UAE aspired to and has actually become. It’s a beautiful venue and it turned out to be a spectacular race.

Those F1 engines revving up to 18,000 RPMs really made the night!

Shabbir – Our Go-to Guy: Shabbir’s lived his entire life here. He’s a foodie… as you’ll find out below

Having spent my entire life here says it all about my love for the UAE. The one National Day related memory that stands out for me is the Silver Jubilee.

A huge cake had been prepared for occasion at Dubai Creek – rumoured to be the world’s largest. There was to be an official cake cutting ceremony and everyone there was meant to get a nice piece cake. A very sudden Dubaiesque rumour flared up and spread like wildfire, that there were car keys for new cars hidden inside the cake as prizes to anyone who could find them.

The crowd went nuts! The cake was destroyed in a matter of minutes and where once stood a beautiful, proud  National Day celebration cake was nothing but mush.

Every time National Day rolls around, I remember that cake and I think not of the car keys rumour, but of the poor pastry chefs bawling somewhere while witnessing the crude destruction of their creation.

Sree and Reyaz – JP’s Resident Code Monkeys: Our Code Monkeys moved here four and five years ago respectively and they love road trips!

We love getting in the car on the weekends with our families and just driving out somewhere. An 8-hour road trip covering all the Northern Emirates in a day? Bring it on.

If you ever want to know how long a road trip will take or what’s the best route, we’re your guys. Or try Google Maps.

Salman – The Ruler of  the JP Warehouse: Salman is another UAE lifer. He left for a few years but now he’s back home.

When I moved back it was a shock to see how much Dubai had grown. I remember not that long ago when the Emirates Towers were the tallest buildings in Dubai and could be seen from the Sharjah Corniche. Now the Burj Khalifa and many others, tower over them.

The change that Dubai has gone through has been amazing. But when I think of the UAE, I think of all the years I spent here as a youth and the amazing memories I have of my family (especially my Dad), my friends and my childhood.

The Awesome JP Transporters: They drive the JP vans, they wear the JP shirts and they make sure you get your deliveries on time. What’s not awesome about that?

The JP Transporters chanted in unison: “We can’t imagine living anywhere else!”

Well said guys, well said. They like doing things on time and with total commitment (mostly!).

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Enjoy the long weekend everyone! If you’ve got a moment, tell us a little bit about your own UAE experiences!

One of the things that we thrive on as a startup is the unpredictability of  just about everything. We love to experiment, interact and jump into things with a massive splash (+ belly flop).

That’s exactly what we did with #notgitex. Since we’re the new guys and on a very limited budget, we knew that there was no way we could participate at Gitex. So we came up with #notgitex.

The idea was simple: One week of crazy deals on a first come, first serve basis served up via Facebook and Twitter only.

To make things interesting, the promo went live at different times everyday and we didn’t tell folks which products would be discounted until a few minutes before it went live. Read more…

If you’ve been following our saga, you’ll know that Spy Shabbir and Agent Karlo both missed the action. But what was the action? And who saw it? To be honest, no one saw it, apart from the CID. Luckily they filled us in.

When J, our transporter put his phone down after talking to Fraudster 1, the CID were on the lookout for anyone turning off their phone at the same time. It wasn’t hard to spot. After all, metro stations aren’t all that crowded in the middle of the day!

So one plain-clothed CID gentleman walks up to the suspect and asks him ‘Do you have a light?’

Fraudster 1: Nope, sorry (We’re not certain that this is what he said – but lets just go with this!)

CID: So what are you doing here?

Fraudster 1: Oh I have a couple of iPhones being delivered. I’m waiting for the guy to come with them.

Bingo!

Needless to say, not-so-bright Fraudster 1 was arrested.

Now it was time to get our hands on Fraudster 2. We were high on the success of the first mission. The feeling was almost like watching CSI Miami – only in real life .

This time the CID decided to run the mission themselves. It may have something to do with the JP Ninjas proving a tad bit ineffective during the first mission – but we’re not certain. They’re the CID after all.

Like the last time, J, our transporter made the call while the CID looked around for people on the phone. Again, not that many people standing around on a sidewalk in Hor al Anz during the middle of the day.

While the CID gentlemen were looking around, the JP Ninjas noticed a man come and ask them about something. Suddenly the CID gentlemen started running – with the man hot on their heels!

The Ninjas were excited. They were going to catch the second fraudster! They were going to triumph. They were going to be heroes! Wait, why was that other man running after the CID?

A few minutes go by and the CID gentlemen don’t come back. The Ninjas can’t see them anymore so they have no idea what’s going on. Then they see the man who ran after them come by.

Spy Shabbir decided to ask him the burning question on everyone’s mind: Why had he run after the CID? Was he a cleverly disguised undercover CID officer?

The answer left the Ninjas speechless. They were trying hard not to burst out laughing!

The man was apparently new to the city. All he wanted was to find out how to recharge his Nol card. He saw the plain clothed CID men and decided to ask them – without the faintest clue as to who they were. When the CID started running the man ran after them thinking they were taking him to get his card recharged!

He obviously realised something was off when he saw them running towards someone instead of somewhere and went back on his merry way.

A little while later, the CID returned with – no one!

It turns out the CID got a bit too excited after spotting Fraudster 2 – or maybe ran a bit too slowly. Either way, Fraudster 2 saw them coming and being the tall, lanky, sprinter type guy that he was, ran off across the road and through a row of villas before the CID could catch him.

The Ninjas were a little upset at not having caught Fraudster 2, but hey, they still had Fraudster 1 and he was bound to lead them to the second fraudster. The CID were certain of it.

And they were right! Fraudster 1 sang like a canary. It turns out the fraudsters skimmed credit card information from a restaurant at a local hotel and attempted to use the stolen data at a variety of online stores.

