Q8Ba7th Official Blog » Shopping

Marina Mall = Basta Mall

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:53:05 +0000

The visit before my last, I was so disappointed and distracted all the time by how Marina Mall has turned into, and I can only guess it relates to the Avenues invasion. Each parking lot has small sign before it, that would seem like handicapped parking only at first. Corridors were filled with booths from all kinds, some even blocking the outside view of some shops. restaurant tables are all covered with company ads. Well that last one might seem ok, but over all you get the feeling they’re sacrificing quality for short-term profits.

This last Wednesday however, I’ve seen the worst of all. Big chunk of the booths are gone, but on one of the sides, this is what I saw.

Yes, this is inside Marina Mall. I looked at it today in disbelief again. How could they allow it to go this low? Is there no limit to how bad the mall can get if it makes few extra bucks today, never mind tomorrow?

Sad really.

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Good News Soccer Fans, Soccer Scene Coming to Kuwait

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:29:14 +0000

Name: Soccer Scene

Site: http://soccerscene.com.kw/ / UK Original Site (to see what they have)

Type: Sport / Soccer / Store

Location: Avenues Mall, Kuwait

Opening Date: Expected February, 2010

Soccer Scene, as I heard, the famous british soccer specialized store is going to open a branch at Avenues Mall next February hopefully. The store brand was established back in 1980, and they say you can’t miss it if you’re sport shopping in UK.

While we have several stores now at Avenues, I still find my self lacking variety and some items sometimes, so let’s hope this coming store can fill up the gap, and at reasonable prices.

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Al-Bairaq Cinema Review

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:35:05 +0000

Name: Al-Bairaq Mall Cinema

Type: Cinema / Shopping Mall

Location: Egaila, Block 4

Brief: The newest cinema in Kuwait, from no other than Cinescape ofcourse, opened in the recently opened Al-Bairaq mall in Egaila, featuring 3 screens only, compared to the latest brand openings in 360 and Avenues.

Review: Being few minutes drive from my place, I was still hesitant to try this cinema out. Alas, Cinescape had a clue people won’t favor this place, and showed Toy Story 3D exclusively there for a whole week at least. Being a favorite for my kid, and for the love of 3D I hold, I decided to try it out.

Parking: First let down is that, unlike 360 and Avenues, this mall has zero shaded parkings, and all parkings are outside. So you will be parking your car under the sun.

Friendliness: For the first time really I encountered some rude guys at the snacks stand. When I was standing first inline before they opened, and they started serving others from another line. I pointed that I’ve been standing here first and I shouldn’t be asked to line behind others, the Philippine seller rudely replied that this is the open cashier and they start with it. It’s not the waiting but the principle of respecting a person’s turn that would piss you off even before you start enjoying the movie.

Cleanliness: Having been opened for a week only, and being on the first show of the day, I really don’t see any explanation for unclean seats and some left overs on the floor. It wasn’t quite filthy, but not clean as well.

Disturbance: During the show, it was mostly quite. However most people are coming to the theatre to book at last minute, and the guy showing them to their seats doesn’t really care the movie started and you paid to enjoy it. He would stand in your face and point the light for the late coming people.

The Show: 3D glasses are quite as good as the 360 experience, if you have experienced it. Ofcourse it’s not IMAX here but still, the 3D experience is wonderful, BUT! It’s very hard to miss the dirt at the top right of the screen. The theatre is just one week old, I kept wondering how did the dirt make it to the top right of the screen. Doesn’t anybody notice it at least? Or doesn’t simply anyone care.

Conclusion:

Some of the raised points here are common sadly among all cinemas. Others are I think Bairaq specific. And while it’s a 5 minutes drive from my home, I think I’d rather do 30 minutes drive and enjoy my self instead, that is when I decide I want to see the movie in Kuwait Cinema and not at home.

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Good News Anime Fans, ArtOfHobby.com launches

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:34:21 +0000

Name: Art Of Hobby

Site: ArtOfHobby.com

Type: Shopping / Anime

Language: English

Launch Date: July, 2009

Brief: Art Of Hobby is the official online shopping site of the well known physical store among its fans, Hobby Japan, which started as a physical store back in 2002 selling famous action figures.

Review:

Very few stores offer what thousands love and adore, and this one as far as I know is the first that delivers on online shopping site in Kuwait for anime figures collection. What’s best about it is, it’s from a fan for the fans. You would see a simple design, and even the fonts used are not the professional ones usually used by companies. I think what he’s trying to achieve is a more friendly, anime like look of the site.

Pricing:

Since I’m really not an anime fan, I can have no say on the pricing. So it’s up to you guys to see and decide. What do you think?

Payment:

I’m not sure if this was just left there or that’s the method of payment, but the site shows at the bottom of the page PayPal, VISA and MasterCard as the available methods of payment. I think this was left there from the original ready made template, since PayPal is really not that popular in Kuwait. Also, point # 1 in the Terms & Conditions page seems to suggest a cash on delivery.

Delivery:

This is where it gets confusing, and let’s you feel the site should be taken more seriously. On the main page, it mentions “We deliver to your home for only 1 KWD and for orders over 50 KWD Will be free.”, and free otherwise. Now aside from the high minimum order for free delivery, the terms and conditions page puts it completely different:

3-For orders less than 99KD a customer must pay a 2KD for shipping charge.

4-Orders over 99KD will get a free Shipping.

Quite confusing. But I think the 1 KD is the most updated one. They must’ve forgotten to reflect on it in the terms page. If you wish however, you can place the order online, and pick it from the shop for FREE as well.

Refund & Exchange:

The site offers exchange only for a period of 3 days from the purchase.

Gallery:

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Logitech Kuwait Shopping Site Launches

Q8Ba7th — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:00:09 +0000

Name: Logitech.com.kw

Category: Shopping / Electronics

Language: English

Launch Date: July, 2009

Brief: Logitech Kuwait is the official dealer from Logitech in Kuwait, and has taken the step of providing it’s electronics offerings online through an easy to use shopping site, with Knet payment and next day delivery through Posta Plus.

Review:

It’s nice to see brand companies like Logitech realizing the potential of online shopping, and going up with their offerings online, with next day delivery. The site design is fairly simple, no cluttered ads to slow down page loading or distract the user. Response is pretty good, and unlike some other shopping sites in Kuwait, you can complete your whole shopping before registering with the site. Registration is only required at the time of checkout.

