A citizen in Al-Baha has launched an e-store in cooperation with the Agricultural Affairs to promote the sale of pomegranates.
Mohammad Al-Ghamidi, owner of the e-store, said that anyone can order the fruit online and it will be delivered directly to his house. The online store, www.romanbedah.com, is easily accessible and has already reached large parts of the Kingdom including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah, Al-Qasim, Hail, Tabuk and Hafr Al-Batin.
Al-Ghamidi said he also has orders from neighboring Gulf countries and is optimistic that the store will expand in the near future. He said that the store is fully automated allowing people to order and pay online.
Explaining the mechanism, Al-Ghamidi said: “We deal with the order and refer it to the shipping company following which the client gets an e-mail notifying him of the details of his order.” He pointed out that high quality packaging companies have been contracted and special shipping crates are used to ensure that the product reaches the clients in good condition.
The store enables pomegranates which were limited to the local market in Al-Baha to reach other parts of the Kingdom. It has also introduced Al-Baha to the realm of e-commerce and provided farmers with solutions to market their produce, by playing an intermediary role between them and theirclients.
Most importantly, it has facilitated the marketing of pomegranates to all parts of the Kingdom. The store has received positive reviews boasting almost 10,000 visitors to the website and hundreds of orders.
He said the majority of visitors are from Saudi Arabia, followed by the Gulf States. Orders and delivery are available to all parts of the Kingdom and the price has been set according to farmers’ estimates of their produce. Shipping and packaging costs less than 20 percent making it very convenient for online customers.