The e-commerce market in Egypt is growing rapidly, with rising internet penetration, improved infrastructure, and an increased number of online shoppers driving the industry forward. The revenue of the Egyptian e-commerce market was expected to reach $6.8 billion in 2023, according to a report by Statista titled “Revenue of the e-commerce market in Egypt from 2017 to 2027”.

With the increase of international and national marketplaces, Arab Finance interviewed Omar Elsahy, Amazon Egypt General Manager, who discussed Amazon’s plans in Egypt, their role in social sustainability, and the global expertise they bring to the Egyptian market.

1-Amazon acquired Souq.com in 2017. How did this align with the company’s vision and plan in Egypt?

Amazon's acquisition of Souq.com in 2017 was a significant milestone for both companies and a strategic move towards expanding Amazon's presence in the Middle East, including Egypt. Egypt is a dynamic and thriving marketplace with a diverse customer base and a robust industrial sector. The acquisition allowed Amazon to tap into the burgeoning e-commerce industry in Egypt and accelerate its growth in the region.

With the customer base built over the years on Souq.com and a broad selection of products through a well-established e-commerce company, Amazon was able to leverage its global expertise in logistics, technology, and customer service to enhance the company’s capabilities and bring a world-class e-commerce experience to customers in the region.

Since Amazon’s entry into the MENA region, we have been seamlessly integrating our local know-how and global expertise to provide customers in Egypt with a superior shopping experience—one that is characterized by excellent service, trustworthy transactions, and a rapidly expanding range of products and services, all at competitive prices and with convenient and fast delivery.

2-What is the one program you are proud of bringing to customers in Egypt?

In June 2022, we were pleased to launch Amazon Prime in Egypt. Amazon Prime is a membership program designed to improve customers' shopping experiences by providing year-long value by combining a range of savings, convenience, entertainment, and gaming all in a single membership. It is enjoyed by more than 200 million paid members around the world. Amazon Prime helps you get the most out of Amazon.

The benefits include free next-day delivery with no minimum order in most governorates across Egypt, free same-day delivery on orders over EGP 350 placed before 11:30 am in Cairo and Giza, access to popular award-winning international movies and series on Prime Video, and access to in-game content and free games to download with Prime Gaming. In addition, Prime members have access to exclusive deals on Amazon Prime Day, Amazon’s annual global shopping event.

We are also happy to announce the return of the second Amazon Prime Day on July 11th and 12th, with hundreds of thousands of deals available exclusively for Amazon Prime members in Egypt. During the 48 hours, Prime members will enjoy savings and convenient payment methods with installment plans, during the summer season, across over 30 product categories.

3-How do you ensure that Amazon Egypt's operations align with Amazon's global strategy and values?

This is one of our top priorities at Amazon, and we are very proud to have a vigorously structured workplace where all locales find a way to consistently be aligned. We have a set of guiding principles that are consistent with Amazon's global values, such as customer obsession, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. We also have our Leadership Principles, which describe how Amazon does business, how leaders lead, and how we keep the customer at the center of our decisions. Our unique Amazon culture, described by our Leadership Principles, helps us relentlessly pursue our mission of being Earth’s most customer-centric company, best employer, and safest place to work. We provide extensive training and development opportunities to our employees, promote a culture of diversity and inclusion, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability throughout our organization.

We also leverage our global network and expertise to learn from their successes and challenges, and we adapt our strategies accordingly, providing a localized experience to our customers in Egypt that meets their specific needs and preferences.

4-How do you stay connected with your customers and understand their needs, and how do you use that feedback to improve Amazon Egypt's offerings?

Amazon adopts a customer-centric culture where every employee is encouraged to prioritize the customer experience in their decisions and actions. This ensures that customer feedback is incorporated into our day-to-day operations and decision-making processes, helping us to build relationships with our customers and understand their needs on a deeper level. We are obsessed with our customers and are constantly innovating on their behalf. Whether it is through more personalized recommendations, tailored service, or infrastructure and network expansion to provide speedy, reliable, and convenient delivery and a wide selection of products and services. We are always looking for ways to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.

Regarding technology, Amazon is known for relentlessly innovating on behalf of our customers to ensure a fast, safe, and convenient shopping experience. We have invested in several technologies that have improved the customer experience for our customers in Egypt, and we have more innovations and technology upgrades in the pipeline. Last year, we announced the opening of the Customer Service Center, which will serve our customers across several countries worldwide. Located in New Cairo, the center is equipped to provide customer service to Amazon shoppers.

5-Can you elaborate on Amazon’s efforts toward supporting entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)?

Since we launched Amazon.eg, we have been working closely with different partners to enable SMBs to sell their local products to millions of customers online. We signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), an entity spearheaded under presidential direction to support handmade and artisan products manufactured locally. It is part of our continuous commitment to enable SMBs to grow their businesses online, paving the way for Egypt's vision to achieve economic diversification and digital transformation.

Under the MoU, Amazon Egypt provides companies registered with MSMEDA with educational webinars, professional product photography services, assistance in preparing companies to join the Amazon Egypt store, and ongoing support services for sellers. As part of the MOU, Amazon Egypt announced the launch of the "Support Egyptian Products" storefront during the Turathna Exhibition for Heritage and Handicrafts, which was organized by MSMEDA and inaugurated by Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. The storefront is a curation of tens of thousands of Egyptian products sold on Amazon.eg. The new storefront aligns with the government’s agenda to support local businesses, contributing to the digitization of SMBs. Egyptian products are now showcased in a dedicated storefront on Amazon.eg/shop local, making it easier for millions of customers across Egypt to find products from Egyptian SMBs.

