Noon, the Middle East’s home-grown online retail platform, is set to launch in Egypt. It will be its third country after having launched in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in late 2017.
Noon, which describes itself as a $1bn e-commerce platform, was founded by the Emaar Properties chairman Mohamed Alabbar, and first launched its operations in the UAE in September 2017. It stocks products across sectors including electricals and electronics, homewares and furnishings, clothing and footwear, health and beauty, grocery. In Egypt, Noon will compete directly against the more established Jumia and Amazon’s Souq. It is offering free returns, and claims to offer faster delivery.
In January, Noon announced it would follow Amazon’s Basics model and start offering its own private label products. The initial range consists of 90 products, primarily in electricals and electronics.
According to Trendtype research, online shopping in Egypt is worth over $2bn annually, but accounts for less than 2% of total retail sales. It is, however, one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in Africa.
