Amazon is the most visited marketplace
As of 2020, 84 online marketplaces operated in Egypt. The most visited were Souq (Amazon), OLX, and Jumia. Souq was founded in 2005 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Amazon acquired it in 2017. The rebranding took time, with the last being the launch of amazon.eg in September 2021. In May 2023, the digital marketplace received some 18.1 million visits. Moreover, OLX's Egyptian domain was the second most popular marketplace in the country, with 5.4 million visits in the same month.Online shoppers prefer buying electronics and fashion products
The leading e-commerce segments in Egypt are electronics and fashion products. As of 2023, the number of users in these categories reached 40 million and 37.5 million, respectively. Furthermore, electronic products were the online category generating the largest revenue, with around two billion U.S. dollars as of the same year. Based on Statista's Consumer Insights survey, Egyptian respondents tend to search for information on consumer electronics and clothing online rather than offline.A cash-based system and introduction of financial solutions
The Egyptian e-commerce market needs to overcome several obstacles. Among them, the country being in an early stage of digital financial solutions. For example, digital consumers still rely on cash as the main payment method for online purchases. In 2022, close to 60 percent of the buyers paid with cash on delivery, while payments using cards were significantly lower at 22 percent. The country had a low number of credit cards in circulation in the country in comparison to the size of the population. However, Egyptian e-commerce and retail tech startups managed to secure 162 million U.S. dollars in funding in 2021, ranking first in Africa. Furthermore, Egyptian mobile wallet users are expected to jump significantly by 2025. Currently, MyFawry and Vodafone Cash have the largest user base in the country.
