Halal e-marketplace

Definition of E-marketplace
E-marketplace is an electronic exchange marketplace where firms register as sellers or buyers to communicate and conduct business over the Internet. The E-marketplace has become an important electronic shopping environment that may evolve into a dominant force in Internet marketing. Most of the E-marketplaces with online stores are offering competing products. Featuring is associated with a price premium and it serves as a mechanism to mitigate competition among online stores. In essence, featuring facilitates a convenience-price trade-off. Those consumers who find that the cost of searching outweighs the benefit of a lower expected price shop at the featured store where the price is higher on average.
The Emerging of Halal E-marketplace
With Muslim population at a staggering figure of 1.8 billion and amounting to a USD2.1 trillion in 2008, the economists said that the growth of Global halal market is definitely depending on the participation of E-commerce and Halal E-marketplace. Currently, the major marketing channel for the Halal commodity suppliers and retailers is the commodity wholesale market. However, when the retailers make purchases in the wholesale market, the dominant suppliers may offer products that are not Halal certified. Besides, the retailers may be inconvenient to collect information on the price and other details of the Halal products. The expert studies show that the E-Commerce mechanism of the Halal E-marketplace can improve trading efficiency and lower the cost of collecting information as well as the purchase price. The E-marketplace can use “a combination of pictures, literal description, and regulated classification” to introduce the quality and details of the traded commodities.
Hence, Halal E-marketplace is found to be an emerging e-marketplace for the global Halal industries since the early of in recent years. Contradicted to the conventional E-marketplace, one of the unique features of Halal E-Marketplace is that it requires all the Halal businesses and services to be provided and transacted online according to the Halal principles and Muslim values. This is to ensure the benefits of the Halal consumers from around the world.
The unique features of the Halal E-Marketplace include:
* Only the Halal certified products and services can be exhibited and traded online
* Operated according to the Halal principles and Muslim values
* Cultivate the Islamic values of Hygiene, Sincerity, Fairness and Trustworthiness
* Promotes the right way of doing trading activities
Economic Beneficial of the Halal E-marketplace
Halal industry businesses and services providers can be benefit from the Halal E-Marketplace. For example, Halal food producers representing each section in a supply-chain could join Halal e-marketplace to transfer information and purchase products. They may operate on a cost-recovery basis by an independent third party (such as an industry association) or be set up as a business offering, with a middle-person providing a value-added function such as transaction services. Services offered by Halal E-marketplaces include the business directory listings, electronic catalogues for online purchasing of goods and services and trading or transaction services. Halal E-marketplaces that are worth considering are those that interconnect with other marketplaces and allow low-cost connection to a firm's financial accounting systems.
The economic beneficial of the Halal E-marketplace may include:
* Greater opportunities for the Halal suppliers and buyers to make new trading partnerships, either within their supply-chain or across supply-chains
* The potential to lower the costs of negotiating and making transactions with automation of standard business procedures
* The potential for more transparent pricing as Halal buyers and sellers take the opportunity to trade in a more open environment
* The opportunity to access value-added services such as inventory control and management of dispatch and distribution processes using electronic systems
* The potential to access Global Halal Market
The Popularity of Halal E-marketplace
The Halal E-marketplace can be categorized as the directory and business portal, or as a general classifieds-type marketplace. Some of the Malaysian Halal E-marketplace includes the DagangHalal.com,worldhalal.com and the Comprehensive Halal Directory: Link developed by the Malaysia Halal Development Cooperation. Based on the statistics by Google Analytics, DagangHalal.com is currently the No.1 ranking Halal business portal which originated from Malaysia, followed by the HalalBusinessDirectory.com which is a Halal business yellow pages in UK.
A new Halal Marketplace, halalexporter.com, has emerged that aims to provide a Halal E-marketplace where Supplier(and businesses) can buy and sell products and advertise services. halalexporter.com serves the global community at large, and will be interesting to follow up on in the coming years.
Besides, some of the governmental Halal E-marketplace include the Australian Halal Food Directory and Singapore Halal Directory. In fact, Muslim countries like Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Pakistan and Singapore are currently speeding the promotion of Halal concept, which aims to integrate the Halal producers and marketers. Thus, the development of Halal E-marketplace is facing huge challenge, in the perspective of having qualified Halal certified food producers to join in the Halal E-marketplace as to ensure the safety, hygiene and fairness of the commodity trading.

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