Souq.com just lost a sale today. It’s more than just a user drop off in the funnel!

Souq.com just lost a sale today.

Now that we have relocated to Dubai, we decided to get our hands dirty with some cooking. I went on to search for a rice cooker on souq.com (I was told that Souq is the Amazon of Middle East!)

The results were pretty neat — there were filters. I found the Black & Decker one that I was looking for. I clicked ‘Add to Cart’ (AED 145), clicked ‘Checkout’ and then guess what — account creation is mandatory! Bummer.— heard of guest checkout / progressive checkout, anyone?

I went ahead and entered my email address. Then waited for the confirmation email. And waited. And waited some more. 5 minutes and still nothing. Bummed again, I did a resend email. 10 minutes later, I got 2 emails, and then was asked to create a profile with shipping address, etc!

I was running out of patience…

I had also heard about Jadopado. I just went to Jadopado and searched for rice cooker. By the way, the search was blazing fast — check it out for yourself.

The details page was neat minus social media plugins — same price AED 145, I could clearly see what I was getting, shipping options (free 1 day Fedex delivery.. sweet), the free 1 year Jadopado shield (insurance) was a bonus!

I was totally sold. I added to cart, and went to the checkout page. I don’t have a UAE credit/debit card yet, so I wanted to try out cash on delivery.
Screeeeeech.. Brakes… Jadopado doesn’t have the Cash on Delivery option.☹

I went back to Souq, since I remembered seeing cash on delivery in the header/footer. I selected CoD on their checkout page (it said AED 4 extra — I was ok to pay the convenience fee). Boom! The price goes to AED 161! I have no idea why until I see on the right side that it includes AED 12 for shipping (and 5–9 business days, seriously?).

Hmm why wasn’t the shipping price listed on the details page? I would assume it’s free unless listed.

Finally I decided to go back to Jadopado — and I saw the Paypal option for payment. I was very relieved. I just ordered.

Next day — while Souq.com was trying to get me back on their site via their email re-marketing campaign, Jadopado was sending me the shipment notification. Folks at Jadopado, I can see the smile on your faces as you read this. Pat yourselves on the back☺.

Souq.com probably lost more than just a sale today — they lost in me an “Amazon Prime Platinum buyer”, if I may.