 Good morning everyone, and welcome. I'm very excited for today's panel because absolutely anyone can relate to it We're gonna be talking about retail going digital Which means for us as consumers having everything behind our screen delivered at our door at the time that we want it But what does it mean for retailers? If we're talking on a global level retail has is witnessing a lot of competition a lot of growth But the Middle East is yet to grow more because we are still lagging behind with the GCC countries leading the way and We are facing challenges and issues related to delivery related to Financial infrastructure with the predominance of cash and delivery for most of the products and services that we want Technology had has deep constructed the whole industry of of commerce and Now with the the retailers can no longer Depend on a strategy that focuses on the products. It's now it now should focus on the consumers and what they want because they are basically in control and only something that would attract their attention a Very unique and customized experience would actually mean that They are willing to Open their wallets and buy the product Moving from the normal supply chain of Buying low selling high and Managing and optimizing everything that is in between. We're now looking at a digital supply chain Which depends on data collecting data on consumers on products on services on locations on preferences And then turning this data into insights and these insights will basically guide the retailers on how to best to take actions and how to best deliver a better and Unique customer journey that would attract consumers and retain them. We have a stellar panel today And I'm going to start from my left We have minister Zayed bin Rashid al Zayani the minister of commerce Tourism and industry in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Then we have a beer a CC Who's the co-founder of the online personal assistant vh chat called elves based out of Egypt Then we have my good friend Kareem Munaim who's the managing director of Publici sapient a large-scale technology consultancy focusing and specializing in digital transformation and Finally, we have I'm a dude yellow. Who's the CEO of DHL global forwarding Middle East and Africa and myself? I'm the a heckle. I'm the editor-in-chief of MIT technology review We are gonna have the last 20 minutes for questions So please whatever you think about just write it down and then we can discuss it after I'm gonna start with you a beer you have a very exciting story of starting in the US and then Moving to Egypt based on some insights you got from the consumers and changing your offering Into something that you did not start with so can you briefly talk to us about your experience? First I'd like to thank the support in it to thank you dia for having this amazing panel on moderating all of us together and For the World Economic Forum for really putting this platform in place for all startups that are really trying to make it through like elves And putting us in touch with amazing department heads and government heads and putting things together for us First I'll started a couple of years ago me and my husband Kareem started else else as digital platform, it's a digital personal assistant through chat and We were able to scale that platform up it actually Tailors to travel tailors to personal shopping tailors to gifts and flowers and we operate globally So there's pretty much nothing that we kind of refuse as a service We were able to scale this model up by Human assisted AI that works assisting the person the elves that are chatting in the past couple of years we were able to scale up to about quarter million users globally and We were able to be lucky enough to raise a fund of three million dollars in the past couple of years We are operating out of Cairo and we recently opened offices in LA as mentioned we are not We don't have any retail stores. We're not a store that sells something specific, but we tailor to online services So travel Personal shopping So that why it was easy for us to move from Egypt to open offices in LA and Proceed with all the customer requests and we have like customers that are global like from Cambodia all the way to Buenos Aires We don't need to have a presence in any specific location Great Minister I'm gonna ask you based on what Habir said and for companies like Habir and with the with the e-commerce industry expected to reach 48 billion dollars by 2022 in the Middle East and You as a minister and a policymaker. What can you do to support startups that are looking to venture into e-commerce? And what kind of support or incentivizing them what kind of policies would you create? Good morning, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity and I'm honored and privileged to join this esteemed panel I think in order to develop the e-commerce Platform in the region and we are at a very very early stage of that We have to have all stakeholders on board. So you have the retailer on one side You have to educate the consumer on the other side we as a government or regulator. We have to make sure that the transactions are Clean are genuine We have to fight a lot of people who use this platform for fraud or manipulation. We have to put the right Legislative systems to support it The logistic partners are very important because they are the ones who make sure the goods flow back and forth and and I have to stress The point back and forth because a lot of these goods one of the simplicity of e-commerce is that when you get something You don't like you can easily send it back and it's it's the convenience that you don't have to go back to the store or hassle with them to get a refund The IT solutions are a backbone. So when when we Set out to look at it in Bahrain. We took it from a different angle and a different approach and we looked at it primarily to support our growing segment in Bahrain the sector of startups and SMEs And we looked at the landscape in Bahrain back then this was about two years ago And we saw that there were a lot of isolated attempts And there were a lot of fragmented solutions and people were often getting Frustrated not knowing where to get the full solution lacking direction There was no focus equally the consumer didn't know who to deal with who to trust and