Pricing:

Pricing of the site varies from one item to another compared to Amazon, and while most of the items end up cheaper at Amazon, the price difference is sometimes small in the range of 5 KD, something that you will end up paying a company like Aramex eventually for the shipping, if not more. In addition, many items on the Logitech site come with 2 years of warranty and product support, as opposed to being on your own once you get it from Amazon.

So next time you wanna buy a Logitech piece of hardware, give this site a look. Seek reviews on Amazon, and compare the price. Put the shipping cost and product warranty in mind as well.

Advertising:

What’s really notable is the intensive smart advertising campaign Logitech is running on Google, and quite custom to your search.

Someone’s been doing real good job at his advertising campaign.

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Maachla.com Review – Take Two

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:11:03 +0000

Name: Maachla.com

Following our initial review of Maachla.com, the guys at Maachla took the time to go through our opinion of the site and offer another chance for trying them out after the new enhancements, and after their award winning “Best Website in Kuwait” in Sheikh Salim Al-Ali Informatics Award.

Shopping Experience:

So we did give it a couple of tries. The first was for some item that was out of market for some time, and we found the item on Maachla.com and placed the order, interested to see the outcome. Shortly when the delivery time arrived, I got a call that I couldn’t attend to. Calling back their hotline, your number gets recorded and you hear a message telling you someone will call you shortly. Later on a real nice friendly guy called back and told me that specific item is out of stock, and offered an alternative if I was interested. I declined and thanked him for his call. This tells us a good thing about their customer service quality, and a bad thing about their inventory system. It’s not tied to the real Mishref Co-Op database.

The second time we ordered few regular items, including some beverages. The shortage in varieties, and availability of all size options in the beverages section did not make the experience as good as we hoped it would. Below we give quick brief about each part of the experience.

Registration:

Again, to try adding items to the basket you have to register. To register you have to give in your mobile number. How many people would wanna do that before they try out the site? Ask for these info at checkout only. Get users to try and love what you have worked hard for!

Delivery:

As explained earlier, you get to select the delivery hour up to two weeks in advance, but you cannot select the current hour for delivery. It has to be at least during the next coming hour, so even if it’s only 9:01 PM, you would have to select 10-11 PM delivery time sot. That’s the only bad part, and otherwise, their delivery is quite on time from my one time experience.

I would suggest however that in their schedule, unavailable time slots become non-selectable rather than reloading the page and coming back with a popup error message.

Inventory:

This was so disappointing for me, as it makes you unsure if what you place in your basket is available or not, which is really a bad experience. You have the option however per item to allow substitute product in case your preference is not available. Good to have, but I’m surprised this option is selected by default. Maachla should not assume I am ok with a substitute of their choice. I should be asked to approve it. So careful when you’re checking out. If you don’t want it, uncheck the allow substitute boxes.

At all rates, I believe effort should be put into tying Maachla inventory system live with Mishref Co-Op one for live item and pricing update.

Variety:

If they are operating from their own store, I would understand. But securing the deal with Mishref Co-Op should mean much larger variety of items, that is as close to shopping at Mishref Co-Op experience. In my case however, I had to browse between brands, select my second or third brand preference, because the item that’s available in Mishref Co-Op is not available in the online store. And I wish it ends there. Even when you find the brand you want, finding the size you want is another task. The squeezed item photo does not help identify it, and many sizes are missing. And with soft drinks, when you open a can, you either drink it now, or throw it away. You can’t store it for later. However even trivial items like PEPSI did not have all the common sizes, I had to go with another one, and I couldn’t even get a box set, I had to order individual cans. 7-Up was not available at all for some reason as well.

How It Should Be?

I think it would be best if a single item like PEPSI would open a PEPSI page, and I get to select per unit or box, and the size I want. All available sizes should be there logically.

Customer Service:

Customer service quality was really high, you would feel comfortable speaking to the guy over the phone and feel he’s happy to help. The idea of registering your number once you call the hotline for them to get back, while neat, is a bit inconvenient for me the customer however. When I call, I might want to talk to the guy now as I will be busy in 5 minutes or so, and this is exactly what happened to me. I called, they saved my number. I had to finish some work and be away from the phone when they called back. I call again, have to wait for their call, only to get an international call by the time they’re calling me back.

My guess is this method saves them the cost of having customer service people on the standby 24/7 when they don’t have that heavy load. This way they can arrange for the call at their own time, but it comes at a cost I guess.

Pricing

This is where is struck me hard. At checkout, you get to see this confusing message.

So what they are literally saying here is you have no way of knowing the final bill until the items are delivered to your door. At least that’s how I understand it, and the way I do, it doesn’t make any sense, and if I don’t like the bill, I have the right to refuse payment then. And to approve or decline it, this means that I have to be present and cannot just hand over the money to the housemaid and head out to work.

I most certainly do not believe this term is there for Maachla to abuse, but it shows a kind of uncertainty in their item pricing and lack of price update. But for me the customer, how can I trust such a system? If I sense a difference in the bill, I have to manually compare each and every item. This is also related to the lack of an inventory system.

e-List:

The e-List is a quick way for you to write down items you want, quantity, size, and brand. You can leave the size and brand open, go to checkout quickly, and they would try to match your preference.

This I believe is a nice and easy way to finish your shopping, similar to handing over your grocery list for someone to do the shopping for you. I bet you can even specify here small PEPSI can and get it as well! Problem is, you have no clue about the pricing once again! A call before delivery would be good to confirm the final price.

Conclusion:

We believe Maachla.com has got all the hard elements of the equation in place. The store, the physical items, the delivery capacity. What they need is just to tie it stronger together. Have an updated inventory system, even if it’s a nightly update only, that would still be much better than the current situation. Give people the same physical experience by providing what’s already there. Faster and more AJAXed experience is always better as well.

If the problem of varieties is at least solved, and a guarantee of price range, I guess I could rely on this service for at least pre-packaged products. Fruits and vegetables are a different matter I say for now.

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Fruits & Passion Kuwait

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:51:14 +0000

Name: fruits-passion-kw.com

Business Type: Body Care Shopping Site & Company Profile

Launch Date: October, 2008

Brief: Fruits & Passion is a global brand for body care rituals, fragrances, and home ambiance products. Has a local exclusive dealer with previous physical stores. Now, while some people might have missed them from the market, thinking they are long gone, selling of those products is still easily available online.

