E-commerce in Morocco: 180% growth in 2010!

This is an irreversible trend. E-commerce has reached a cruising speed in Morocco. As a matter of fact, according to the latest figures released by the Centre Monétique Interbancaire, the total amount of online payments made using bank cards on commercial websites reached almost 53 million Dirhams in the first quarter of 2010. In other words, e-commerce has recorded a growth of 25% in the kingdom compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, amounting to half the sum reached in 2009 (107 million Dirhams).

The trigger of this dynamic market is twofold. First, the unlock of the option of online payment using local bank cards by Moroccan banks in a joint initiative between the Centre Monétique Interbancaire and Maroc Telecommerce, since 2008. Second, the multiplication of commercial websites that offer online services targeting the 11 million Moroccan Internet users. This change in access to online payment and the increased supply, led to an increase in the average basket of online shopping to around 1000 Dirhams.

In practice, an Internet user can now purchase an airline ticket, pay for a holiday, or rent a car, online with a bank card. Moreover, it is now possible to pay some bills online (water, electricity, phone…). The public administration is not excluded. For the first time, a public administration, namely the General Treasury of the Kingdom, allows the taxpayers to pay their taxes online.

There are currently 100 commercial websites listed in the platform of online payment, Maroc Telecommerce; but this number will double by the end of the year. More interestingly, professionals expect e-commerce sales to reach 300 million Dirhams, representing an annual growth of 180% of sales compared to 2009.

Today, based on these exponential growth indicators, the real challenge for e-commerce is rather the limited number of online services. While the reluctance vis-à-vis the risk of fraud in the use of bank cards on the Internet persists among a fringe of Internet users; the real reluctance today comes from companies and government agencies that are slow in implementing e-commerce sites and proximity services for the 1.2 million Internet subscribers and the 5 million bank card holders in Morocco.

It is worth mentioning that within the framework of the sector’s strategy for the promotion of ICTs in Morocco, the government has recently proceeded to strengthening a legal plan dedicated to the protection of private data, through the promulgation of the law number 09-08 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data. This text protects Internet users against the misuse of data – including by commercial websites – that might affect their private lives.

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Anonymous About about 1 year ago

Peace be upon you my respectable brother. I hope that you can help me with a very critical issue. It’s about the theft of virtual money online, i.e. transferring money from the victim’s account to the offender’s account. I hope that you can answer me as soon as possible. May Allah reward you.

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Anonymous About about 1 year ago

This encourages us to invest in this field. Thank you Rachid.

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Anonymous About about 1 year ago

You’re talking about online payment in Morocco as if we have reached the levels of Bangladesh or South Africa. Unfortunately, this subject will always remain a taboo in Morocco. There are no international credit cards and no PayPal, so how can you expect young people to bring currency? Tourism, on which the economy relies, has become like SMrir’s potatoes; currency is at risk of disappearing in the Kingdom.

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SABER About about 1 year ago

In the name of Allah. I am Saber from Libya, I work in electronic banks, I have money in profitable corporates, and I have an account in Alertpay and Paypal. Is there a way to transfer money to Libya or even Egypt? Please advise us, may Allah reward you.

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Anonymous About about 1 year ago

Peace be upon you, my dear ones, wherever you are. I am Moroccan, and I like this topic a lot. However, like other seekers of professional trade online, I noticed a lack of basic information in this field, and the inexistence of necessary means for this activity. You can surf the Internet as you wish, my brother, and ask Mr. Google all kinds of questions about earning money online while being in our beloved Morocco, and you’ll find very little information. No one can disagree that the West is way ahead of us on this front, given the abundant ways for electronic payments within their countries and abroad, which facilitates the exchange of services, and the movement of money. While in Morocco, it is hard to send an amount of money abroad via Western Union, for example. For you to do that, you will need to obtain a license to engage in foreign trade from Rabat directly… Imagine, my brother, how hard that is for an average citizen, especially if it’s a young man full of ambitions who wants to achieve what his Western counterparts achieved, and still do; those Western young people who are not better than our youth in anything except for being born in countries that are managed by people who believe in future planning, instead of planning for their individual interests. I hope that officials in our countries will have employees specialized in following up debates like this one to benefit from them in the framework of planning for our economic future. I hope from the bottom of my heart that you will not consider my comment an insult, or boldness about matters that do not concern me… These are only words that express my point of view, and lines that criticize the current situation, hoping that it will improve and flourish. In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who contributed to this important, quiet and instructive debate.

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Anonymous About about 1 year ago

How are all business operations carried that way monitored? And how are taxes imposed on them? Don’t you think that a country like Morocco does not have the necessary economic and political qualifications to keep pace with e-commerce?

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