there was a breakdown in the whole cycle So under the guidance of his highness the crown prince He formed the SME development board where he put all stakeholders into that board and He tasked us and he asked me as a minister to chair that board And he tasked us to come up with a national strategy on how to develop SME sector and startups in Bahrain a big component of it has to do with e-commerce So at the beginning of 2018 we submitted a five-year national plan of what needs to be done What are the KPIs after five years? We had three main KPIs and we had 17 initiatives in the plan which was approved and it got affected into action So since then we've we've come a long way and in this landscape A year and a half ago, we didn't have Any accelerators or incubators in Bahrain today? We have 24 and amongst them they have more than 650 start-up projects ongoing And and it is not just meant for Bahrain is the majority are from Bahrain, but we have People from all parts of the world who sought Bahrain as a good fertile ground to start their startup projects We've gone into specialized fields like fintech and we've launched the first sandbox in the area and Bahrain fintech Bay That's proven to be an excellent example And today what we see is a development of specialized incubators in Bahrain. We have one now specialized in fashion design We have one specialized in medical solutions where people are starting to come from all over the world and use that System or ecosystem to develop their ideas So we do our part as government to lay the ground to make the environment easily Attractive to those people who want to join it and on the other hand to regulate to make sure that those who want to Abuse the system or take advantage of it are kept Outside great and this is open for Bahrain is unknown. Absolutely. Yes. Yes I mean, this is the strategy of the kingdom of Bahrain and if you look at it throughout the past when we launched In the early 70s when we thought that the banking sector would be a promising sector for Bahrain We did that and we established Bahrain as a banking hub for the Middle East We followed that up in the 80s with the introduction of Islamic banking and Islamic insurance and again Bahrain Took the leadership in that in the beginning part of this century when we deregulated telecoms in Bahrain We did that and and today we went from a single operator in telecoms to 54 operators in Bahrain today with International companies having regional headquarters in Bahrain for in that sector that's great Karim you work on you you advise companies on transforming history and You work a lot with retailers So, can you tell me is brick and mortar really dead is the story concept dead? Or are we looking at an omni-channel experience? What is it? What do you think? Brick and mortar is definitely not dead Okay However, it is rapidly changing and you have to think if you step back a little bit Commerce is it a tech stack is an experience or is it a culture? Okay, and I think this is probably the fundamental question that organizations have to answer and Also, listen to your consumers because today if I asked everybody in the room Who has a smartphone who has access to the internet who has a credit card or a digital wallet? I would assume a hundred if not close to a hundred percent then let's ask the Organizations or even governments. How many of you provide the opportunity for me to buy your product or service online? 30 40 so there's a massive disparity between what we want or what we're ready for Versus what we've been provided as an opportunity and then that's forcing us to buy in different ways be that cross-border internationally great markets and so on and so on so Rethinking the business model of what retail has to be today for the meaner region specifically and if you you can focus GCC why they mean actually everybody's got their own disparities and differences. I Think at the end of the day Specifically in the GCC we have one thing to our advantage, which is summer It will force you into the malls force you into stores and therefore you're not always going to be thinking I've got to be digital first or retail or commerce first. I know people are going to end up inside my store But how can you connect the experience between being online and offline where you make it into a seamless experience? So I can start online at home and end that journey in the store itself without any break in that experience I think it's fair to say there isn't any truly end-to-end connected experience today. So I think retailers have to Genuinely step back and start to understand their consumer Listen to the sentiment in the data and do a true analysis in the data and accept what the future is bringing and then try to look at Their retail Proposition as an experience rather than just a channel to sell Physically sell items in the store. Mm-hmm. And how do you see the readiness? Are they ready to invest because it requires a lot of investment in technology? It is and I think readiness today's Retail is still successful as a traditional brick-and-mortar in the region is still very successful So why would you start to invest significant amounts of money in a problem? That doesn't currently exist in true form, but that doesn't mean it's not coming Again, you have to start thinking or reimagining. What is the future going to be? so Organizations as I said start need to start breaking down and start to listen and start to understand what's happening out there And then start to adapt their models. It doesn't have to be big major steps But rather than saying let's invest 5% of our potential investment funds into a current 5% return Why not invest 20% of what you would normally invest into your store into your online or your commerce presence? Knowing that it's in five years time that return is going to happen up next year So it's some very difficult conversations You need to have with your shareholders with your board and you need to start presenting. What is the future? What is going to happen? You cannot control that so you need to be part of it at that today I am the most powerful person in your company because I am going to choose to buy or not to buy from you And there are too many competitive options out there So if you don't give me what I want how I want it when I want it. Thank you very much