Current Business Model of the Halal Global Market
Currently, the major marketing channel for Halal commodity suppliers and retailers is the commodity wholesale market. However, when retailers make purchases in the wholesale market, the dominant suppliers may offer products that are not Halal certified. Besides, it may be inconvenient for retailers to collect information on the price and other details of Halal products. The current business model is the directory and business portal.
The average online halal directory and business portal, like the Singapore Halal Directory, acts as a mere introductory service. Once buyers have identified products and suppliers of interest, both parties will have to move offline and continue using emails, faxes and myriads of spreadsheets that result in complexities, errors and added costs.
According to the World Trade Organization, the average international trade transaction involves: 20-30 different parties, 40 documents, and 200 data elements (30 of which are repeated at least 30 times).
The complexities of import-export add as much as 15% administrative overhead to the actual cost of goods.
In today's highly competitive global markets, suppliers and their clients need to reduce and even eliminate inefficiencies that result in higher costs and possible loss of market share.
Technology challenges
There are several challenges with regard to technology that need to be overcome. Firstly, communication management between Warees Halal staff and their clients is not properly managed. This problem was also faced when communicating with their China agent. Currently most communication is done through email or phone and there is no centralized location to capture information. Thus tracking can be quite challenging, as different staff have their own sets of Excel spreadsheets.
Another challenge is the global outreach restriction due to geographical factors and limitations due to the current information technology infrastructure.
Emerging models for E-commerce business in the Halal Market
Economists said that the growth of the global Halal market definitely depends on the participation of e-commerce and the Halal e-marketplace.
In fact, regional Muslim countries like Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore are currently speeding up the promotion of the Halal concept, which aims to integrate Halal producers and marketers. Thus, the development of the Halal e-marketplace is facing a huge challenge, in terms of having qualified Halal-certified food producers join the Halal e-marketplace to ensure the safety, hygiene and fairness of commodity trading.
Some of the Halal e-marketplaces include the Dagang Halal site from Malaysia and zabihah.com, a site with a directory that is a Halal business yellow pages in the UK.
Besides these sites, some of the government Halal e-marketplaces, which are only search directories, include the Australian Halal Food Directory and the Singapore Halal Directory.
Halal Market Leaders for the adoption of e-commerce solutions.
Zabihah.com
Zabihah.com is one of the largest databases of Halal establishments. It is based in the US and was created in 1999. Now, it has become an important resource for Muslim communities worldwide.
DagangHalal.com
DagangHalal.com, based in Malaysia, is one of the B2B e-marketplaces featuring Halal products and services. It provides an online platform as well as other business sourcing channels for merchants to reach out to a potential worldwide Muslim market.
HalalBusinessDirectory.com
The Halal Business Directory, a UK-based website, provides a free service to Halal businesses enabling them to publicise their online presence, and a free service to the public to help locate local businesses. Both user-friendly and search-engine-friendly, the Halal Business Directory also provides a business listing with contact details, products and services, and a link to selected businesses' websites.
Halal Exchange
Halal Exchange is a joint venture project in the UAE by Halal Exchange Inc.
Halal Exchange is a web-based enterprise solution for the challenges of global sourcing. Founded in January 2002, the mission focused exclusively on developing the standard template for the complex, costly and convoluted import-export process. Halal Exchange is headquartered in Vancouver, with offices in Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Dubai and San Francisco.
Australian Halal Food Directory
Halal.com.au is Australia's first comprehensive Halal dining guide. The aim in launching this site is to give Muslim people around Australia a handy resource to find Halal restaurants, cafes and other eateries. Of course, we hope that this site can be of use to non-Muslims as well!
Singapore Halal Directory (http://www.singaporehalaldirectory.com)