6-What are some of the unique opportunities and challenges you face in Egypt, and how do you leverage them?

In line with our aspiration to be the world's most customer-centric company, we faced the challenge and opportunity of harnessing Amazon's technological expertise while leveraging our local knowledge, recognizing that not everything works the same way everywhere.

During the launch, we took a customer-centric approach by localizing the experience for our customers and sellers. This involved making adjustments such as setting up the local language on the store to ensure nuances were considered, updating address structures in a region where PO boxes were not prevalent, and adapting payment methods to accommodate the fact that over 60% of our customers did not have bank accounts. However, we are proud to offer opportunities for tech talent in Egypt to tackle these innovation challenges and develop systems at scale using advanced techniques in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, software engineering, and cloud computing.

7-How did the currency devaluation impact your operations and customers’ orders?

Businesses in Egypt and around the world witnessed significant cost increases. To minimize the financial burden on vendors and customers, Amazon Egypt is striving to offer the most competitive prices and widest selection, complemented by a seamless shopping experience for our customers.

One of the key solutions we have implemented is to offer various payment solutions, including installments and buy-now-pay-later solutions via ValU. These options help make purchases more affordable and accessible to our customers while also providing them with greater flexibility and control over their budgets.

In addition to our Amazon Prime membership that we discussed previously, we periodically launch key sale events, including Amazon Prime Day, White Friday, Mother’s Day, Ramadan, and Eid, to leverage our value offerings and provide customers with an affordable shopping experience during key moments.

8-How does Amazon ensure that it operates in a socially responsible and sustainable manner in Egypt, and what initiatives have the company launched in this regard?

The company creates initiatives that harness a spirit of innovation, determination, and passion within its people to strengthen the communities where its employees live and work. For instance, during Ramadan 2023, we collaborated with MasterCard and the World Food Program (WFP) to provide up to 1 million school meals. For every transaction using a MasterCard, MasterCard will donate the value of one school meal to WFP. We also launched the "Iftar on Wheels" program, using our logistics and delivery networks to provide thousands of meals to families in need during Ramadan. We also provided our customers with the Ramadan Box, full of day-to-day essential grocery items at a discounted price. Customers can buy and have the Ramadan Box delivered anywhere across Egypt or choose to send it to the charity organization or needy family of their choice before Ramadan.

Other community partnerships include our Back to School campaign, where we partner with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide digital education to public school educators to pave the way for the country’s agenda to digitize education. In 2023, we will have trained around 100 educators, who in turn will impact hundreds of their students. We also provide art therapy sessions and interactive learning techniques to hundreds of students to help support their mental well-being and educational capabilities. We also helped build a theater in a low-income neighborhood in Egypt to provide students with an educational experience.

Other partnerships include the National Cancer Institute, where we set up the new chemotherapy day care center to deliver thousands of chemo sessions to kids with cancer.

Additionally, as we continue to invest in serving our customers in Egypt and across the region, we embed sustainability into all aspects of our operations and serve our surrounding community. We launched our MENA Sustainability Roadmap last June to minimize our carbon footprint across our operations, some with immediate carbon savings and others with longer-term payoffs. Our sustainability roadmap across the MENA region has set bold targets in line with our global commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040. Amazon is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, and the company is on a path to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. In addition to this, Amazon is working to reinvent and simplify its sustainable packaging options, and since 2015, it has eliminated more than 1.5 million tons of packaging and reduced per-shipment packaging weight by 38%.

9-What are your short-term and long-term goals for Amazon Egypt, and what steps are you taking to achieve them?

Since the launch of Amazon in Egypt, we have continuously worked hard to provide a unique shopping experience for all our customers. In the short term, our priorities focus on enhancing logistics and infrastructure capabilities in the country to improve delivery times and customer experiences. Amazon’s expansion plans in Egypt include tripling our fulfillment capacity from 31,000 cubic meters to nearly 100,000 cubic meters in 2023. This is in addition to a network of 22 delivery stations across cities like Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta, Ismailia, and Assiut, as well as several established corporate offices and customer service centers. In alignment with this expansion, we will continue to support our 2,500 employees in Egypt through a diverse and inclusive work environment.

When it comes to our selling partners, we will continue collaborating with more local businesses to sell their products online and will also maintain our support for entrepreneurship and SMBs in Egypt and the MENA region. We will keep providing our selling partners, entrepreneurs, authors, and creators with different tools to help them grow online, such as educational webinars, professional product photography services, promotional campaigns, and marketing support, in addition to operations and logistical support such as Fulfillment by Amazon, and tracking their business performance on the Amazon Seller App, which is available in both English and Arabic, to better monitor their overall business. Moreover, we are preparing our sellers to be able to sell internationally and make their products accessible to various Amazon marketplaces, and we already have an existing success story of a cookware brand owner that is currently selling her products abroad through Amazon’s support. Finally, looking ahead, we will continue to invest in new technologies and services to further enhance our offerings for our customers.

 

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