I'm going to take my business elsewhere. Yeah Great. Thank you, Karim. I might do a lot of the growth and efficiency of e-commerce in the US and probably in Europe has to do with the efficiency of postal services How do you assess the postal services in our region? Well, I think that first of all, thanks for having me here So I'll be talking speak on behalf of my organization, DSL Which you know does roughly around over 70 million deliveries per day So we are pretty much somehow, you know connected with whatever is happening on e-commerce as you know, whenever and That is mostly for the younger generation when they sort of go online and check their influences And then find something that they want to buy that is coming from the US or wherever When they click on it if they pay digitally or not then, you know We have to organize that they get their goods as fast as possible because they want to own it on the instance They have clicked and bought it. So and there is this concept from click to deliver That takes place across many markets. I was living two years ago in in Europe where I've seen, you know, how fast it was developing What you can say In general is that, you know, it is very diverse across the region because postal services are not the same across all the countries Secondly, you know, we have in terms of buying habits, at least from our experience in terms of what we're delivering 85% of whatever is being ordered online is cash on delivery So, you know for postal service to be able to organize the cash on delivery is not always a given because it's not really part of the habits And and certainly you have a lot of returns and the import and exports, you know, sort of presume that you have customs processes and And what we do have right now, we don't have the same the minimis in all the different countries the minimis is the smallest amount that sort of is not subject to customs processes and documentation and that is not standardized and If it is not standardized then the lead time for you to deliver the shipments of anybody who has ordered online is not the same, right? But when you're buying online, you want to have it on the spot, right? So I live in Dubai like Karim Where we leave you can actually order your baguette in the morning You don't need to go to the Boulangerie to get your bread You can have your coffee and all this stuff. It's delivered. You just click and then you get it there But so you have a lot of It's not just the bookshelf that you don't need or the TV that you don't need You also don't need the coffee machine and all the rest because you can now leave without all of those tools Because you are really pretty much using the online platforms However, there's a real need for simplification in terms of you know, how do we connect with Customs offices digitally so that you know, we have no break in in the supply chain But also how do we organize returns because sometimes when you're bringing back a return some governments They want to have some custom fees and you know, and when you have ordered I mean, you know the minister was talking about it before when you've ordered already You have to pay your customs and when it has returned then you have to organize and that is the logistic Organization who has organized it the postal services. So DSL. We don't only have a postal service organization We also have now an e-commerce division. I think we are the only logistics company that has an e-commerce division on the board It is run by our best CEO who was a big fan of Bahrain. Mr. Ken Allen and And what we are trying to do is really to try to de-complicate trade Because we believe it is extremely important for us to enable growth. So and when I look at MENA I Don't just look at MENA as a platform of growth. We've seen MENA So, you know, you have a lot of retailers in Bahrain in Co-H in in Dubai Who actually have an opportunity to tap into a market that is growing? So we have 420 million new consumers that are in Africa They don't really necessarily need to have a Dubai mall to be able to access all the goods that are sold at Dubai mall therefore, you know They're not done that necessarily have to have the bricks and waters in Kenya or in Senegal or in all the different places But there's an opportunity for whoever has a store in Dubai mall to be able to distribute to all these markets And that's where the investment has potentially a payback, you know So we have experience From from Dubai that actually people ordering online in Gabon can get the goods in 48 hours in Gabon because we are directly Connected from Bahrain and from Dubai into into to to Libreville and that is valid for many different countries And there are 75 cities that have more than a million People in Africa that are looking for goods. So there's a real opportunity for entrepreneurs that are in the MENA region However, they have to invest in the digital experience because it's from the search To the order to the delivery of the shipment that there is a process that needs to take place So that is an opportunity for the large retailers and their competitors I think everybody I mean everybody knows the biggest competitor is coming from the US and You know and anybody who is buying goods is comparing to 80% of the shipment that are actually posted on Amazon So if you want to compete with those guys, you have to go and tackle new markets If you don't tackle the new market, then you run the risk of losing opportunities for a long time Now what is in it for young entrepreneurs? I met a lot of startups start-ups from from Egypt yesterday During the conference They have very good ideas The only thing that is very complicated for these young start-ups is to understand that the customs process is a very complicated one Because in terms of compliance, you really have to fix how you organize the customs declaration for anybody who is importing goods And that is where I think that we as large organization can support Incubators and young entrepreneurs in trying to make them understand You can organize your small shop in Lebanon or wherever and then organize digitally that you have a presence across the globe But we have to join the organize that your exports are customs Clear and compliant because that is really the biggest fear for most of the governments when we when it comes to supporting