Review: Fruits & Passion Kuwait as I see is a nice elegantly designed site, goes along with the type of business they are in, and matches the original Fruits & Passion global design. You can find there more information about the company, products, type of Spa services and others they offer, and you can also subscribe to their newsletter, since I know they very often participate in public and private expos.

For the people so much enthusiastic in such products, a shopping section is also available, and while it may seem like a secondary item in their site, I have tried it personally and they seem to have a pretty flexible and quick delivery methods, and are quite focused at it. They do offer gift baskets as well, which looks good, a bit expensive, and I think could use some extra items from outside their menu. For example, a New Baby basket can have a teddy bear toy, baby photo album or frame. Something to go along with it. Maybe this needs some further legal work on their side, as they represent an international brand, not sure. But it remains a good idea that adds value in my opinion.

They also offer gift vouchers if you want to gift someone, and a purchase of 30 KD or more will entitle you for a 10% discount on all future purchases as a VIP member, as well as some rewarding points.

The experience of shopping is rather convenient, easy to browse, flexibility to choose the taste you want on product page. The Add to Cart could use a bit of highlighting in the top left side to draw customer’s attention item was really added to the cart. Some people might miss it I guess.

Delivery: Delivery for me happened on same day based on my request, not sure how it’s made otherwise, but they seem again pretty flexible and supportive. Delivery charge is 1 KD for orders below 10 KD, so most of the cases delivery will be FREE of charge, unless you’re only in short of a shampoo .

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Kakkuii for game rentals finally launched

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:49:06 +0000

Name: Kakkuii.com

Business Type: Game Rental & Reviews

Launch Date: 5-12-2008

Brief: Kakkuii (Japanese for cool) came finally live after some Coming Soon waiting period becoming the first game rental service in Kuwait, providing customers with privilege of playing multiple games per month for a fixed flat rate. Home delivery is included as well as part of the service.

How It Works: The user starts by registering with the site, selecting his desired package of the three available, based on the number of games he expect to play per month. The user then builds his list of games preferences. Game deliveries start then after 5 pm (later orders are shifted to next day), and the customer gets one game at a time based on his preference list and availability. Payment and registration start on the game delivery date.

Once he’s done playing the game, customer places an order for game exchange, another delivery is scheduled to reclaim the current game, and hand over the new one from his games preference list, given the monthly exchange limits are not exceeded.

Pricing:

Pricing is based on number of games you want to play per month (you get one game at a time), thus you have to estimate the number of games you want to play and finish every month.

So it ranges from 3-8 games per month, for 18-25 KD. Not cheap, yet not bad eh? When you look at local game prices, they are usually 17-18 KD. Ordering one game from outside would usually end up with the same cost, while this site is giving you 3 games for the price of one. Ofcourse however, you have limited time to finish the game, so it’s most suitable for gamers who can finish a game every other day. But what about gamers with a taste (or time) for one game per month? They seem to be missing this segment which is not a bad segment as well. I would be interested in this service, however 3 games per month is outdoing my muscles. Such gamers I bet would like something like 8 KD/month for one game. Perhaps the reason for lack of this offer is the fear of people not turning back in the game until it looses it’s market value.

Delivery & Payment: Delivery seems free upon game exchange or sign-up request, and payment is Cash on Delivery (my favorite for Kuwait).

Affiliate Program: While this service is still coming soon, this is the first site in Kuwait considering it, and if implemented properly could kill competition and hire more forces and words of mouth around the service, separating it from any future threat.

Review: I’ve personally been watching this site for quite some time waiting for it’s launch, and the guys seem to have worked out a great deal on the brand, not to mention the Japanese style anime comic they’re using to promote their service.

As for the service of game rental in Kuwait, I think it’s excellent. Kuwaities were used to copies for 2 KD before, playing all games they want. Price was never an issue. Now, things are different. And it’s either money, or number of games that is being sacrificed. This is the kind of service that is really filling up a need and not creating one. The price I think has also been thought of very cleverly, while I think it’s more fair to bring it down a bit. 18 KD is the price you will pay anyway for any new game you want. So why not as well get few extras for the same price? Selling used games on the other hand would sell for 10 KD if you’re lucky. Another 8 KD for a new game, and that’s 16 KD for playing two games at your own pace. For 3 games, it’s gonna cost you a bet more. Or playing 3 instead in one month for flat rate. It all depends on the gamer nature. Though I still think a lower price is possible while still maintaining good profit margin. I normally don’t get over the game fully in less than a month, so the rental option is not always best for me I guess. Another thing I hate about this model of rental is that it creates a sense of commitment to gaming, which could come at the expense of other higher priority stuff in your life. Just doesn’t feel so healthy. I have many games still waiting to be opened. No rush.

The limitation of one game at a time is not so convenient I guess. A hardcore gamer needs more than one game in hand at a time. The other big draw back of the service is that, your list of games is only a preference, and there are no guarantees. High demand on a game could mean you won’t get it on release date and have to wait until it becomes available. That is something hardcore gamers don’t bet on.

There is also the suitability of this rental service. While it is good in general, it may not be feasible for game collectors, or for people who want to own certain games. For example I would like to keep my copy of Assassin’s Creed. Also, RPG and online games have usually longer life period than a month, and that would mean you paying 36 KD for 2 months game rental. Ain’t cheap is it? An alternative solution might be in order for such gaming experiences.

As for the company behind this service, it would seem this is all from individual efforts, as I can tell from the contact page listing mobile number only. If that is the case, then the site is running on low cost, however with a bit less credibility as well. I should note though, I got impressed several times in the past by the exceedingly higher quality of service offered by individuals over corporates.

Final Words: We are happy to see new services and innovations been brought into the market, and we see a great value for this service if executed properly. The critical factor here is the quality of the service.

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Masahati.com Online Real Estate Coming Soon

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:22:27 +0000

Masahati.com is a new site, still not open to the public. In their words:

“Masahati.com is the most up-to-date property listings for homes, apartments, offices, commercial spaces, and more!
Rent, lease, buy, and sell property easily and effortlessly online. Your property is just a click away!”

Kuwait has already many real estate classified sites, but none is comprehensive enough yet, and what the site developed by BLUGREY seems to be promising is quite a challenge I say. If we follow their words by heart, they are going to provide online service for selling and leasing property, and that does not mean advertising it only. Ofcourse there is the paper work you can’t avoid eventually, but are they providing here a place where you can reserve the property, make some type of initial payment or something like that?

Not clear now. All you can do is register to be notified of launch date, but the site does look promising from far away.

