SOUKMANIFESTO

All you need to know about SOUK and how it can help you grow

your business

04 / 2015 v3

Global halal marketplace.

By muslims.For everyone.

A port for Islamic trading.

A muslim entrepreneur community.

SOUK is a marketplace built to allow home-based businesses to be connected to a larger network of buyers, enthusiasts and fans.We are a enthusiastic team who are building a global online marketplace to help muslim entrepreneurs do what they love and share their love with others.

We intend to cater to a niche market - one that would be able to appreciate and support the work and love of aspiring muslim entrepreneurs.

We are first and foremost, muslims too, who appreciate, support, follow, and absolutely love the talent, creativity, skills and ability that we have seen come up within the muslim community in the past few years. We want to let others appreciate the work of

the muslim community the same way we do. We are also a global team. We are based in Johannesburg and in Singapore.

THE SOUK TEAM

Mission

Vision

Help muslim entrepreneurs be able to earn a living doing what they love to do.

Give people around the world access to quality products made by muslims.

Allow muslims around the world to support fellow muslim entrepreneurs.

Build a community of muslim entrepreneurs who help each other to succeed as an ummah.

SOUK is the leading marketplace for high quality products catering to muslims around the world.

Why S O U K ?Fuss free payment gateway/s

Free & unlimited listings

Easy to manage online store

Personal updates from founders (for vendors)

Consolidated marketing effort

Managed store hosting

Responsive webstore

Niche & growing target market

Normally running your own webstore, this is a hassle. We make it easy for buyers to pay and you to get paid.

We think this is fundamental to helping the ummah. Why should you worry before you sell anything?

We don’t plan to make your life difficult.

Let’s grow this community together!

We will work together to drive traffic to SOUK, as a muslim community.

We will manage the backend. If you have your own webstore, this could cost from S3.99 - $29 / month.

We intend to release an app in the future, but in the meantime SOUK will be accessible across all devices.

According to The Muslim Inc. (@ummahhub), the muslim market is a $170 billion market [with 2 billion potential customers]. At this point there is a lack of well-built web stores catering to this market.

S O U K vendors....are savvy,

..carry quality products,

..products are unique,

..have vision,

..are supportive of the community.

SOUK is mostly a self-service platform that will require vendors to manage their own vendor pages, products, photos, etc. Payments will also be made over the cloud, which means vendors will have to have the ability to set up and receive payments through the web.

The prophet Muhammad (peace & blessings be upon him) said, “Whosoever sells a defective product without disclosing its defect to the purchaser, shall earn the permanent anger of Almighty Allah and the angels continuously curse such a person.” (Ibn Majah) SOUK will be an online marketplace run by the muslim ummah from all around the globe. It will therefore display the muslim business ethic and principles to the world.

SOUK will not endeavour to take business away from existing physical businesses within the community. As a result, we will encourage vendors to sell their own creative, entrepreneurial items, or providing hard to procure items (e.g. rare English Islamic texts) rather than merely reselling common items.

We want SOUK to reach far and wide, and to make this happen we will need your support. The combined vision of all our vendors coupled with SOUK’s vision to be the leading marketplace for high quality products catering to muslims around the world will transform the landscape for all involved.

We envision that SOUK will become a place where vendors are able to assist as many of our brothers and sisters in the community as we can to establish and support themselves from what they have been blessed with. The prophet Muhammad (peace & blessings be upon him) said, “No one has ever eaten any food that is better than eating what his hands have earned.” (Bukhari)

As a matter of personal principle, our policy will be to not allow sales of the Quran and other common Islamic book titles1. We will not endeavour to take business away from existing physical businesses within the community.

As a result, we will encourage vendors to sell their own creative, entrepreneurial items, or providing hard to procure items (e.g. rare English Islamic texts) rather than merely reselling common items.

With regard to profiting from the written word of Allah, there are many views from various sources on whether it is a good practice or otherwise. We would encourage our vendors to conduct their own research and reading2 and decide for themselves.1 A list of book titles will be available on atsouk.com/disallowed soon. 2 We will prepare some recommended readings on this issue soon, IA.

How it works (the quick rundown)

Have a product

Set up your own store for free on SOUK

Add your product

Start selling!

..yes it’s that simple.

0flat rate1 on gross price2 of all transactions3

There are no fees to pay. Our basic premise is that we are not comfortable with charging the ummah a price with a product that is still under construction and not at its full potential. It isn’t fair and it isn’t what is taught to us.

Allah says in Surah Al-Nisa: “Do not devour another’s property wrongfully – unless it be by trade based on mutual consent.” (Al-Nisa: 29)

We therefore will not charge our fellow brothers and sisters until we both decide that SOUK is a product worth paying for.

Can SOUK help your brand?

Yes we can!

If we can, here’s what you need to do

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Join us! Register as a SOUK vendor

Build your price list. Decide on what you want to sell and for how much.

Research on postage (for physical products) Will you sell to just local customers within your country / area or will you sell globally? Check with your service provider on the prices, as they will be required during your store set-up. Initially, we will not be able to provide table rate / tiered shipping – only standard shipping prices.

atsouk.com/join

Then,

What are you about? Write up about yourself and your store.

What are your products about? Write up about each of your products.

Spread the love! The success of our marketplace will rely on the collaborative efforts of all our vendors. Share our idea with your loved ones, your fans, your everything!

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sweetlittlegarden kraftease itsnayaa

hazworkz thevanillavines

thetippytoe pins & such

from frans with love

alwardiah the kad

a love knot mairylebeau islamic arts ohmylunaa

lakreatif nabdalaan

paperhut arissa kiele

zerobackyard wunderlust abdi & esma

Intent Publishing byraisaidham

Oneness

Work with SOUK

Share this with everyone you know - atsouk.com/manifesto The information on this manifesto may change at anytime without given notice.

Icons from flaticon.com & thenounproject.com

Join the growing list of muslim entrepreneurs who are helping us to make SOUK happen

Additional contact details

hello@atsouk.com @soukofficial

*Only Whatsapp

+65 9181 1547 fb.me/officialsouk

Made with joy, love, milkshakes & bottomless coffee Liyana + Muhammad