Trade growth across all these markets But there's a huge demand and then you will not be able to build up all this more So you know we necessarily have to use the digital technology to be able to satisfy Satisfy all the new customers that are coming all the new consumers that are coming on board And for us, you know our purpose is connecting people and improving lives and improving lives means No, I'm trying to meet customer demands customer needs and that only can happen if you use technologies because there's no Space to build all these new supermarkets across all these countries Good on this point And having worked in the US and then in Egypt What are the challenges? I mean we mentioned delivery for example. What are the challenges that? You face that you think are unique to Egypt to the region and to the industry and why It's quite interesting this question Well when in any industry any startup you're gonna find different kinds of challenges But the good thing about things like this is listening to what DHL what services they can provide to small companies like elves Right, so I don't have my own fleet somewhere But I operate globally and we partner with esteemed companies such as DHL to help us reach all the customers anywhere You know and and same thing with You know, it's not just stopping at retail. So how everything goes on digital we we Didn't stop at delivering services and good from different stores and from offline stores. We actually moved that to travel So it doesn't have to be something that's Tangible, I'm not moving just good. So when you're right an online service in this digital world You're actually moving things online. So with travel right now people just changed So once they buy things from us, they actually want us to help them fly somewhere else right so that changes from here to there and It's not really a challenge It's a matter of finding the right partners that are reputable are able for you to kind of connect between the good service providers And what the customer wants whether it's Services as DHL or the tourism tourism boards, right? So these are the things that for us as startups are looking for partnerships and to grow with these Established companies and how about payments? Do you have any challenges regarding payment from your consumers from the consumers? It's In Egypt, it's you know, there people are still trying to get comfortable with doing online payments We have a big part of egyptians that still use cash on delivery as he mentioned But globally the customers that operate and use L's again when you buy ticket online, you don't go pay cash Right. So this is where our target is at this moment as online travel tourism and Across the globe. So to us we don't have any problems with the payments So we just tailored Egypt just because we're currently operating out of Egypt and we got a tailor you have to kind of Formulate something where you're currently operating but other than that online We have no problems all our customers are very happy with online payments and we partner again with stripe So we find these reputable companies that make it easy for consumers to use our platform Great minister. I want to ask you we Retailers now if they want to go online, they need IT infrastructure. They need financial infrastructure So it's not only a retail company. It's basically a technology company So what does the deal with Amazon web services to open in Bahrain? Have to do with supporting the whole ecosystem and how would it affect Bahrain and on a bigger scale the GCC and the region all together I think If you allow me before answering that specific question, I'd like to go step back first of all, we have to segregate the Retailers into two parts the well-established big organizations and the smaller or startup community The bigger ones I think they're at a stage where they can Find their way and they can develop their own platforms and therefore they may require a lot of less less attention or assistance from us Our primary focus is to encourage the smaller ones and the startups Especially in a small country like Bahrain where the geography is limited to think beyond the geographical borders We have an excellent logistic system connecting Bahrain to the world and we should take advantage of that and I would like to use a small example here going back to the bricks and mortar if you look at traditionally the Gulf Market we all started with what we call souk Which is the old markets and then we shifted to malls and now we're being threatened or challenged by e-commerce Let's see what happened to the souks When the shift went to malls and as a minister of commerce I often get people coming from the souk who Decided to stay in their old shop, which is a hundred hundred and fifty years old Still with a split window a c unit and very basic operation and they scream and Plead and say we're going out of business. We're running out of customers. Nobody comes to us The malls have eaten up our market and my first question to them is what have you done to adapt with times and They say what do you mean? I said well, you still don't have a computer in your shop You still don't use credit cards You still don't and look how many leaps have happened in technology and you've missed out of them No wonder you're being left behind So we got a cater for these to make them either catch up or Develop them as an issue and this is one of the projects We're doing in Bahrain now and the old manama souk, which is probably the oldest souk in the region It's more than 250 years old and we decided that there's no point Initially the thought was let's do something to compete with the malls. Well, I said no you're Banging your head against the wall You should develop yourself as a destination not as a shop the whole neighborhood Let's turn the souk in Bahrain like the bazaar in Istanbul people go to the bazaar because they want to enjoy the atmosphere They want to see the experience the colors the smell the feel not because they want to buy a piece of jewelry or carpet or some fruits They can do that in a easier accessible shopping mall air-conditioned You know Easier to get to they could go at midnight if they want to you develop yourself like a Destination on its own once we drive traffic there retail will flourish and we've experienced that we've done