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Open your virtual Kuwait store in minutes with Dikani.com

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:35:23 +0000

Name: Dikani.com

Launch Date: Nov, 2008

Languages: English/Arabic

Brief: Dikani.com is like a virtual Kuwait mall for sellers to open their virtual store through it and start selling instantly. Each seller gets his own subdomain on the site, e.g. shop.dikani.com, and each seller pays monthly fees for Dikani based on number of items advertised.

Review: The implementation of Dikani is unique in Kuwait, and is one of the few software as a service providers here now as well. I’ve heard quite several people sharing a thought for such an idea in Kuwait, but this one is the first to see the light. I have to say I was personally not convinced the idea in this way would would be a success, but it seems with the excessive online advertisement campaign by Dikani, things are starting to get some attention.

Right now, there is a total of 5 stores and around 70 items. Not much compared to the size of advertisement it’s making, but it’s still a start, and with a couple of success stories, I can see more people joining in. A point also to make is, for some reason most advertisement clicks take to 404 page rather than Dikani main page, so this must be affecting their conversion.

The target seller I think is small to medium. Small shops who are looking for quick ways to reach online audience. But I think people with highest interest will be the freelancers who normally sell their stuff at home or through friend links. Such a trend is quite popular in Kuwait, and this might be a good chance for them.

The down side of this service however is the cost. Not anywhere else on the net have I seen such an expensive service, and I’m not talking about double the price only here. 45 KD for 20 items only as the minimum offer, and it goes up to 615 KD for 1000 items! The one month free startup is I think what’s keeping stores now open, but with this price it means any seller will only join if he can guarantee minimum of 100 KD income, in which case he can easily hire someone to develop him his own custom unique site and cut down the cost. 45 KD by it self I think is way too expensive, and to limit this price to 20 items only is another bad thing. We all know for that price you can buy a TB of storage. The cost includes service fees as well alright, but still I believe the cost is not justifiable. Compare this to Shopify, which allows 10 items for FREE, and 100 items for $24/month. This includes various customization and extra features that seems to be missing from Dikani.com. If there is one thing that will stand in the face of this service, I believe it would be the cost.

Pros:

For sellers, quick and easy way to online sales
Sellers will get FREE exposure among other stores on Dikani without having to make any advertisements, just as you would get FREE customers inside a real mall.
Customers can shop multiple stores at the same time, and checkout only once.
Freelance sellers without physical locations can utilize this to reach wider audience

Cons:

Cost: Cost of the service is pretty high, and to be cost-effective for the seller, the customer may end up paying for extra profit margin on the items.
Delivery: It’s really not clear how delivery is made. Some stores mention delivery, while others don’t. If they don’t mention the delivery, then what does that mean, and how can I get my item then? Do I have to drive there and get it? Doesn’t sound like online shopping then. Also, on my test checkout from multiple stores, all I got was a message that I will be contacted by the seller soon. I personally hate online shopping that ends up with phone calls, simply because it’s not 100% online and it’s not convenient. If I shop from 5 stores, I will get minimum of 5 calls, and I have no clue about the delivery time. Personally, I didn’t feel comfortable with it.
Upon checkout, i did not receive any email confirmation for my order, which is really what I would rely on for future reference.
Lack of customization: Without trying a seller account ofcourse, from the outside it seems to be lacking customization features per seller, which would allow them for more personalization.
Support & Credibility: Most stores, or perhaps all of them, do not offer any refund or exchange policy. Many of them also are not real stores, and they are not people you know either. Those things would make me think twice and hesitate before buying from any of them. There are some real physical furniture stores however it seems joining the service.

Related Links:

Andra & my Backbone Review
Fonzation

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Wanna buy or sell your golden numbers? Q8Numbers.com

Q8Ba7th — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:29:20 +0000

For golden number fans, or also for people looking to buy a new normal number, Q8Numbers could be your first destination to check. A side from selling phone models and internet accessories, their main strong feature is the ability to search for your desired number, and see it’s availability. You can search for numbers by two ways:

1- Search by number pattern, e.g. I want numbers like 9**0000
2- Search by category: I want Golden Zain numbers ranging at this price.

Search results give you most information you need like number, owner, credit, line type, and contact number for inquiry. If you are looking for a number that matches yours, you can send a query to them and they will try to get it it seems. There is a section for advertisement as well if you like to place banner ads or advertise your number. I didn’t quite understand what they mean by “thabet” and “motaharek”. If they are referring to land and mobile lines, I think 5 KD charge for advertising regular number kills the purpose. But then again, if my number is regular, I will usually just cancel it.

Nice To Have: I think a neat feature the site could have is anonymous number price estimate. I fill in the number I may wish to sell, or buy, and see the estimated price tag based on the nature of number, is it ranked as Golden, Diamond, regular. How did such previous numbers sell. This could help people decide whether they want to sell or not before broadcasting their number to the public.

So what sort of numbers do you expect to find there?

Opinion: I like the general idea of the site, I see a good use for it, though I’m not a big fan of luxurious numbers, so I won’t be doing serious hunting there. I believe people will save my number and are likely to forget it after that. Heck I forgot the number I bought to my wife!. I know it’s not like that, but I look at it as my IP. Doesn’t matter how it looks, if it works well . Alas, the service keeps getting worse, so it doesn’t!

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Ketaaby.com Review – Online Kuwait Bookstore

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:19:49 +0000

Name: Ketaaby.com

Type: Shopping – Books

Description: Kuwait online shopping bookstore that offers wide range of Arabic focused books with an English books section as well. The site is divided into one level of categories, e.g. computers, law, literature, English, but there are no subcategories. Home delivery is made within 48 hours of order placement, and it would seem that payment is in cash on delivery, which I personally like.

Pros:

FREE Delivery: I think the site needs an FAQ section as I was not able to find direct answer, but upon trying to checkout with 6 KD book, it showed the delivery charge as zero KD, which is good.

Regional: This is both good and bad, but looking at it from the bright side, the store is good for Arabic readers who prefer to read Arabic books only. It has a collection of English books, but their top seller majority is in Arabic.

Design: The look and feel of the site is appealing I find it and easy to load, focused and not cluttered with ads or anything else.

Unique: We really lack good large bookstores in Kuwait, and we lack online bookstores even more. The other online bookstore I know is Q8Books, which I discussed before. So I wish to see growth for them. Problem is, I don’t think Kuwaities in general are passionate enough about books to make strong market for them.

