Riwaya: The largest Islamic marketplace in the UK!

Intro

The Muzdex ‘Deep Dive Series’ is a series of Q&As where we sit-down with unique individuals in the Muslim space to explore the problems they’re solving for the Muslim community, what’s unique about their solutions and what’s next in their journey.

In the fourth instalment of this series, we sat down with the Riwaya team. Riwaya is the largest Islamic marketplace in the UK. They showcase hand selected sellers and put their products in one easy to navigate website. Riwaya looks to provide a platform to bridge the gap between amazing Islamic sellers and their customers.

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Q: Tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

Having bought and sold everything from books to clothes on marketplaces since a young age, we've seen first hand the impact that marketplaces can promote in entrepreneurship and empowering independent businesses. After spending time in finance and tech, we've come back to our roots to help empower the countless independent Muslim businesses both in the UK and abroad.

Q: What was the inspiration behind Riwaya and how did it all start?

Entrepreneurship has always been a calling for us and the freedom that, if successful, it can give you. During our previous careers we had started exploring different avenues of what could work and started exploring more ways on how to incorporate faith with our business idea.

The idea of a muslim lifestyle brand was started in early 2020 but then we pivoted to an Islamic and ethical marketplace after Covid hit. Seeing countless of Independent Muslim and ethical businesses were shut down over night due to lockdown, we knew we could add real value by curating an ethical and value based Islamic marketplace and help these businesses and our community.

Q: What makes Riwaya stand out from the rest as an islamic marketplace?

The idea of an Islamic Marketplace is not new. When we started they were popping up everywhere. Crucially, we're the only one that initially started up at the time that still remains in the mission to empower Islamic and ethical businesses. But our USP is not that we connect 100s of sellers to their target market. It's not that we are the largest Islamic marketplace in the west (although both are true). It's that we've always had community at the heart of what we do.

We donate a % of sales to charitable causes through Riwaya community and we've developed unique features that have our community at the core. Features such as Qadr Search implements personalisation in your Riwaya experience. A few clicks and you get hand selected ideas from across our marketplace.

Q: Can you share some success stories with us?

As we've grown in size, invested in feature development, boosted SEO capabilities and expanded our marketing. Our sellers have got better and better results. We've grown year on year and this past Ramadan was our best yet. Individual sellers were able to get £1000 worth of sales in just Ramadan alone using Riwaya.

Q: What do you envision for the future and what advice do you have for businesses trying to sell their products?

We've got huge plans, we've recently launched new ways to pay on the marketplace. New sellers and categories are being added daily and we're expanding to other regions insha'allah. Feature wise look out for Qadr search v2, a move into the wedding space and some exciting incorporation of AI into Riwaya.

If you're struggling to sell your products to the Muslim or ethically conscious consumer, then try Riwaya for free today here and see how joining the UK's largest Islamic marketplace can add real value to your business 😄.