Dubai, United Arab Emirates; 01 April 2020: Noon, the Middle East’s leading online shopping platform, is the first eCommerce company in the region to fully shift to cashless options for the payment of online orders. To support the transition, Noon has partnered with Visa to offer new UAE and KSA customers a 10% discount* when they pay online using their Visa card. Since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, Noon has seen a surge in home deliveries in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The eCommerce retailer’s decision is aimed at ensuring the safety of their delivery personnel and customers in line with local governments’ social distancing guidelines.
To honor its “Stay safe at home, while we deliver to you” message to consumers, Noon has also enacted several other measures, such as adding a “Leave at my door” option at checkout, sanitizing its facilities and packages and monitoring the hygiene of warehouse and delivery personnel to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Faraz Khalid, CEO of Noon, commented: “Nooniscommitted to delivering the safest and most convenient shopping experience to our customers. We are experiencing elevated levels of demand on the platform, as well as increased levels of concern from our customers regarding the safety of their online deliveries. To alleviate this concern and to safeguard our delivery agents, we have shifted to a card-only payment model in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, we have moved a vast majority of our catalog to card-only payment option as well. This partnership with Visa will support the drive towards safe and cashless ecommerce in the region, and we look forward to this deep-collaboration continuing in the future.”
Marcello Baricordi, Visa’s MENA General Manager, said: “We know consumers in UAE and KSA are increasingly comfortable with digital payments, and our research has shown that more than two-thirds of local consumers already prefer using cards over cash when shopping online, because they find the former more secure and convenient. Knowing that every Visa transaction is protected by multi-layered security protocols only helps to increase that comfort and peace of mind. We laud Noon’s decision to go cashless and are pleased to have this opportunity to not only enable this digital transformation, but also do our part for our communities. We hope it inspires other retailers to do the same especially during these unprecedented times.”