Cons:

Price: When I say this here, I am comparing English books at Amazon and local stores to this one. Usually novels are few KDs, could reach 5 KD at times. An example I looked at is “The Zahir”, which costs at Amazon $11, and local stores around 5 KD, while here it’s 8.5 KD. Novels are usually low priced, and light in weight, so shipping from outside the book would cost 3 KD, add another 3 KD for the shipping, you are still saving 2.5 KD. Ofcourse you are also waiting few days more. For some other books, the price may be a good offer though looking at book weight, or for Arabic books as well which you can’t find outside. So for your type of books, you should first take a look at the market and see if the difference is worth the trip to the store next time.

Categories: Having only one level of categories could make it difficult to find the book you are looking for. For example, in computer section I could be looking for software books purely. In English category, novels, history, biography, self-improvement and all other kinds are mixed together. It’s nice in a sense to browse through different collections, but not very helpful when you are looking for something specific. I think a better way would be to have same categories in English & Arabic. Or make it vice versa. When clicking on Computer, give option to include English, Arabic or both. Just a thought.

Search: The search feature did not seem to function as expected to me. I tried several searches for author and title, the results did not seem relevant.

Up to date?: Looking at my taste of books, computers, I did not see them so much updated. Maybe it’s because Arabic computer books are just not so updated, possible. I remember a big physical computer bookstore in Kuwait City that kept begging for customers till it went broke. Problem is, most computer book readers are welling to order from outside, and it’s difficult for local ones to compete with outside stores. I also notice this in Jarir Bookstore. But for Guinness World Records book, I can’t really excuse not having latest one .

Suggestions: I hope the store is doing good, but I’m not sure. I am sure though I do not see enough ads for it. People in Kuwait are ordering good amount of books from outside, are increasingly facing more difficulties with delivery couriers, so if local stores can deliver in 2 days, which is long for local delivery but still good compared to international one, then they would happy to buy the same book if it’s for a good price. Some targeted Google ads, or Facebook ads might be useful. Have it been tried before? I’m not sure I’ve seen it

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

P2BK 2008 First Annual Forum Review

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:37:21 +0000

P2BK is a new youth initiative to organize annual forum for small and startup businesses. A healthy and definitely needed concept I say for startups and small business who can’t afford to take place in big expos like Info Connect and others. Yesterday, 30th April, 08 was the first annual forum which I could not afford to miss. I have to say however I was expecting much more from it. Keeping in mind this is the first annual forum, one can’t expect things to be perfect. They were also very unfortunate in timing with the Islamic Conference traffic jam and the icy storm that struck in the same day. So anyways, the idea is pretty good in general and I would love to see more of it, and here I thought of sharing what I thought was good, bad, and add some suggestions to it.

Pros:

Concept: Great idea and very much useful for small businesses. The number of participants can only reflect how much people want it.

Pricing: The price was meant to serve the small business owners making it affordable to most if not all.

Awards & Surveys: What’s an expo without feedback really? A $1000 award was promised for best design, which is chosen based on visitor reviews. Ofcourse it’s kinda subject to fraud and biased thought, but the idea is good. Also, a lady came in asking for our opinion in the expo which I dont mind at all. Except that my hand writing is bad, and as you can see from the post, I have a lot more to say than a few lines can take.

Cons:

Timing: 1 day expo, 4-10 PM. 6 hours only. I arrived at around 4:30, left around 5:30 PM. If I want to recommend the expo to a friend, he only has like 4 more hours to go. The traffic jam these few days also would make him hesitate more. I understand how the low budget may had something to do with this, but still it’s a point I think worth looking at. 3 days I think is good. Big sponsors can take part of the hosting costs and make it easier for contributors and P2BK to afford 3 days expo.

Space: The large amount of exhibitors condensed inside the small area has made it very difficult to move around, let alone set and talk to exhibitors. To make the most out of these forums, area must be wide enough for a person to walk around and watch. See what he likes and go to it. But rather I literally had to watch my steps while walking, and it’s not the heavy crowd as much as the small areas to be honest. This may have also resulted in the extreme heat inside the place.

Media Coverage: I mostly heard about this expo from the blogs. I may have seen some online ads, not sure though. I also got one spam email somehow about it. But all people I talked to didn’t know about the expo, and I never saw anything about it in the newspaper or streets. Neither I did see any review about it today even in the newspapers.

Varieties: Big portion of the exhibitors were about fashion and food, which would appeal for females maybe, but not for the majority of males.

Preparation: We were there after 5 PM when at least one of the top brand exhibitors was still working out his booth. Taking into account the exhibition is only one day makes it even worse. I know every exhibitor is responsible for his area, but the overall image of the expo depends on it’s exhibitors. So proper time management and more control on exhibitors for the overall good of the expo is needed.

Suggestions:

Categories: Hoping to see larger expo next year with larger varieties, it would help both exhibitors and visitors if the expo is organized into categories. Say Fashion, Food, eBusiness, technology, etc. One would go to the section he wants, finding what he expects. As yesterday, there was almost a whole lane full of women clothes and stuff, for some reason we passed through it and found the car bluetooth hands free device on one of the booths. It was too crowded with women we couldn’t even make a stop and just left. If it’s categorized, people would go to their preferred sections, and exhibitors would get the target audience.

Talk shows: Just like western ones. Certain companies hire the stage to present their new ideas and services to the public. This would attract more attention I presume.

Even though I was in general disappointed, I still like the idea and think there is a potential behind it if some of the points are taken care of.

Last words are: Good luck.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

BasketsMadePerfect.com Review – Quality Gift Baskets

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:42:34 +0000

Name: BasketsMadePerfect.com

Type: Gifts

Description: Online store to browse for category of high class gift baskets customized for your occasion. Site design is quite appealing I find it. From there you can select one of 14 predefined gift basket categories, like birthday baskets, corporate gift baskets, wedding, new baby, passion and others. The way to order is by selecting the type of gift you are looking for, after which the store will give you a call to further discuss the details of your gift basket content, look and final pricing. You get a chance to see the basket physically before sending it, or just do with a picture of it. Process is not 100% automated, and being custom made, I don’t think you can use it for next day delivery orders as well. But for custom gift baskets, I guess it’s very difficult to have it so, and you may prefer customizing it for the occasion, and check it before it’s sent over. Payment is possible in cash, money orders, wire transfer, or company checks. Some sample photos below.

