At the 724th National Electronic Commerce Day event, Saeed Mohammadi, the Vice President of the Electronic Commerce Association, highlighted the lack of economic transparency in the country as one of the reasons hindering the growth of electronic commerce.
According to IDEA, Mohammadi explained that Iran was once a pioneer in this field in the Middle East, but factors such as the lack of transparency have slowed down the country’s e-commerce growth.
Mohammadi believes that Iran had the potential to remain a leader in the Middle East, stating, ‘In the 1980s, the growth of companies in this field was very high and exceeded the country’s industrial and commercial average. Iran was very advanced in shaping e-commerce in the Middle East.’
Referring to the situation of neighboring countries, he added, ‘We have a lot of potential in the field of e-commerce in our country. Currently, we have more than one hundred thousand active online stores in Iran, which is not seen in any other industry in terms of this economic activity and competition. In terms of technological depth and technical knowledge, Iranian companies are far ahead of some of the largest similar entities in the region. This shows that there is high potential in this area. A significant part of retail worldwide has shifted to online retail, but in Iran, we have not done very well in this area, with only 4% of retail taking place online, while in Turkey, it is 20%.’
In response to the question of why online retail has not achieved the desired progress despite the potential and public interest in e-commerce, he explained, ‘The lack of economic transparency in the country is one of these factors because online retail requires a completely transparent economy. Many large online platforms cannot offer regulated products because no one sells to them, which is due to the non-transparent nature of the structure.’
Mohammadi identified the next challenge as the issue of investment, saying, ‘Only $2.5 billion was invested in a single round in Trendyol in Turkey, but these figures do not exist in Iran, even though we have a larger and more populous country. This problem may be partly solved through actions such as going public and so on.’
He believes that e-commerce transparency cannot compete with the non-transparent sector, stating, ‘The inability to offer products that are not possible to be offered on transparent platforms, but are offered in some places that are not transparent, can be solved by removing these obstacles. We can hope that the country’s e-commerce share will reach 20% in the coming years.’
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