Dubai -MENA Herald: The recently launched online shopping platform KOOOT.com is the first online shopping website in the region with the primary aim of enabling Arab women to develop themselves professionally and become financially self-reliant. The website provides talented women entrepreneurs with a platform to market and distribute their products. At the same time, it offers shoppers access to global brands that have no distribution channels in the Middle East. The platform, which currently caters to the UAE and Kuwait, offers women shoppers the chance to shop global and local on one platform, a platform that further provides a holistic experience built on dialogue. KOOOT.com aims to help women succeed in their goals, firstly by providing entrepreneurs with a platform to sell their products and thus expand their potential, and secondly, by helping women shoppers feel and look better and have constructive dialogue with one another, and thus succeed in their professional and personal ambitions.
KOOOT.com was built with one fact in mind: Arab women today are busier than ever, and are caught up in the quick pace of modern life as they strive in all avenues of work. KOOOT.com is a platform that aims to make Arab women’s lives easier by saving them time and effort.
KOOOT.com is a safe, trustworthy, and easy-to-use platform that provides its users with two types of products. It offers high-quality products from global brands with no presence in the region, thoughtfully selected with an eye to providing for Arab women’s needs and desires. It also offers unique products made by talented women entrepreneurs in the Arab region.
The history of women in the Gulf serves as a source of inspiration for KOOOT.com. Souq al-Hareem, the women’s souq of Kuwait, was a place where women made a living as well as built social bonds amongst themselves. Luma Bourisly, Founder and CEO of KOOOT.com, comments, “KOOOT.com’s brand and colors are inspired by Kuwait’s cultural heritage, and particularly the women’s souq, where Kuwaiti women sat in the narrow pathways selling colorful textiles, unique handicrafts, and traditional beauty products, many of which were made by the women themselves.” Nor was women’s economic activity unique to Kuwait. Women in the Middle East have historically been active in production and trade. Thus KOOOT.com provides a platform for talented Arab women who produce unique products and who do not currently have an extensive distribution model to sell their products to the public. KOOOT.com is the modern embodiment of the Souq al-Hareem.
Bourisly explains, “Just as “taking” is important to a company’s business objectives, “giving” is equally important. We, the founders of KOOOT.com, care about each other. In the same way, we care about anything that contributes to the improvement of our society. We believe in the potential and capabilities of Arab women, in their creativity and proactivity, their entrepreneurial spirit. It is thus our primary goal to provide women with the platform to flourish, which is KOOOT.com. That’s who we are, easy and simple.”
Not only is KOOOT.com inspired by the economics livelihood of the souq. It is also inspired by the social function of the souq, as the souq was a place where women built and solidified their social bonds and networks. Thus, one of KOOOT.com’s main pillars is dialogue. KOOOT.com functions as a platform for dialogue amongst women, whether related to professional development, personal development, fashion and lifestyle, or anything else that is important to women. KOOOT.com provides tailored content of interest to shoppers and also invites women to write about and discuss what they are passionate about. Luma Bourisly adds, “As much as we believe in the business objectives of KOOOT.com, we are equally interested in exploring writing talents within our communities. Our Conversations page is available in both Arabic and English. We want to be as inclusive and conversational as possible. For that reason, we built KOOOT.com in a way that enables engagement and dialogue, both on our blog “Conversations” and through reviews and comments on products within the marketplace.”
KOOOT.com stands for three values – it is caring, convenient, and conversational. KOOOT.com is thus a brand with a modern outlook and method but with traditional roots familiar to Arab women. What makes KOOOT.com is unique among other online shopping websites because its founders, themselves Arab women of diverse backgrounds, understand how Arab women exist at the cusp of modernity, excelling and breaking ground in multiple fields, while always maintaining awareness of their background and traditions.
KOOOT.com currently delivers to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. It aims to gradually expand to the GCC region soon after launch and to other parts of the Arab world at a later phase. Expansion will occur after careful logistical and market analysis, with an eye to always delivering the same high quality service to customers.