USER EXPERIENCE UPDATE:

Sometimes things just happen at the right time. When I wrote about this site it didn’t come to my mind I have an occasion coming up, and I didn’t prepare anything for it yet. Soon after I realized this is the perfect easy way to have my gift ready while I’m at home, and give the site a shot as well. I didn’t use the contact form I just called the number directly, trying to figure if they can prepare something within 24 hours. It was as I expected, home based business but with professional and focused service. You get to talk to the lady, explain the occasion and kind of baskets you are looking for. Give an estimate of the price so that she can help in recommending the items inside the basket. I asked for a sample of similar baskets and got it sent soon after to my email.

Giving her the OK, next morning I got an email and SMS notice to check the photos of the basket. Due to my time constraints, I did it this way, but she offers a physical check of the basket before final wrapping as well. Delivery is available at no extra cost, but in my case, I chose to do the pickup from their home location. The basket was larger than I expected, looked really nice as well.

I have not compared the prices to outside ones, but it’s a good service that for me might be worth the money. Sorry I cannot say the price here, as it’s a gift and normally you do not disclose gift prices .

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Q8Showroom.com – An Emerging Car Ads Site

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:08:51 +0000

Q8Showroom.com is another new emerging car classified ads site, but is quickly rising in popularity. Currently ranked at 99,358, as opposed to famous Q8Car.com on 10,929. Big difference alright, but Q8Showroom is just getting started. A look at the graph below should give a better idea about how the status is right now, and keep in mind the time in market difference between the two:

Many other car ad sites have come up. Why did that one emerge? The answer is in the backing company, ~~Future Technology~~ (I could be wrong here. Read comments). This company’s been pushing real hard into the online business in Kuwait, seeing the potential behind it. Looking at the Company Info, it seems they are also the owners of Q8CV, the #1 place now for job postings in Kuwait, after it was nothing 1 year back. Being a big company, they can invest, they have links, and they can quickly convince companies into joining the new service.

But enough about that, the site allow users to post their car ads under 3 different categories:

Express: 4 car pictures, show until sold for 5 KD
Special: 9 car pictures, show until sold, 1 month feature on main page, submit to more than 50 Kuawiti sites for 35 KD. No details on which sites and how.
Super: Same as Special, in addition to your own custom ad page for 50 KD.

I think most people would go for the Express, which is a fair amount for lifetime advertising. It’s good compared to others who charge the same price for 1 month of posting. But truth is, you are only selling one car, and for a site like Q8Car, usually if your car is wanted, it will get sold in less than a month and you won’t be needing that extra period anyways. A bad side of lifetime ad also is, most people are lazy and may not care to remove their ads. So the old cars may get left there for long time. I think the only motive to remove the car is to avoid intensive amount of calls from potential buyers. For the lowest 5 KD ad also, you get to post 4 pictures of you car, compared to one only in Q8Car. 10 KD is the price of 4 pictures of your car at Q8Car. While Q8Car might look at it as an added advantage to the advertiser and must be charged for, another way to look at it is what value am I giving to the end user. If I can make the buyers happier when browsing, at the expense of only 3 more photos, why not?

Providing multiple photos per car, and lots and lots of additional information, in an easy to include way, like does it have CD, phone, TV and more, all as checkbox options, makes it very useful for buyers. The site also offers it’s ads as RSS feeds and widgets to import to different sites, giving the ad more exposure. Sadly, they don’t give a reason for people to embed their widget into their sites. No financial reward or anything. The site also loads much faster than Q8Car, which has become condensed with heavy ads and is very difficult to browse.

Some of the things I didn’t like about the Q8Showroom is, their side indentation. The site is only taking the right side of the screen, leaving the rest of the area empty and useless. Centralized view of the site would have been better at least. The other bad thing is posting the car ad. I couldn’t find information about how payment is made, all they said is it only takes few minutes and simple steps. So I just filled up some junk data and clicked next, expecting to reach a payment page or something, but what I got was a message saying I will be contacted shortly. Now that’s not convenient or few minutes and steps. It’s kind of misleading information until you hit the submit button.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

WardQ8 – Mega Online Flower Shop

Q8Ba7th — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:06:55 +0000

WardQ8.com is a very unique service in Kuwait that I’d love to see expand and get more of. As opposed to Q8Flowers.com, this site is an aggregator that combines current physical flower stores, present what they have to sell online, and allows you to shop and buy the bouquet you like from a central location. They seem to take care of delivering the order, settling the payment, and ensuring it gets delivered. The site is still kind of new and currently only consists of 3 physical stores, one of which is the famous Al-Bedaa flower store.

I am not a frequent flowers shopper, but if the site delivers the quality of service it promises, and can do so the same day. Still though, I think the bouquets are over priced a bit. What do you think?

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

CASH ART Review

Q8Ba7th — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:23:31 +0000

I have been asked to visit and give Cash Art an honest review of my own. Although I like to pick the sites to review to avoid spammy requests, this recommendation was for an online fashion art shopping site that is a kind of new concept in Kuwait and I decided to shed some light on. Now before I go any further I want you to rest assured I am not a fashion guy at all and I hardly bare to shop for clothes few times a year. So I will leave the quality of the art review to you and focus on usability and service of the site.

Cash Art is the initiative of Fine Arts graduate from the American Intercontinental University in London named Alia Al-Naqeeb. The main idea behind this project is T-Shirts with artwork design on them driven from different currencies. Below shown is a sample back view of a Hummingbird T-Shirt that is priced at 27 KD.

If you ask me, I wouldn’t spend that much on a T-Shirt. But then again, I am not into fashion as a whole. The site allows you to see each Shirt from 3 different views for better feeling. You get to select the size of the Shirt, while some come in only one size. Payment is possible by Cash (inside Kuwait only), Knet, or Credit Card. Only item exchange is possible for Cash payment inside Kuwait. So if you are buying from Kuwait, perhaps Cash is your best choice. I don’t understand why other payment options don’t have exchange with them, even though I know Knet payments come with online interface for the merchant to reverse transactions pretty easily. Shipping inside Kuwait is FREE, but takes from 1-3 business days. My advise, in Kuwait, if you want to please your customers, guarantee next day shipping at the most. Worldwide shipping is also an option, that’s first time I see it inside Kuwait. International Shipping is through DHL and as per standard DHL shipping rates.

Site is mostly based on Flash, not my preferred choice. It’s pretty easy to browse though and the collection is not huge yet so you wouldn’t find problems finding your item. I think the Flash part though is adding a bit to the response time, and it could be improved.

