Highlights
- Despite the global youth literacy rate increasing from 83 per cent to 91 per cent over the last two decades, regional disparities persist
- Literacy is lowest in the less-developed countries with over 100 million of the global youth left with no access to quality primary education
Dubai: Online store Idealz, which has reimagined the shopping experience, is using its platform to provide children in developing countries access to quality education through an innovative school-building programme. Brainchild of Jad Toubayly and Easa Al Gurg, the e-commerce platform is an innovative concept that breaks traditional trade models, offering a unique shopping experience with a mission.
From ideation to its launch in 2018, Idealz has since set out to leverage the success of the business to change the lives of the less fortunate with the belief that education enables socio-economic mobility.
Value-added proposition
While transforming the online shopping experience for its customers, Idealz inverted the formula by incentivising sales not through discounts and faster delivery times, but rather, a sizable value-added proposition. Idealz sells its products in limited quantity campaigns, and with every purchase made, a complimentary ticket into a specified prize draw is awarded to the buyer. More than 20 such draws takes place per week.
Idealz has addressed the lack of education in less-developed countries and has augmented its offering by allowing customers to be the change they want to see in the world.
Despite the global youth literacy rate increasing from 83 per cent to 91 per cent over the last two decades, regional disparities persist. Literacy is lowest in the less-developed countries with over 100 million of the global youth left with no access to quality primary education. In order to address this challenge, Idealz has an added feature that provides customers with the option to donate the products they purchase to charity in return for an additional complimentary ticket to the prize draw, thus doubling their chances of winning.
Social responsibility at the core
Idealz then aggregates the products that are donated by customers and offers them to Dubai Cares, where a buy back is done at the option of the organisation, in exchange for cash to fund the building of schools and other such projects. With each purchase allowing customers to contribute to the building of schools in lesser-developed countries, Idealz places social responsibility at the core of its value proposition.
Till date, Idealz has generated substantial funding towards the building of schools for disadvantaged children around the world, with a pilot project in Nepal, a second project in Cambodia, and a third location which is currently being finalised.
Access to basic education
Undertaking to build six to 12 schools per year in each country from Dubai Cares’ list, Idealz aims to lead by example and pave the way for companies to further contribute to social responsibility. “We believe that access to education is a vital pillar in improving the lives of the underprivileged. Idealz has, is and always will look at ways it can play its part in such initiatives, not because it has to, but because it wants to,” said co-founder Jad Toubayly.
