For the first time, hundreds of Israeli-made products, from jewellery to Judaica, from cosmetics to health products, will soon be available for direct, fast shipping to customers in the United States and Canada from IsraeliMall.com.IsraeliMall.com is a new startup founded by Michael Fromstein, a CPA with entrepreneurial experience and the CFO of a successful Toronto-based cloud company, and Eli Kaplan, an e-commerce specialist.
The company’s website, IsraeliMall.com, will enable North American customers using local credit cards with no exchange fees being added, to purchase a wide variety of goods made by small-to-medium Israeli businesses. Utilizing a dedicated fulfillment house in North America, the IsraeliMall.com will ship products to customers throughout the continental United States and Canada within days of receiving orders. Michael notes that while the majority of products will be available for shipping from the North American warehouse, a small number of companies will fulfill orders directly from Israel.
“We want to maximize sales of Israeli products for sellers that otherwise don’t have the ability to do the logistics themselves,” explains Fromstein. Michael expects that the site, which will open with a listing of almost 200 products, will grow to more than 2,000 products that will be offered by hundreds of merchants from Israel.
In today’s crowded Internet market, many small businesses in Israel are trying to find solutions to market their products abroad. IsraeliMall will be focusing its marketing efforts on the Jewish and evangelical Christian markets that want to support Israeli vendors. The founders estimate that the size of the market for Israeli goods sold by IsraeliMall.com is in the millions. The Evangelical community in the United States and Canada, which numbers some 95 million, harbors highly positive attitudes towards the State of Israel and would likely be interested in purchasing Israeli products online.
IsraeliMall.com connects these businesses together with the members of these communities who prefer to buy competitively priced Israeli products. “Our business model,” says Michael, is based on the premise that many people would choose to purchase Israeli products if the price differential is not significant.”
The ability to locate and order Israeli goods quickly and efficiently on a dedicated website simplifies the buying process for prospective customers and enables them to support Israeli merchants. The IsraeliMall.com site, with its listing of hundreds of products, allows consumers to ‘buy Israeli’ and, in doing so, counter anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) efforts to prevent the sale of Israeli products.
A quick glance at the products that will be offered at the site shows a wide variety of items, including distinctive crafts, health products, Dead Sea and organic cosmetics and much more. New products are being added to the site every day.
Michael is optimistic that IsraeliMall.com will be able to reach the potential market in the USA and Canada and says, “Our goal is to help Israeli merchants make their merchandise accessible to their potential customers in Canada and the United States.” He adds that IsraeliMall.com will be offering unique products that have not been previously available in the North American market.
In the meantime, marketing specialist Eli Kaplan is facilitating the addition of new products daily, and finishing touches are being added to the IsraeliMall.com website.
Individuals interested in purchasing Israeli-made products should be on the lookout for the launch of IsraeliMall.com within the next several weeks.