E-mall 'TrolleyMania.Com' launched

IT minister Austin Gatt inaugurated the e-mall portal, a project that came to fruition after a public-private partnership between Government and Alert Communications to promote e-commerce.

Minister Gatt stressed that such a project should have been an initiative driven by the private sector and not by Government. Over the years and through multiple initiatives, Government has encouraged citizens to get connected to the internet and statistics shows that 69% of Maltese use the internet on a regular basis with 99% of them using it from the comfort of their home.

Even though 73% from the local online population has recently made an online purchase, only 7% of purchases were made through local online retailers.

“We want to change this scenario by supporting local businesses of all types and sizes in their online endeavours and this is precisely what we’re doing today” Austin Gatt said. 

MITA’s Chairman Claudio Grech said that TrolleyMania.com aims at increasing the percentage of online purchases done through local retailers.  There are currently 37 eShops of all sizes which are already fully operational on TrolleyMania with another 8 shops in the process of setting up.  “The response from the local business community was very positive.

The process of setting up an eShop on Trolleymania is done completely online. Merchants can register, choose a design template, add products in the product catalogue, select preferred methods for receiving payment (cash on delivery, debit and credit card payments, or both) and choose delivery options (own delivery or MaltaPost delivery).

Currently, TrolleyMania.com customers can browse through 4000 different products divided into 25 product categories. Besides the ability of viewing each product, customers can also compare similar items (from different retailers) with each other to help them decide in which product is best for their needs.