Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Regional fashion giant Splash plans to soon launch e-commerce operations in Oman, enabling customers to buy its products from the comfort of their homes.
The move comes as part of parent company Landmark Group’s plans to expand into markets where it already operates stores, and has taken precedence because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In Oman, we have not launched e-commerce operations yet, but as a group, we are going country by country,” said Raza Baig, CEO for Splash.
“I hope that by the end of this year, or the beginning of the next financial year, Oman will be on this list. If I am not mistaken, it should be around by next March, and it is, for sure, definitely on the agenda. It’s on the roadmap.”
Baig added that the company’s retail sales from its online channels rose to five times their original volume. Their customer base was small, however, because people elsewhere did not have access to buying Splash merchandise in their countries. Currently, in the GCC, Splash has e-commerce facilities in the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
“We have built a team and a model to be a part of that space as well, and we seem to be competing fairly well,” he explained.
“But will the shopping experience go? No, it is a long-shot, and I don’t see this happening for the next 20 years. There is a certain sense of pride and satisfaction you get when you shop in person.”
“It is great to get a nice box in your house with a piece you’ve liked on the net, but 90 percent of the time, when I have shopped online, I have questions over why I’ve bought this item, whether it fits me right, or whether it is too long or too short. I hope we find a solution to this virus, but yes, e-commerce is here to stay,” Baig added.
Splash’s foray into Oman’s e-commerce space comes on the back of the brand winning four awards at the Gulf Sustainability and CSR Awards 2020, which awards companies that follow sustainable business models that help the environment by adopting practices that cause less pollution.
This year, Splash won gold awards in the categories of Sustainable Business Models, Environmental Sustainability Programmes (Large Companies), and Overall Winner – Gulf Sustainability and CSR Awards 2020.
It also picked up the Silver award for Innovation in Sustainable Technology among Large Companies.
“Sustainability is a way of life and today’s generation is extremely conscious about environmental sustainability,” explained Baig.
“In times to come, customers will reject businesses that do not follow sustainable principles. However small or big, being mindful and conscious is our way of preserving the earth for future generations.”