To sum the goods and bads in clean list, we look first at the Pros:

Nice new idea to be implemented online in Kuwait.
Various payment options made available
Site browsing is relatively easy although I don’t like the small FRAME in middle with scroll bar. Most of the screen size is not used
International Shipping: She is thinking global so that’s nice.
Multiple sizes and thumbnail views

Cons:

Flash Based: For a shopping site, customer is coming to complete his transaction and the Flashy stuff will not make his job easier. Also, it will affect the Search Engine Optimization. Click here to see only 3 links are indexed by Google. That means most people searching the internet would not land on this site. SEO is an excellent way of continuous free traffic. I would suggest a light-weight text-based version option to users (and search engines). I think showing the T-Shirt in Flash 360o would be cool, but not browsing the site.
Price: This is just how I feel about it.
Return Policy: Online exchange for Cash inside kuwait.
Not utilizing the whole screen enforces the use of scroll-bar to browse even a single item. Not very convenient.
When adding an item to the cart, moving your cursor over it would display a friendly pop-up message with item description. That message flickers most of the time.
Registration Form: A bit long and blurry within the small border of the page. Also no highlight of required fields. Some people may not wish to put their mobile or home number. I suggest also a preferred way of contact: Email, mobile, home number.
Shipping speed in Kuwait is a bit long.

Sorry if I’ve been a bit harsh, but I was asked for fair review . I like to see new online businesses popping in Kuwait and review is hopefully a small way of helping them move forward. Good luck!

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Taw9eel Review

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 06:03:29 +0000

I finally got to order from Taw9eel and be able to give them decent review after they started shipping to Egaila. The site, while not best in design, is pretty fast and easy to use as it’s mostly Ajax based. Rarely you will see page refreshing. This makes shopping really a lot lot easier. Also, most products come with thumbnail, even if not best of quality images. For some reason, for Abraaj water cartoon they did not allow me to add more than 4 items! Seemed a bit weird but that’s OK. So I added 4 only and extra few items just for the sake of trying it. As you checkout from their site for the first time, few minutes later a Kuwaiti gentle guy calls to confirm your address for first order only. An indian guy wearing some home dress was at my door. The truck it self is Taw9eel branded but the indian guy was not dressed properly to present a company really. Who cares I said! They were gentle and gave me the items in nice clean bag.

Yeah beside water it was mostly junk . I just wanted to try something, and this thing definitely won’t be vegetables. You have to hand pick those stuff from the store your self eventually, but I am just saying, for large and/or frequent packed items, this service could come in handy. you can see the bag was organized nice and clean. I paid the driver on delivery, wouldn’t suggest Knet as you have the option of checking your order first here, and last time I checked, their certificate was expired!

So now I got my order home. What do I think of the service in general?

Pros:

The site is fast and easy to use relatively, even though it does not sub-categorize items properly. This will get difficult once they have too many items, but search is supposed to do the trick
Their delivery service is fast, clean and neat as you saw.
It would save me trouble of frequent and heavy stuff like Water cartoons and cloth washing materials.

Cons:

Price: Comparing it to normal grocery store, and even though they don’t charge separately for shipping, their prices are way too high, sometimes double the price. For example, Nice kitco is for 150 fils compared to 100 fils in grocery. Abraaj water cartoon is 1.045 KD compared to 600 fils approx. in grocery! That’s way too much for just a delivery. %50-%100 extra. Unless you really have excess of money and want to buy the luxury of life to that extent, or in really bad shape when you need certain items and can’t get it your self, there is no reason to pay that much extra difference. For me, I don’t think I coming near it even though the service it self was quite good and I would love to have such a thing at a reasonable price.
Variety: I told them about that before and they said they keep adding items regularly to their store, as they don’t pick up items from the grocery it self as it seems. But still, if I want to pay extra to get rid of shopping headache, I have to be able to find all items I need online. And all the brand I need. For example I don’t like Heinz Ketchup or that certain cloth washing brand just doesn’t suit me. If only one item is missing, that means I still have to go to the store, get it and stand in line!
Presentation: As I said, their truck, shipping bag and all are Ta9eel branded, while their driver looked like some freelancer. This is not a big problem though, but it’s still a point.
Some weird limitations on quantity when I wanted to buy 5 cartoons of water. There wasn’t any proper reason why I can’t. Is it Tarsheed .

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Baroue Online – Coming Soon

Q8Ba7th — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:21:44 +0000

The famous Kids Kingdom shop Baroue have already started showing online Google Ads for their upcoming site.

I still haven’t been there I am waiting for good quiet time to visit this shop everybody seems to be talking about. I have a question though. At first, I thought this Baroue is worldwide brand that is coming to Kuwait. Then I came to know Baroue has a meaning as Kuwaiti word, and the site is now Coming Soon. Searching for the shop worldwide I was not able to spot it. The reason I assumed it’s global brand is their nice theme, the strong idea to have the largest kids shop in the largest mall in Kuwait, and the way they presented their brand all over Kuwait and now almost no one doesn’t know it. I’ll have to say, if this is all coming from a Kuwaiti mind, it’s really really great.

Other nice things to see along the way are:

1- Companies are realizing the importance of having online presentation of their physical store. I would love also to see some online shopping there from such a big brand. It could do great in holiday season. Send Gift to someone’s child online!
2- More and more people are realizing the power and importance of online ads rather than just relying on expensive non-targeted TV, newspaper and street ads. In the end, this is good for many other Kuwaiti existing and upcoming sites. Means you can give the service for FREE and rely on the targeted Kuwaiti ads served by Google, just as the case with this site and Q8igg.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

eWaseet – Search and post ads online

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:33:19 +0000

Waseet newspaper is the most popular ad newspaper in Kuwait, and probably the gulf as well. It has also publications in other Arab countries like Egypt. Posting your small ad there to sell a car, PC or anything else will get you large exposure. But for me, there was a bit of a problem. I tend to find it tiring to go through all those small ads, and there is a big chance I could miss the ones I want. Last year, Waseet have made a very smart move with their revamped eWaseet site. Quick loading, organized, split into categories, and include the thousands of ads that are in the weekly Waseet newspaper. Gives you everything you need and more. You can chose what you want very easily. For example, you can select real estate, lands, for sale, and specify the area. There you got it. The load and search time of the site is very good, unlike many others that crash for simple queries you make, or simply return no results always. You can also select your version of Waseet from 9 different countries.

