MENAbytes reports that Dubai’s e-commerce company, Noon is planning to launch in Egypt by the end of Q2 this year. The company has already engaged people from diverse teams like Logistics, Account Management, HR, Marketing, and are also keenly poaching capacity from local competitors.
It also revealed that the company is in talks with different vendors including some big names to add their products to the platform.
Noon, a major competitor to Amazon’s Souq was established by Mohamed Alabbar – whose firm owns The Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa – sometimes last year. It has been backed with $1 billion in capital from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Egypt has almost 100 million residences and its e-commerce is expected to reach $3 billion by 2020, says a report. This figure offers a great opportunity for a cash-heavy company like Noon if the company wants to establish itself as a regional player.
In spite of a large number of people present online in Egypt, a very small number of them shop online, this seems the obvious challenge for Noon.
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The company is led by Faraz Khalid, a former Managing Director at Namshi. It has partnered with retail players in the MENA region including eXtra and Alshaya to offer a wide selection of products to its users. Last year, it also announced a partnership with eBay that will offer customers in Saudi and UAE to shop eBay’s top products directly on Noon while they take charge of the delivery and returns.
With the rate of Egyptians complaining on social media about the prolonged delivery time, quality of product and fake discount on Souq and Jumia – the two leading e-commerce platforms in Egypt, Noon has what it takes to change the narrative.
Although it may not be able to change all because Noon itself has always been at the receiving end of similar criticisms from UAE and Saudi customers, but what it may get right is to make the e-commerce landscape more competitive.