Traditional, online stationery stores vie for customers as Saudi students go back to school

Traditional stores are still the No. 1 choice of students looking for pencils, notebooks, book covers and colors. (SPA)

RIYADH: Sales websites have become a strong competitor to stationery stores amidst expectations of widely expanding their market share in the next years by 20 percent.
Young children insist on buying their backpacks through applications and websites since they offer a wide range of choices and ease of procedure in receiving the product. However, traditional stores are still the No. 1 choice of students looking for pencils, notebooks, book covers and colors.
Stationery stores are booming as students return to schools and universities. Even supermarkets have started to compete with stationery stores in promoting school supplies, with some providing online applications containing all the school supplies necessary for students.
WASS monitored the movement in the stationery market in the current period in Jeddah related to the beginning of the school year, and compared traditional stores and websites.
Haitham Hijaj, the manager of an electronic store for school supplies in Jeddah, told WASS that over the years, people’s demand for school supplies from traditional stationery stores has been decreasing as e-learning is spreading and becoming more common.
Mohammed Al-Ribhi, the owner of a traditional stationery store told WASS that price competitiveness largely depends on product quality. He also expressed his concern toward the strong competition with supermarkets or stores not specialized in school supplies and selling low-quality supplies.
Saoud Al-Mashhour, a college professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, stressed that modern teaching methods require more electronic devices that are being sold in school electronic markets offering a diversity of products, which is impressing students and even teachers who want to develop their teaching methods.
He noted that electronic devices help in achieving a cooperative education that increases the thinking capacities among students and gives them higher self-confidence.
Al-Mashhour said that Vision 2030 aims to build an educated and responsible generation, and provide an appropriate educational environment.