- Dubai-based online marketplace has seen their business doubling and expects to bring in more well-known brands onto their platform.
- Startup wants to be recognised as an international brand where people around the world can order their eyewear products with trust and ease.
Dubai-based online marketplace for eyewear – Adasat.com – is seeing many growth opportunities in the industry, especially in the Middle East, as there is an increase in people who have started to wear glasses and contact lenses.
“Coloured lenses are in demand, especially for cosmetic purposes. In the Middle East, Arab women have grown to love to make up over the past years, making it part of their daily routine in which coloured lenses have become a “must-have” to enhance their beauty,” Ziad Tariq, Co-founder of Adasat, told TechChannel News in an exclusive interview.
Moreover, he said that many Arab celebrities are brand ambassadors for many brands that are not available outside the GCC and many Arabs are living outside the Middle East.
In terms of e-commerce, he said that they have already seen a change in consumers’ perception of buying lenses online instead of in retail outlets.
Adasat, which means “contact lenses” in Arabic, offers frames, sunglasses, contact lenses, prescription, nonprescription and customised lenses.
Both Tariq and Payam Honari started the venture in 2019 but they had the idea from 2015.
E-commerce gains traction
“We have optical backgrounds as well as in retail outlets. We were doing market research till 2019. There were websites launched before us and we were checking their performance and researching the things they don’t have. We wanted to come with a website that is unique compared to the others and stand out from the crowd,” Honari said.
It is not easy to go online, he said and added that e-commerce has been picking up in every sector of the business but in terms of the optical industry, it is extremely competitive, especially in the UAE.
Moreover, he said that some international brands are not there in the UAE but are targeting the UAE audience.
“Not all are doing it in the right way and a lot of optical retail outlets have started to get into the e-commerce space. One of the biggest challenges is having other international e-commerce competitors also target the consumers in the UAE, making the UAE have a larger pool in terms of competition,” he said.
Covid brings new customers
Due to the lockdowns, Tariq said that they have seen an increase in sales for anti-blue light glasses, globally, as people are glued to their screens for more than eight hours, sitting at home.
Since the first Covid lockdown in 2020, they had seen an increase in orders by 50 per cent and sales by 130 per cent and expects to double their sales this year also.
“Covid brought us many new customers that have grown to trust our service and the process of ordering online. During Covid, we have proven to be safe and reliable – shipping all over the country in their time of need. We have also had numerous orders from customers who were stuck in quarantine in which we proved to be very reliable as we made sure that they were still able to get their daily necessities (mostly contact lens wearers),” Tariq said.
However, he said that an e-commerce business can only succeed if you are “unique”.
“A lot of expertise in data science is required to run an e-commerce business. We study customer behaviour and always update our market research to keep up with customers’ demands. Over the years, consumers have learned to trust e-commerce,” he said.
Unique offerings
Despite e-commerce giants in the UAE – Amazon and Noon – offer eyewear products across the region, Honari said that contact lenses are medical products that need a prescription.
“Both Amazon and Noon don’t have the expertise and that is where we come in. All our staff are well trained to answer any queries regarding the eyewear and we have an optometrist also,” he said.
“If you are a lens or eyeglass user with a complicated prescription, you will know that most times you walk into a store, they will not have it and will have to make a customised order for you, which can take a couple of days.
“With us, we are a hypermarket for contact lenses and always have different types of lenses readily available. Alternatively, you can also call us or message us on WhatsApp for more assistance, making the process more personalised for those with specific questions about their lenses,” he said.
The marketplace has more than 20 brands on its platform and is working to bring brands that are not available in the UAE.
Honari said that there are many high-quality brands from Sweden, Germany that are not available here and there are no distributors or agents in this region.
“We are in talks with them to diversify our portfolio,” he said.
The co-founders said that their goal is to be recognised as an international brand where people around the world can order their eyewear products with trust and ease.
“With our hub in Dubai, we plan to expand our reach within the Middle East. In the next couple of months, we plan to offer international shipping directly from our site as we have fulfilled past orders from countries such as the US, Bulgaria, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Italy through our WhatsApp service,” Tariq said.
Adasat has no plans to raise funds for their expansion plans despite raising $350,000 from two local investors in 2019.
A piece of advice to new startups
“Our business has been growing since we started but we will be investing about AED 2 million from our pockets to expand the platform and add new features,” Honari said.
Adasat plans to launch an app by the end of the year and come with unique features for customers to try out their products, using AI, by using the camera on their device and sitting on the sofa.
As a piece of advice to new e-commerce entrepreneurs, Honari said that focus on customer service is the most important aspect of any business.
“You need to earn your customer’s trust for them to purchase anything from you. Most businesses focus on becoming profitable but forget about customer service. Customer service is the key to any successful business and helps you become established and well known, which allows you to be recognised by a bigger crowd,” he said.
Moreover, he urged them not to overspend on things that will not help raise the value of their brand. “We’ve seen many start-ups blow their investment on paying top influencers but don’t receive any sales from them. This is a huge gamble as being a start-up company, resources are very limited, so you need to know how and where to spend your money on.
“Focus on converting your new customers to loyal customers. It’s very time consuming and takes a lot of research to gain new customers so you need to make sure that you are retaining those customers. You can always rely on loyal customers to repeat their purchases,” he said.
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