Registration to the site is also possible, and upon authentication, and if you go an extra step to authenticate your mobile number by filling the 5 digits code you received on your mobile, you will get an extra set of useful services if you are a regular user of that service:

Add Pages to your Favorites for future reference.
Weekly eMail newsletters (OK, we already get lots of junk maybe)
Ability to post your ads online and pay via credit card. See Thumbnail. For each ad type, you get a set of fields to fill up, guiding you through what you need to put, and making it easier for others to search based on different criteria, like price, area, # rooms for example.
Get instant Email and SMS notification for your Favorite searches. I love this feature. Rather than having to worry about missing any ads, you resume your normal life until they come and tell you.

What do I still want from the site? Well perhaps against it’s own good, I would love to have an archive of old ads. From their point of view ofcourse, this may slow down new ads and decrease their profit. But if it’s in an archived section that is not directly accessible, it already has the drawback of not being presented in normal search pages. So I am thinking there could be a smart way for doing it. Q8soog is a site that has promised to post the daily newspaper ads online for you to read, but it’s still not fully live. Another service they could offer, that would create customer loyalty and encourage online use of the service is discounted renewal rate. For example, I posted my ad this week for 5 KD but no one called, or I didn’t sell the item yet. Perhaps I won’t feel like posting again in the same source, Waseet in this case. But if they give me special %50 discount for renewing the same ad, well maybe I’ll do it. This will also attract other people to use online ads rather than manual process. This is less headache for Waseet employees in the end. It saves a lot of time as I’ve seen how long those small ads take to finally agree on.

The site also has a survey on most desired type of ads, and surprisingly it’s Jobs. I thought it would be cars or real estate.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Online Flower Shopping in Kuwait

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 05:00:15 +0000

Buying flowers is sometimes a tedious job. Occasions happen, you have limited time to go to the ship, pick the flowers you want and ask them to send it to the desired address, hoping it will come in an appropriate time. Shopping online for flowers has made that a lot easier for many, and in Kuwait, there happens to be online flower shopping sites I intend to list down here:

A worldwide flower shopping site since 1999. The site has flower shopping for Kuwait, though it’s head quarter is in US with branches in UK and India. The site maybe the first that provides online flower shopping in Kuwait, however only through Credit Card.

This could be the first online Kuwait flowers shop that is Kuwait focused, currently closed since 1st Sept. Seems for complete revamp work. The site has the option of worldwide delivery too. The domain name was registered back in 1999. When was it in actual service is something I don’t know really. Credit card is used for payment.

The most recent and first to have Knet payment. Contrary to what some people might believe however, this is not the first site that offers flower shopping online in Kuwait as we have seen. It may be the first that is fully operating inside Kuwait though, I’m not sure. With the aggressive marketing campaign, this is starting to become the most recognized brand for flower shopping in Kuwait.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Buy & Sell Mobile Phones in Kuwait with Q8Phones

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:39:38 +0000

Q8Phones is the site for people looking to buy/sell used phones in Kuwait as the name suggests. The site is not limited to used phones, however you will see that this the majority of available phones there. The site design is fairly simple, nice and clean. You will need to register to post your phone ad. You can browse through the available phones without registration. Shall you be interested in a phone? You will fill a simple form to contact the seller and he shall reply back via email then. This is to maintain the privacy of the seller not anything else. I like this concept rather than posting my email or phone number. Registration and posting is all FREE. The site makes it revenue through ads on the side.

Community? There are currently 23 mobile phones only. But I am sure if anyone sold a phone there he will be getting another customer to use the site. Last time I checked there were only a handful of phones. Now there is a bit more. Hopefully, the community will grow. We are one of the fastest mobile changing communities in the world aren’t we?

WARNING:

Although the site owners seem to be trying their best to increase awareness and stop scamming, the site after trying it seems to be loaded with it. From sellers side, you would see unbelievable new iPhone 3G S 32 GB Officially Unlocked for crazy low prices… Clearly a scam.

From buyers side, after listing few items, I immediately received a purchase request from the US that was welling to add 40 KD to the item price to cover shipping. Something didn’t make a lot of sense. The buyer insisted on paying by wire-transfer, saying she was scammed by PayPal. Lots of people would think it’s safe to give away your bank account number to anyone, but BE CAREFUL. This is their way to money laundry affairs and will get you into trouble. If you wanna use the site, stick to local sellers, and cash payments.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Shop for used books in Kuwait

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 12:41:08 +0000

Q8Books is a %90 driven used book store located at Al-Salam Tower nearby Salhiya Tower. The store is not %100 online driven, but through their site you can see a large portion of the used books they have. The store which have opened back in 2003 claim to have a collection of 12,000 books on the shelves available for selling.

So how does the store works? Simple. You have some used book you want to sell. Take it to them, or if you have over 100 book they could also come and ship it. They will value the quality of the book and offer you a price for it, given the book is in a good usable condition. Another option that is available is the “sell through”, where they post your book and you get a percentage of the sale price (if it sells!). Commission goes down if the book takes longer to sell in the latter case. You can call it a storage charge for books that doesn’t sell quick.

If you want to buy a book, you can fill up a form online to RESERVE the book for 5 days under your name. You will have to go within that time to purchase it.

I am not sure how good that idea is selling inside Kuwait. How many readers we have is a considerable question. We are not a reading society that much. We do buy a lot but we don’t read. So I’m not sure about second hand books. Another thing is, for people who have Aramex shipments all the time, most novel books are available for sale through Amazon resellers at 1 cent! I felt awkward however about Q8Books using the same submit buttons from Amazon. I thought for a second they are affiliating with them, but no it’s not the case.

Q8RPM – Alterntive to Q8Car

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:05:23 +0000

While Q8Car has been on for quite long time and is the most famous site for used cars in Kuwait, there happens to be other alternatives out there that people might not know of. Q8RPM is another quite similar site that has been online since 2004. While I haven’t practically tried any of the two sites, just visiting the site I see Q8RPM much more user friendly. The interface is much more simple and straight forward, unlike Q8Car which is becoming condensed with ads recently unfortunately. Load time of the site and cross-compatibility across browsers is also better.

The price for individual car ads is 5 KD until it’s sold, just like Q8Car for single photo. For corporate their seems to be a different rate. The advantage that is lacking from both sides is the user ability to upload the ads online. There is no online registration as it seems, I think they have to take the money in cash and take photo of the car. The good side of it is you guarantee the car image is real and not a copy/paste from the internet.

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