INTERVIEW: Amazon Egypt continues support for local sellers, SMBs

Amazon Egypt has successfully supported the Egyptian national enterprises through selling over 10 million handcrafts products during 2023, marking a 40 percent year-on-year growth, CEO Omar Elsahy said on Sunday.

In an interview with Amwal Al Ghad English on the sidelines of the fifth edition of Turathna Exhibition, Elsahy said Amazon had started this year with 550 local manufacturing factories and succeeded in selling their products into different cities.

In 2024, Amazon Egypt plans to open its second fulfilment centre in New Cairo, a move aimed to double the storage capacity by 200 percent, Elsahy further said. The second fulfilment centre aligns with efforts to support and empower local sellers to growth their business online.

Amazon’s network across Egypt includes its fulfilment centre in 10 Ramadan City, with a storage capacity 31, 000 cubic metres. The storage capacity in the new centre is 62, 000 cubic metres. The two centres are bringing together storage capacity approximately 100,000 cubic metres, while the area of both centres is about 56,000 square meters.

Speaking about new investments and partnerships, Elsahy said it is important to expand the partnerships, but what’s really important is “to pause and understand what you can do better.”

“We also want to invest in export capability so it will facilitate the global registration which now allows any selling partner signs up with us in Amazon Egypt to be eligible and be able export their products.” Amazon Egypt CEO said.

The company will consistently focus on encouraging the businesses that are registered in the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), and are interested in selling their products to millions of customers and growing their presence online.

In this regard, Amazon is developing a lot of summits, as it wrapped up the second annual Seller Summit about 35-40 days ago, which aimed at encouraging the selling partners and their continued operations and providing them with valuable opportunities to best leverage Amazon’s capabilities, Elsahy continued.

Elsahy added “we think to facilitate the shopping processes to the costumers through making things easier whether in registration step or pickup and drop off steps.” Amazon Egypt has made different partnerships to help digitise the clients and make payment solution easier for them, Elsahy said.

The fifth edition of Turathna Exhibition for handicrafts and heritage kicked off on Sunday at the Egypt International Exhibitions Centre (EIEC) in New Cairo, as it will run until 14 October and be open to the public daily from 11am to 10pm.