After realizing the huge opportunity for e-commerce in Lebanon, Emile Boustani, a Lebanese entrepreneur who spent 20 years in the U.S. and Africa, and Lebanese-French Julien Fayad, who came to Lebanon from France four years ago, decided to try their hand at this growing sector and develop ShopBuilder, a website that builds online stores for merchants. Before pairing up, the two worked on separate projects. Fayad started e-dailydish, a food delivery platform in Lebanon, which “failed miserably,” he laughs. “The launch was good but I couldn’t scale it.” Before that, he had worked on Eweev, a still-operative web design and development company based in Lebanon, which handled Breedo's web marketing (Boustani’s first venture) and now ShopBuilder and multiple projects. Breedo was an e-commerce website in Lebanon that featured deals valid only for 24 hours. The business wasn't easy: “it was tough to find products and good discounts. Electronics is a tough market with small margins on profit,” he says. Because of the difficult market – and the opportunity he saw when Fayad pitched the idea of ShopBuilder – it was a no-brainer for Boustani to put Breedo on hold. Without any external investment, they have managed to secure the business of four startups, one of which has already launched. Their initial success is likely partially due to the program’s ease of use. In five to ten minutes, merchants can choose a design for their website and upload products with descriptions. In the future, ShopBuilder will offer three languages for users to choose from: Arabic, English, or French. ShopBuilder has integrated with PayPal to provide a payment method in countries where the service is available and partnered with Bank Audi to provide a payment gateway, as well as offering the classic cash on delivery. As for shipping, they are dealing with Aramex to help merchants get products to customers, and track them in real-time.
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