a few During F1 weekend in Bahrain. We do a handicraft Festival in the old souk and they've come back as I said we've tripled quadrupled our sales during that period Simply because there is footfall. So we have to cater for the souks And to promote them to make them a destination and preserve the heritage of that area So people go there because they want to experience the old set up The same way I think we'll have to do with malls malls will exist as long as they have food Cinemas and children playing area they will exist because today a lot of people who go to the malls Not necessarily go there to buy goods They go there to eat socialize Probably watch a movie or get rid of their kids for four hours so they can you know enjoy peaceful time And on the way they'll buy something from a store or pick something up So malls will exist, but I think e-commerce will be taking a bigger and bigger slice So what we're trying to do is to drive the newcomers the smaller ones to think of having e-commerce platforms from day one Don't try to start today to compete with somebody who started 50 years before you and the commerce And has an established customer base an established product and come with something that's completely Uncreative or something that's been done years and years before you and try to get a market share come with a new service Come with the digital service from day one Now we're very fortunate in Bahrain that in the field of IT. I mean we're very well advanced Not only on the private sector on the government side. I think The IGA in Bahrain the government authority has done a tremendous job in and putting most of government services on Electronic services My friend, Muhammad is here. He chairs that department and he's our savior really he keeps coming with solutions for us We for example launch a gelat Two years ago three years ago Where all our CR registration is online today Despite three years into the operation We still have people who come into the ministry every day with a stack of paperwork and say I want to start the business So you don't need to be here. You could do this at midnight from your house with an iPad Oh, no, no, I want to maybe that same resistance you have in Egypt to credit cards They still want to deal with a person and exchange paperwork. Of course, we handle them We don't turn them away, but since launching launching sigillat We've seen a huge up shoot in the number of CRs issued Two reasons because we're processing them in much shorter time and we're giving people the liberty to do it of Hours so in the weekends in the evenings and doing it from home That has helped a lot AWS of course, it's a milestone for Bahrain The government who was the first again with Muhammad al-Qaeda leading the way is that we're moving all government services to cloud-based That helps companies in lowering the costs like you mentioned especially with smaller ones And it's not only that it will create a culture for us in Bahrain Especially for startups to believe and trust in technology when they have an international name like that set up in Bahrain The same way we have DHL Headquartered in Bahrain since the 70s I think it gave an exposure to Bahrain to go from regular mail to courier mail Again when you have the vehicle for it, you will facilitate the transition to it but I Use an example you cited We have under the tourism department. We take care of all the handicrafts And they were struggling to sell anything people were doing it as a hobby and we started losing Handicrafts because with age people pass away and they don't teach their kids to do it And then we ended up having less and less handicrafts made so we decided very simple to make a website for them We did it as the tourism authority. We developed it with the IGA and we put an online commerce portal on it We made it multi-lingual and we had the prices there even in dollars and pounds in euros And BD of course and all of us had and they were surprised they were getting orders from Kansas And I don't know for pottery and stuff, you know They never thought they could sell that far without even stepping out of their workshop It's not turned them into instant millionaires, but it's opening the door to markets. They never even thought about And that's the potential Great, I'm a do I want to See your opinion on how you view startups Minister differentiated between big retailers and startups So do you see startups that are taking care of the last mile delivery as a threat to you or as an opportunity to collaborate? Oh, so, you know, I also we also have a startup in in our own organization So we have what we call now intrapreneurs We've seen DSL so we have a startup We just moved our first shipment through from our digital platform in from El Ain to Abu Dhabi last week So this is something that we're introducing to the Gulf. So how do we stand we start up? so we have a younger generation of our region men are in Middle East and Africa in general has more than half of the population is very young and And they have grown to be using No, all the social media that you can imagine Therefore they are not really sort of big friends of firewalls firewalls are sort of you know What big corporations like to have with this large IT department so that nobody can access the systems or get out of their systems? So and these young generation They want to be able to do that stuff from the Facebook account or from the Instagram account for whichever social media Utilizing from snapchat or whatever you know not to list all of them so they are young entrepreneurs and they Tend to change jobs much more often than actually classical organization will have in their own structures So so and every individual part the essence is becoming an entrepreneur by himself So, you know and I'm sure you have seen a lot of influences that you have never heard of that certainly Suddenly sort of broom out of Egypt or out of Bahrain. I saw a few of them and What they do is they come up with solutions that are much more customer friendly and Help us improve our the customer experience than classical organizations do and we try to collaborate with most of them So, you know yesterday or two days ago. We had in Bonn in Germany What we called the DHL fuck up nice excludes the language But that's how people actually call it in San Francisco when