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AlEktiar - Building Saudi Arabia's Premier Online Car Store
Project Overview
The Easiest Way to Buy a Car, Built from the Ground Up
AlEktiar is a Saudi based multi-brand automotive retailer with an ambitious vision: let customers browse, configure, and order a car entirely online with free delivery anywhere in the Kingdom. No showroom hassle. No negotiation anxiety. Just a seamless digital experience from discovery to doorstep.
FME Extensions was engaged to design and develop every layer of this digital presence from scratch. The engagement covered full Magento 2 store development, a bespoke custom theme built to reflect AlEktiar's bold brand identity, a sophisticated vehicle search system, and native mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Huawei App Gallery - ensuring AlEktiar could reach every customer regardless of their device ecosystem.
Beyond custom development, two FME Extensions products were integrated into the platform, the Out of Stock Notification Extension to keep high-intent shoppers in the loop on unavailable vehicles, and the Reviews Extension to surface authentic social proof directly on the homepage, turning browsing visitors into confident buyers.
The Challenges
Complex Problems That Demanded Custom Solutions
Selling cars online in a competitive market like Saudi Arabia is fundamentally different from standard ecommerce. We identified three core challenges that shaped every architectural decision.
The Automotive Search Problem: Car buyers don't browse like fashion shoppers. They search by Year, Make, and Model, a deeply hierarchical, interdependent filtering system that standard Magento product search cannot handle out of the box. Building a dynamic, cascading YMM search experience that felt instant and intuitive was a foundational challenge that required custom attribute architecture and front-end engineering from the ground up.
Inventory Gaps and Demand Retention: Automotive inventory is inherently volatile, popular models sell quickly, and new stock isn't always immediate. When a desired vehicle was out of stock, AlEktiar risked losing high-intent customers to competitors permanently. The challenge was creating a mechanism to retain that demand, stay connected with interested buyers, and convert them the moment stock became available, without any manual effort from the AlEktiar team.
Reaching Customers Across All Ecosystems: Saudi Arabia has a highly diverse smartphone market, with significant user bases across iOS, Android, and Huawei devices, the latter running HMS and the Huawei App Gallery, completely separate from Google Play. Delivering a consistent, high-quality native mobile experience across all three ecosystems simultaneously, without fragmented quality or delayed releases, required careful cross-platform strategy and rigorous development planning.
Our Solutions
Six Ways We Delivered for AlEktiar
Every solution was engineered with a clear objective: make buying a car from AlEktiar the simplest, most trustworthy experience in the region.
Year / Make / Model Search Engine
We engineered a fully custom cascading search widget that lets shoppers drill down by year, make, and model in real time. Each selection dynamically filters the next dropdown, instantly surfacing only relevant vehicles. The result is a search experience tailored specifically to how car buyers think and shop.
Out of Stock Notifications
Using FME Extensions' Out of Stock Notification extension, we added a seamless alert signup on every sold-out vehicle listing. Shoppers register their interest with a single click, and the moment inventory is restored, they receive an automated email notification, recapturing demand that would otherwise be lost forever.
Homepage Reviews Block
Trust is everything in high-ticket purchases. We integrated FME Extensions' Reviews extension to display a curated, visually rich reviews block on the AlEktiar homepage. Authentic customer testimonials are surfaced front and centre, giving first-time visitors the social proof they need to feel confident placing a significant purchase online.
Bespoke Custom Theme & Brand Identity
Rather than adapting an off-the-shelf Magento theme, we designed and developed a fully custom storefront that embodies AlEktiar's identity. From the navigation pattern optimised for vehicle browsing, to bilingual Arabic and English layouts, every pixel was purpose-built to communicate confidence, quality, and ease.
iOS & Android Mobile Applications
We developed native mobile applications for the Apple App Store and Google Play, bringing the complete AlEktiar experience to smartphones. Customers can search vehicles, view detailed specs, track orders, and reach support, all from a fast, polished app interface that mirrors the quality of the web store.
Huawei App Gallery Integration
Recognising Saudi Arabia's substantial Huawei user base, operating entirely outside the Google ecosystem, we extended the mobile strategy to include a dedicated Huawei App Gallery release. The application was fully adapted to support HMS Core, ensuring AlEktiar didn't miss a significant slice of the market that competitors routinely overlook.
What AlEktiar Had to Say
"FME Extensions didn't just build us a website, they understood our vision of making car buying simple for Saudi customers and translated it into a platform that genuinely delivers on that promise. The Year/Make/Model search works flawlessly, the mobile apps look and feel premium across all three platforms, and the out-of-stock notification system has been a game changer for retaining customer interest. The team handled every challenge professionally and the end result speaks for itself."
The Outcome
A Complete Digital Presence, Delivered
The AlEktiar platform launched as a fully integrated, end-to-end automotive ecommerce ecosystem, setting a new benchmark for online car retail in Saudi Arabia.
Mobile app platforms launched simultaneously
FME Extensions powering store functionality
Languages supported - Arabic & English
Lost leads from out-of-stock vehicles
AlEktiar launched with a complete, production-ready platform that covers every touchpoint of the modern car-buying journey. From first visit to final order, the experience is consistent, intuitive, and confidence-inspiring, whether customers are shopping on a desktop browser, an iPhone, a Samsung device, or a Huawei handset.
The investment in a custom Year/Make/Model search architecture gave AlEktiar a genuine competitive advantage, shoppers can find what they need in seconds rather than wading through irrelevant listings. And with the FME Out of Stock Notification system in place, no high-intent lead is ever truly lost.