As promised, the CID tracked down and apprehended Fraudster 2 a few days later – by methods unknown and of course, undisclosed. We just wish we were there to see how it went down!

What is interesting is that Fraudster 2 didn’t realise that it was the CID that was after him. He thought we were working on our own (with our private security Ninjas). We got a few taunting calls from him the night after the big chase questioning us as to where his friend was. We kinda gave him directions to CID HQ.

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We continue to deal with fraud on a regular basis. We take it very seriously and continue to raise new cases with the CID. The case above is currently being prosecuted at Dubai Courts.

Dubai Eye 103.8 Interview

In case you missed it, here’s another chance to listen to my interview on Dubai Eye 103.8 live from the Gitex 2011 show floor.

Considering it was my first radio interview I think it went pretty well!

The JadoPado ninjas: Agent Karlo, 007 Gulneet, Spy Shabbir, ^OK the Boss and J, our brave but very nervous transporter.

Perpetrators: 2 thin, lanky, not-so-bright fraudsters.

The lawmen: Plain clothed CID folks

Victim: Poor cardholder.

Sting Operation Spot 1: A metro station

Sting Operation Spot 2: Roadside in Hor al Anz

How it all started…

Before I launch into a play by play of the entire saga. Let’s set the scene a bit.

It was Thursday, orders were streaming in and we were happy since it was turning out to be such a busy day. Then Spy Shabbir popped up on our internal chat and said: ‘Houston, we might have a problem’.

The problem turned out to be two orders placed that day with different names and different addresses but the same phone number. A closer look at the two orders and we got even more suspicious. One look at the number of payment attempts and the different cards used and there was no question about it anymore. We were dealing with our first case of fraud.

Fast forward to Friday morning and the guy whose credit card had been used to make the transactions and his bank both got in touch. We assured them that they had our full co-operation and that we would reimburse all the funds.

By this time we were itching to jump in and do something about it. We contacted the lovely folks at the CID and set up a sting operation. We were going to catch the fraudsters in the act!

The Super Sleuthing JadoPado Ninjas

Sunday morning, ^OK the boss picks up Agent Shabbir, Agent Karlo and 007 Gulneet and they all rendezvous to the first delivery spot with CID in tow.

^OK decides to stay in the car in case Fraudster 1 made a run for it (and because he’s the Boss). The rest of the ninjas headed into the metro station with the lawmen. So while J, our transporter called Fraudster 1 to let him know that he’d reached the location and 007 Gulneet coordinated with the CID, our agents decide to show their super sleuthing skills – by forgetting they were on the mission in the first place!

Spy Shabbir met a long time friend upon entering the Metro and promptly got so absorbed in the conversation that he forgot about the mission. Agent Karlo was very vigilant – until he had to go to the loo. And since Murphy’s Law states that anything exciting about to happen will happen when you’re in the loo, Agent Karlo missed all the action. As did Spy Shabbir.

When questioned about their lack of focus, Spy Shabbir was very convincing when he said that they were under training.

The cliffhanger…

So what happened with Fraudster 1? Did he realize he was being observed and make a run for it or did the (distracted) JadoPado Ninjas and the CID catch him?

Find out more in our next installment of The Tale of JadoPado Ninjas and the Fraudsters.

Stay tuned!

When you’re juggling lots of bits and pieces the one area (unless you’re very disciplined about it) that you end up neglecting is your blog. We’re recommitting to it and hopefully we’ll throw up some interesting things out there in the weeks ahead.

Our first six months of operations have exceeded all expectations. We started off with the thinking that Dubai would serve as a nice size test market – so far we’re far ahead of where we thought we would be in terms of revenue and reach at this point.

In a nutshell consumers are keen to try new services, new devices and new experiences. The caveat is that this is still a small (but growing) segment of the population and e-commerce remains a niche channel. We continue to field live chats and calls on a daily basis with questions on “Where’s your store” or “How do I buy”. Educating the market to a certain degree is a part of the process that we did not factor into our initial assumptions.

Here are some stats of our first six months:

Visitors
Total Visitors: 67,475
Unique Visitors: 43,743
Pageviews: 236,187
UAE based: 90%
Dubai based: 73%

Sales
Revenue: AED 1.7 million (USD 462,710)
Hottest Selling: iPad 2. 321 Units.

Browser Break Up
Chrome: 26.48%
Firefox: 15.75%
Safari: 15.34%
IE: 39.15%

Operating System
Windows: 74.67%
Mac OS: 15.38%
iPhone: 3.50%
iPad: 2.93%
Android: 1.40%

Our numbers are slightly understated as we switched and experiment with Analytics providers (and turned on Google Analytics three weeks post going live!) after we went live.

We’re grateful for all the support and feedback that we’ve received. Thank You! Here’s to another great six months (with a lot more blogging!) ahead.

Hello Everyone!

JadoPado went into a live beta on the 20th of March 2011. It took us about 6 months or so to go from idea to live.

JadoPado started off as a passing thought towards the end of September 2010 with the notion that perhaps e-commerce in the UAE and potentially across the region from a physical products perspective was a viable notion. So far – things are looking ok but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.

We’ve learnt a lot of interesting lessons along the way, and I am sure that there are many more to come. Setting up the necessary infrastructure, getting a great team on board and battling the murky waters that is the payments market locally (and regionally) have been some areas in which we had to dive in, and at times come up fighting for air.

My initial thinking behind JadoPado was to build an alternative physical e-commerce experience that could straddle the physical world together with the online world. It’s not that this has not been considered and put together elsewhere, I felt like we were missing that really great wholesome experience that can be had in other markets.

We decided to focus on three main areas: Read more…