they're you know They're trying to check whatever have we tried which didn't work and where we also exchange with start-up was outside and say You know we tried this and we try that technology and it didn't work with customers But they also come and talk to us and tell us no What is it that they're trying in peer-to-peer solutions extra which is working or not working? So it's a platform of collaboration innovation So and we see that we see in start-up those innovators that are able to improve our processes We have what we call small eyes or improvements on our internal processes or big innovations Big I wish is like no revolutionizing the way we do business So for instance, we have a I don't know if you have ever heard of it. We have a new We're producing cars now at the Asian. It's called street scooter Street scooter Electric cars that we use to do the last mile deliveries in most of the urban places We have started it in Germany. So we produce in five thousand You have over five thousand street scooters that you produce and actually he started from our collaboration with students from the University of Aham and That has made us one of the largest electric vehicle producers in Europe So we see it as an opportunity of growth as an opportunity of disruption And as an opportunity of opening up new market for for our own organization And that's how we try to work with all of them. So right now your collaboration collaborating with ITC From the WTO they're based in Geneva and what we're doing with them. So we have implants that are working in ITC and And jointly we support startups that are coming from any markets from Cambodia from Vietnam from Egypt from from Ethiopia and Help them and give them the supply chain experience that we do have We have created ecom souk that pass from Rwanda via Morocco into Geneva actually And it's an ecom platform which we have joined the developers eBay and and the ITC Where we help small women entrepreneurs that are coming from Rwanda or in Ethiopia to sell their fashion goods in Europe because we think that they can make much more money if they sell them in Geneva Then if they just sell them in Addis or if they sell them in Rwanda. So that is really what we're trying to to put in place because We believe that if you want to you know, the whole population is growing and if you have two billion more consumers You cannot satisfy them with the old processes So we need to have much more collaboration with many more people so that we can satisfy No, the normal human beings that are living in the different cities because ultimately We want to improve lives So it's not about making money. It's not about being a big yellow machine It is about what is it that we will do to make the world a better place? And that is really how we look at it So we work with a lot of startups and we also collaborate sometime acquire them and then we grow them That's great. So startups here should come and talk to you. Yes, I'm looking for yes, great Can you I have one last question for you before we open the floor for questions the Retailers going online needs a lot of investment and serious commitment How does the measurement of return on investment go in this way? Is it that you have because how could you measure something that you haven't tried before you can benchmark, but the West has different culture different economies different everything is different So would you basically advise retailers to go into to venture into digital transformation and then See what insights tell them about measuring ROI or should they have it as a set before they venture into It and see if it works because how could you basically know what you don't know? That's the assumption that digital is coming. It's it's here Along with commerce. It's not coming. It's here and and all of this is opportunity to change and to grow So I think the measurement of success can no longer just be based on the historic bottom line if you look at most of the let's call them digital first organizations or Modern-day Enterprises they measure themselves on growth in terms of top-line rapid growth The 10x concept rather than what is our return to our investors in the first year or two years or three years? These are long-term plays With more traditional organizations they need to create the mandate of transformation and put a Significant amount of budget and manpower behind that. Otherwise, it's going to fail Okay, and they will eventually fail. I think there's a there's a statement a couple of statements Organizations are very good at telling you what they do today They have no idea what they need to do tomorrow to be relevant to the audience any longer Okay, and it's a very hard truth to swallow if you're sitting in the boardroom in the turning around and saying we grew 20% We've retained our margins. We've done great news. Everything is wonderful. By the way We have this threat if we want to call it a threat of commerce digital Which will mean changing the landscape of the people in our organization investment in new technologies different approaches to To selling and engagement with our consumers. It may see us diminish our margins for the next five years Who can sell that to any board or You know any advisory board or investment was a very difficult one. So what do we do? Well, there are already cases to prove the point This is not something that's coming commerce is here and it's an opportunity. It's not a threat transformation is happening If you don't want to do the transformation sit back and just watch your business fail you only have to look ten years ago a blockbuster and Kodak and companies like this the most relevant organizations of their time. Where are they now? Okay, so it's happening whether we like it or not now the two two or three key things The opportunity lies in the SME market Okay across Mina, I don't actually look outside of me now And I'll tell you why we have for too long to look to the West and the East to teach us how to do things The West and the East exist here if you look at the demographics of our region everybody lives here already So you cannot map to one or the other? Okay, and we cannot want to just keep wanting to absorb We now have to stand up rather than letting commerce or transformation land with a bump. It needs to land with a bang Okay, you need to stand