The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism HE Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani issued Resolution No. (12) for the year (2020), with regards to the regulation of Retail Sale via Internet through a virtual shop, under which the commercial activity "Retail Sale via Internet" is listed within the available options under the Virtual Commercial Registration (VCR) "Sijili".
The Resolution comes within HE the Minister's continuous endeavours to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Bahraini startups, in addition to activating e-commerce practicing in preparation for its digital transformation.
This initiative is one of the initiatives of the national e-commerce strategy aimed at facilitating and organising procedures related to practicing e-commerce in a legal, licensed and flexible manner. This initiative also allows businessowners on social media networks to register their businesses without requiring the existence of an actual commercial store, in order to ensure the commercial rights of all parties, and in implementation of the aspirations of account owners on social media networks to officially register these accounts as commercial activities licensed by the Ministry for online trade, with the purpose of preserving the success and reputation they have earned, and to add the confidence of business dealings to it.
Additionally, this initiative is expected to contribute to the efforts exerted to curb suspicious commercial products that may deceive the consumer by selling products or providing services that do not comply with what the online store offers and other problems that the consumer may face during the process of buying electronically.
The initiative would also contribute to boosting the consumer's confidence and provides the best and safest option for dealing with licensed online stores in order to preserve their rights during the electronic purchase process, in addition to enabling the online stores to achieve more legal and local expansion. This also enables them to join "mall.bh"; an initiative launched by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in April, 2020.
The registration conditions for practicing "Retail Sale via Internet" are identical to the conditions for practicing virtual commercial activities "Sijili", with the requirement to provide an existing website for the virtual store and to commit to buying products for sale from the local market only.
It is also important to provide a secure electronic payment method and an active shopping cart, while the online store must clearly display the return and exchange policy, the use policy and the user data protection policy, in addition to providing online product selection and payment methods, and the products purchased can either be downloaded directly or physically delivered to customers.
All those who meet the conditions and wishing to practice this activity can follow the required steps through the website www.sijilat.bh . For more information and inquiries, you can contact info@mall.bh or call 17359008.
