WITH the bombing of local marketplaces a regular occurrence in many parts of Iraq, one might think that e-commerce would be popular — at least in the country’s major cities. Unfortunately, problems in the nation’s financial infrastructure are holding back progress that information technology could immediately enable. Even though the population of Iraq is more than 30 million, credit card issuance only began in the country in 2007. Estimates are that less than 100,000 credit cards have been issued by Iraqi banks and most local merchants are unable or unwilling to accept them. With credit facilities extremely restricted, most business transactions are cash based and this has placed limitations on the growth of Iraqi e-commerce.

Nevertheless, in 2006 two Iraqi friends, Mehdi Al-Ajwadi and Faleh Al-Bahadli came up with the idea to create an e-commerce site, Harej.com, similar to eBay, but functioning within the requirements of the Iraqi environment.

“The old markets are well known in Iraq,” said Al-Ajwadi, who spoke to Arab News by telephone from Basra. “Anybody who has something to sell just goes to the market area, spreads out a mat and then puts his wares down for all the buyers to see. There is no fixed price so the buyer and seller bargain over the item. Sometimes an agreement can be reached on a price and a sale is made and other times the potential buyer just walks away. That’s the idea behind Harej.com.”

According to Al-Ajwadi, initially it was mostly overseas Iraqis who were using the site, which operates in Arabic and Kurdish — with a little English included by some sellers. Now, with Internet access more available in Iraq, there is greater interest in Harej.com inside the country. But even Al-Ajwadi admitted that the site won’t be fully functional until electronic payment options become more widespread in Iraq.

“The site is hosted in the UK and we developed it using dynamic Web design which is the trend in developing e-commerce and e-government sites,” he said. “The site is fully automated so we really have little to do with the buying and selling other than to make sure that the site is kept up and running. Users simply register and then proceed to do business. As of yet we can’t make much money from the site because there’s no way for us to take a percentage of each sale. If some form of electronic payment became more common in Iraq, then the site would become profitable.”

While Al-Ajwadi has great hopes for the site in the future, he hasn’t given up his day job. He is currently a government employee using the skills he gained after graduating in 1999 with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Basrah.

“In my job I work for the good of the Iraqi people and with Harej.com I am also working to demonstrate to the Iraqi people the concept of e-commerce,” Al-Ajwadi explained. “No, it’s not perfect since at the end the buyer and seller have to come together physically somehow so that cash and goods can be exchanged. It’s more like online marketing, although the site does support selling items for a predetermined price and online auctions.”

Al-Ajwadi advised that people use Harej.com to sell everything from antiques to real estate, although he has found that electronics and automobiles are the most popular items traded. For the future, he hopes that as the obstacles to the site’s success are overcome, Iraqis all over the nation will join in the marketplace.

“Although the site is still a long way from what we would like it to become, we see that business is slowly growing,” Al-Ajwadi said. “Harej.com will show Iraqis the possibilities for e-commerce. It’s our small attempt to help business flourish as we work together to create a prosperous nation for all Iraqis.”