eCommerce adoption: What's the hold up?

Security worries are the primary reason for low adoption rates of e-commerce, say the professors of Wollongong University. Of course this study does not cover SME's in the
region. The article simply goes to say that the study should help us figure out what to do and what not to do.

Here's a tip: currently, this is not why e-commerce is not even adopted in the region. The reason is quite simply that it is prohibitively expensive for a business to set it up. Oh yes, I have gone through the motions. It is terrible!

First, you start asking the guys at etisalat how to go about doing it. They tell you that you need to talk to a list of banks. You talk to the banks to find that they don't all offer these services. There are only 3 that do. Only 2 of them can actually help. National Bank of Dubai is naturally the useless one. They only offer their services to government and semi-government organizations. How about that? There is Emirates Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi. Emirates Bank are clueless. They had no idea what to do with us and I simply gave up trying to talk to someone who had anything between their ears. NBAD was to the rescue.

AED 50,000/- deposit (refundable) + AED 5,000/- annual fee. This goes to the bank. Then you have to pay the eCommerce folks at etisalat some of your money too. The bank also charges you a commission (a pretty heavy one if I can remember).

I asked one of the bankers in the department why it was so expensive. His answer was: the POS credit card machines they use at retailers are a lot cheaper and their commission is much lower. So they make up for the cost this way. My next question was, how many clients do you have for this service? 14. FOURTEEN! Granted, this was last year, but come on!

So, instead of making any money, they decided that it should cost so much that it would put any young entrepreneur off completely.

Give us the tools and we'll deal with the security issues.

Emirates NBD -- the merger

When news of the merger between NBD and Emirates Bank first surfaced, I was baffled by it. Having never dealt with Emirates Bank, I only know that they are aggressive with their loans/facilities/etc. I also have dealt with NBD and know how conservative they are. It seems like a merger between the most aggressive and the most conservative. What could possibly be the outcome?

My company account has been with NBD (still is). They have provided us with absolutely no facilities. We have requested them at some point and were denied. The impression I was left with was simple: If you are not a UAE national, we are not going to give you any money. We further inquired to find that you have to have been established and profitable for a minimum of three years, etc. Quite simply not the bank for a start-up.

An NBD staffer told me point blank that national banks generally will not give you money and I am better off talking to one of the international banks (Standard Chartered, Citibank, etc.) I left with that plan in my mind.

Luckily I am not in need for loans or facilities today. I was only contemplating buying out one of the competitors and thought that a bank could assist. That plan was shelved. I have recently opened an account with an international bank. However, I am keeping the NBD account to see what would come out with Emirates NBD's merger. Maybe they will be more of a bank than a chest of money under the bed.