A report by Egyptian search engine Yaoota has showed a growth in the use of e-commerce in Egypt.
According to the report, people under the age of 35 represent 75% of e-commerce websites’ users. The report also stated that e-shopping attracts more women than men, with female users representing 40% of Yaoota’s users and 34% of internet users.
Egypt has about 450 e-commerce websites, 100 of which are partners with Yaoota, stated the report. The most famous of these websites are Compume, Jumia, Souq, Cairo Cart, Computer Shop, Yashry, Hedeya, and RadioShack. That is in addition to the e-commerce pages on social network websites.
The report showed also that the majority of consumers in Egypt who shop via the internet buy electronic devices, acquiring 24.4% of the total number of online consumers, while 19.6% of consumers bought clothes in 2015. As for household items, such as appliances, they attracted 11.7% of the consumers, while 7.7% went to mother-kid products.
According to a study covered that 500,000 search operations on Yaoota, mobile phones topped the products that consumers looked for in 2015. The most searches were for iPhone 6 and its accessories, followed by Samsung, HTC, and Sony.
Yaoota said that Egyptian buyers go for better-value-for-money products instead of significant brand names. For example, Sony Xperia Z2 achieved better sales through the internet than the iPhone or Samsung.
It added that the shopping behaviour of Egyptian buyers varies according to the seasons. Fans and air conditioners are among the most popular items in summer and spring, while laptops become most popular in school seasons.
Medicine saw significant online popularity in 2015, especially those for Hepatitis C and contraceptive pills.
The report noted also that the spread of e-commerce in Egypt is still limited, compared to other countries. Daily visitors of e-commerce websites amount to 12 million–18 million, while news websites attract 17 million–20 million visitors per day.
According to the report, two websites alone control 60-70% of the total visits to e-commerce websites, while the remainder websites compete over the rest of the market.