up be bold be brave whether there is government backing or not whether there's probably you need to stand on your Honestly for you to make those statements The SME market right now only contributes about 10 percent of online Commerce transactions in the region. Okay versus about 40 to 50 percent outside. So it still sits in the hands of very large Mono a geopolitistic kind of organizations. Okay That's going to be hard to break just giving a few investment dollars to a startup and saying good luck See you again in five years is not the way it has to happen. You have to invest expertise You have to invest time And you have to be willing to accept that your business is changing and you are probably going to lose something in the short term To gain much more in the long term So I think bravery we need to be braver. We need to be stronger. We need to start ignoring PNL's and balance sheets because the balance sheet is also going to change your current assets of billions of dollars of Real estate is about to become a liability when you start to realize you don't need the 10,000 You know square foot stores anymore. You don't need to be having people These are experience sensors in order to drive acquisition through any channel that I choose so Be you know be brave in the pursuit of the next and try to figure out how to get there through Learning from the startups in the region from the younger generations now We talked about cash and delivery cash and delivery is a two-fold issue one It actually still represents more of the older buyers the silver dollar buyers Okay, and be it's because nobody trusts the product that's going to turn up There's too many gray market fake products in the market that you want to touch it before you're willing to give Your cash, but look at the demographics of the region 50 60% are under 35 Credit card digital payments is the only way forward We cannot ignore that and I don't think organizations can afford to sit back any longer and just say we'll see what happens in a few years You'll become irrelevant That's great, we're gonna Have 15 minutes for questions and answers from I Think before with that. I just wanted to add one thing to what Kareem was saying I think it's a very important point for Corporations and large corporations to start Adapting to change because without that they will fall behind and all the startups are after new technology and Everyone at this point everyone's becoming customer centric So it's not about the dollar value or the P&L's in the balance sheet Everyone now like an in elves. We don't look like the the L's actually working on chat They don't know what partnerships we have so they actually only focus on what is beneficial to the customer Whether it's this airline or that it doesn't matter if got agreements with Sabre or nowadays or what it doesn't matter to them They matter that the customer will get the best result at the end and at that point it established the trusts with the customer Like you're saying so that's why I see this pattern with elves in the beginning where we had a little bit of resistance With the Egyptian market paying in cash or not or what so not at this point everyone's like, okay I trust you I know what you're doing. I know your recommendation is valid whether it's a product or a service and That becomes much smoother on the long run our global CEO uses a statement He says the brand is the experience and the experience is the brand So that is the mantra for whatever we do and whatever you should be doing as a startup as well Because you have a phenomenal opportunity disrupt the market the bigger traditional retailers are in the state of defend right now The differentiator still become but the disruptors that's going to be driven through SMEs ideas investment technologies It's still they're saying should we invest in rather than we are investing in So you've got a great future. This is if you allow me why we are Encouraging startups and SMEs to think digital and global from day one because you never know how quick this will change And it's changing at a very quick pace and maybe by the time you get set up traditionally you will be out of date exactly so From the start think how to have a digital platform think how to sell to the world not to your community or your country only And it reminds me. I mean I always use the classic case of ATMs when they were first launched and I mean I've seen it personally when you go to the ATM and it's Idol and you go to the clerk desk at the bank and you see 15 people in line And you ask why they say well we withdraw money, but we won't deposit in an ATM because I'm giving away my cash So pretty much like experience 20 years later or 25 years later You trust an ATM to deposit a check or cash or withdraw cash or pay your bills So eventually it will come and as for kids It's very easy for them to use credit cards because they're using their parents So trust is not an issue there the one of the story one other thing about the the question around Britain and investment The new currency is data The product is going to become irrelevant eventually right now I can buy something online where I get points through using a payment channel Such as beam in the UAE. I get points from my my credit card from my bank I get a discount from the retailer for being an existing client expert So all of a sudden the price of the product is irrelevant because all you want is my data And that's the future of the currency. So again transformation will lead you down a channel where Value comes through the amount of data you can gather and use to your advantage to the monetize monetization and personalization as well I think it's bad. However, it's important to be aware of what is going on outside. So, you know, if you You know, we talk about credit cards, but you know, if you go and then look at what happens with in PESA, you know Everybody now is moving from credit cards into mobile money You know, it's a lot of transactions that are taking place via the smartphone. So you don't necessarily need an account in a bank Secondly, you know, if you sort of check what is happening in Asia With platforms such as JD.com, they are really converting a lot of markets to their own markets And they're owning those markets because they have most of the data and they have no deep Data analysis on