Recently, the world was marked by an unprecedented rupture due to the triple shock of the techno-scientific revolution, the information and communication technologies revolution and globalization. E-commerce arrives in North Africa is an essay of Khurram Jamil, Marketing Manager at Coucou Tunisia.

The global economy has undergone drastic changes and it is mainly due to globalization and free trade gaining momentum around the world.

Today we are talking about the “new digital economy” that has begun to make its mark.

Internationally, and most importantly, in industrialized countries; many companies are now using the World Wide Web, a universal merchant space, to establish or expand their market presence and offer their range of online production.

“E-commerce can generally be defined as the sale or purchase of goods / services, whether between businesses, households, individuals or private organizations, through electronic transactions via the Internet or other computer networks (online communication).”

Becoming a sales force, the Net progresses horizontally and vertically. In other words, it progresses in space by literally becoming a web, while gaining the different spheres of organizations (institutions, companies …)

In Europe, economic conditions have favoured E-commerce. Thus, consumers have seen in this new channel a way to find the best value for money, given that the offer is bigger on the Net. New technologies (smartphones, tablets, etc. …) that we benefit from, allow us to move from real life to virtual life almost instantly. Therefore, we can buy and pay online as we would in a traditional store.

Several North African countries have made relatively good progress in all ICT (information and communication technologies) environments (legal, institutional, infrastructural, etc.) and several project successes have been recorded, giving the region lessons learned and models of best practice.However, the region suffers from a great heterogeneity in the stages of advancement of the diffusion of digital culture. While some countries have succeeded in becoming an international level in the field and are being cited as examples, others find it difficult to put in place their strategies when they do.

Much of North African countries have integrated e-commerce into their ICT strategies. These e-Commerce strategies are voluntarist depending on the degree of advancement in the dissemination of digital culture. Thus, for Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, ICT and e-Commerce strategies are closely linked.

For others, E-commerce is relegated to a second phase dependent on the results achieved by the ICT strategy.

Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt and have made e-commerce a component of their ICT strategies. As a matter of a fact, they have made some progress in this area compared to their North African neighbours.

The countries of North Africa are all convinced that the development of the information and knowledge economy cannot be limited to the development of digital infrastructure but is also dependent on a strong legal and institutional environment. adapted.
Countries that have developed their digital infrastructure have also developed the legal aspects of ICT.

Tunisia took the initiative to develop the legal aspects as well as the technical aspects. The Tunisian legislator has assimilated acts made online to conventional acts.
Morocco, Algeria and Egypt have established consistent legal environments. Egypt and Tunisia have a law on the electronic signature. Such a law is being adopted in Morocco.
What most Internet users and online shoppers fear is the credibility of these platforms and the reliability of the means of payment.

In Tunisia, the payment on the e-commerce sites is organized by a Secure Payment Server (SPS) managed by the ‘monetic’ company of Tunisia: This is a system set up by the local authorities to authorize the use of bank cards in a secure environment and serve the interests of online merchants and buyers.

On electronic platforms, the SPS allows to:

1. Identify the seller
2. Take all the information of the transaction
3. Send a request for payment authorization online to the monetic company of Tunisia
4. Provide transaction information to the consumer with a payment receipt
5. Provide an acknowledgment of delivery of the goods to the merchant.

All banks operating in Tunisia are authorized to market bank cards that allow electronic transactions. The available cards are: Master Card, Visa and CIB.

The Tunisian monetary authorities offer, other than the solution of bank cards, the E-dinar service marketed by the Tunisian Post. These prepaid cards authorize any commercial operation on a Tunisian platform.

We distinguish between the e-DINAR SMART and e-DINAR Universal cards, which differ in the advantages they offer to users.

Surfing the wave of this trend, hundreds of e-commerce sites have emerged on the Tunisian web. Several types of e-commerce sites emerge from the very eclectic lot of Tunisian e-commerce sites. It is noted that Tunisians are attracted by the web sites which offer different products and services, deals or group sales like Bigdeal and Mytek. Among the multinational web sites which are experiencing a dazzling success, we can cite Jumia and Coucou Tunisia. Personally, I recommend Coucou Tunisia to shop online in Tunisia because of its fast and secure shipping.