Q8Ba7th Official Blog

Name: Maachla.com

Business Type: Grocery Shopping

Languages: English/Arabic

Launch Date: November, 2008

Brief: Maachla (which means in Arabic grocery items for house) is another online grocery shopping site in Kuwait, like Taw9eel.com, but unlike Taw9eel which operates its own storage area, this one seems to be coordinating with Mishref Co-op.

Review: Being a follower, one would think it has a tough competition to make with Taw9eel, which usually guarantees 1 hour delivery at all times, operating from their own stores according to what they say, rather than dealing with Mishref or any other Co-Op. This gives Taw9eel the lead in delivery time, and better control over the stock items. But it also makes them more limited with item variety, as they can’t keep large stocks of items that wont sell, and also at large extra savings cost. Maachla on the other hand comes up with much greater varieties with lower overhead cost. For example, Taw9eel has only 3 ketchup items of same brand, Heinz, while Maachla comes with over 10 items of different brands.

Price: This is where the credibility of Maachla have failed me. While item prices in general appear to be a lot cheaper than Taw9eel, 300 compared to 500 fils, the prices seem inaccurate and varying for the same product. For example, the below are two Heinz Mayonnaise of different sizes, with the smaller one 300 Fils more expensive.

This is most likely a data entry problem only. The other problem I noticed was price difference between search result page, and product details page:

Search Result Price of 340g is 300 Fils

Product Details page of Heinz ketchup 340g showing price is 450 Fils

So which one is it? This shows hidden bugs in the system and not data entry errors, and for me would keep me away from trying it out in the meantime.

Usability & Interface: Usability I believe is another weakness of the site. Grocery shopping is unlike other type of shoppings. Needs to be fast and easy to search, navigate, and go back and forth. Browsing the site content on Maachla however is rather difficult, as opposed to the AJAX rich interface of Taw9eel with the following shortcomings as I see it:

• Main page of the site is almost free of of any item listing, when it should be the kick off point for it.
• Clicking on category does not bring that category products, but rather requires another click on the subcategory.
• Side menu is taking large part of the screen, when you need to focus on the products them selves most of the time.
• Search function does not seem to be working.
• Registration is required to add items to the cart, when some stores compete to provide checkout without even registration. Registration upon checkout can be enforced, but not before I even try adding items to the cart. Especially when registration requires all my personal information, mobile number, and home address. A side note also is why does the site use the mobile number as the user name? Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me
• Thumbnails: The squeezed thumbnails of items really distorts the look of it, makes item less appealing, and misleading as well. There is the gram size ofcourse, but still the look of a pepsi can is much easier than comparing the gram size.

A revisit for the site design and usability I believe is in order.

Express Shop: This could be their answer to the usability of the site. Express Shop is a quick way to write the items you’re looking for, just as in the notes you carry with you along to the grocery store, and search. You will get list of all available items matching yours. That is a neat feature in my opinion, though still does not overcome all the shortcomings.

Delivery and Charge: We were not able to find any information about delivery charges, but the minimum order amount is 2.0 KD, which is pretty fair. They do not specify the areas of delivery however.

Company Info Missing: As an online grocery store, I guess many people would like some information about the company behind this service, and the way they operate. However we did not see any information like this, not an FAQ section or details about refunds and payments either. The only lead is that it’s “Designed by: Mag Web Technologies Pvt Ltd”, and dealing with Mishref co-op.

Enforce of SSL on all pages: For some reason, all site pages are enforced over SSL connection, which ofcourse means all pages are encrypted and take much longer to load. Not even Amazon takes that step. Encrypted pages are checkout and confidential information pages usually.

Conclusion: Overall, I think the market is big enough for new comers, as majority are still not depending on the high quality, yet very expensive service of Taw9eel.com. With little work on the site, and good market reach, I guess this thing could become handy for many.

Popularity: 33% [?]

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• Maachla.com Review – Take Two
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• Open your virtual Kuwait store in minutes with Dikani.com

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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