Floral marketplaces: Does the future look rosy?

Floral marketplaces: Does the future look rosy?

The retail industry across the Middle East has undergone a sea of change, with online purchases becoming a central part of the shopping journey. E-commerce is increasingly being disrupted by startups aiming to digitise almost every aspect of this journey. 

The floral sector has therefore not been left immune from the digital boom. E-commerce adoption in the sector is happening, but at a slower pace. Abdulaziz Al Loughani, CEO of Floward, attributes this to the fact that the sector still remains by and large a fragmented sector.

"It is a brick-and-mortar industry at heart; traditional mom-and-pop shops still dominate," says Loughani. "We are slowly seeing the pickup of e-commerce penetration happen as part of the world and we are definitely causing that disruption to happen."

Amid the uncertainty triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, the company ramped up its expansion plans. Now, it is operational in Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UK, Cyprus, Central Europe, Russia, and North Africa. 

"Back in March 2020, we were in the middle of our expansion, in addition, we saw that e-commerce penetration in this part of the world and other parts were almost doubling. We felt that we really wanted to be ready for