consumer behaviors in many different markets. So we really Have to push the young generation here to be, you know, aware of what is it that is happening that is disrupting the market for many different geographies because everybody is fighting to own tomorrow. So And then, you know, it is really good to be self aware, but also digitally aware of what other technologies are going to disrupt Not only retail, but also the banks and every other transaction that is taking place because it is most of it Going to be based on technology. And that's where we invite, you know Young startups to come and collaborate and then we can share information that we get from all these different markets Yeah, and as I mentioned earlier the example that we were Not focused on travel when we started and then we found there's a lot of demand People are actually choosing to use elves to book their flights their honeymoon and the hotels and the transportation And that was extremely organic. This is not one of our Target areas when we first started and now we see everyone's coming on board and everyone wants, you know They want to have elves with them because they go to this country and they don't know anyone But they trust us because they've used us several times to make a birthday cake for their kid or buy their wife flowers So now elves know me so I could take them to, you know, my honeymoon They know where to recommend restaurants for my preference. So it's more customized. Yeah And and as you mentioned them there that people are moving more towards a trust area. It's not just retail So it's it's moving across the board at this point. I don't want the audience So Great, we have a question over there Good morning, yes, and I will hunt the bloom CPI. I would like to ask Mr. Diallo You talked about the custom barriers across, you know, the globe or the e-commerce my question is about How can we make it easier for e-commerce exports for fresh food from the Middle East to Europe and US because we face lots of problems with food control. Do you have an experience with that? Well, thank you very much for that question So, you know, fresh food is something that we focus on but particularly about the imports because we import a lot of fresh food from Italy from France from the UK as much as we import mangoes from Kenya into into the Middle East What you do have is that first of all into Europe you have regulations that are Protecting the European market that that do not allow for people from our region to actually to export into Europe And it is so complicated in terms of how the mango has to look like how the banana has to look like that You sort of would turn ma to read all of the regulation that they have invented in Brussels But at the same time, there's a lot of market opportunities within our region so, you know, for instance in Egypt our organizers in Egypt is exporting a lot of cheese and foods from Egypt to French people who are on vacation in Mauritius Because in France is very difficult to get it in France So and because, you know, you have a lot of vacation resources that are across all of our region where people actually from Europe come on Vacation and and for me, you know, it is always around sitting with the entrepreneur and trying to understand What is it that you want to export and how you can get to those customers that you cannot actually get into because the European Union is putting some Barriers that are not really sort of good for for for our traders, right? Second thing is for me when I'm talking about the minimis. So every country has different Regulations. So right now Australia is trying to put the minimis down to zero Because they want to protect the retailers from Amazon and from, you know, all these big technology platforms Which is fine in terms of being protective, but you know, we are for free trade Because we believe that the consumer in Australia should have the opportunity to choose if they want to buy something that is made in Australia Or something that is made in Guatemala But if these trade barriers are sort of increased then e-commerce becomes complicated then the customer experience becomes a nightmare because then you pushing people to go through illegal channels Which is not helpful. And then we want to have standardized value-based The minimis so that we know that we can automatically put our process So that is what we have in Bahrain, you know, we have a joint agreement with Bahrain We interface completely to the customs organization in Bahrain So and we don't need to always stop every single shipment and open the box and check it in detail because then it just Preciables for example. So and that is what we're also requesting from Europe But we need the authorities also here to fight together with us to say, you know The market has to be open, you know This is what we did with DHL in Bahrain to extend it even to Saudi Yeah, because a lot of the trans shipments come to Bahrain and go by truck over the causeway So with the Saudi authorities, we have five major Exporters out of Bahrain that use the causeway DHL is one of them to be labeled as trusted shippers And they don't get searched on every truck and every consignment. They get very minimum sampling and therefore their goods flow much quicker That's true So that's what we do Hi, my name is Azam Al-Ameddin. I'm with Visa, Inc And we heard a lot about payment and I heard technology and I heard data So so I would like to bring a different angle to the conversation because we covered infrastructure, organizational transformation technology infrastructure and logistics and supply chain all very important But there are two other angles I would like to hear from the panelists their views on which we from our experience see as equally important to the other axis of growing digitization of commerce One is awareness and education So we often see a lot of marketing But training awareness and education to all to retailers governments and and the public Is a very important angle in our experience in the region in MENA because people are still the trust element is still an issue Being financial literacy and being digitally savvy. I know the younger generation are online all the time But using payment as a as a as a means is still Bet with some fears and hesitation in many countries in MENA Maybe not in the GCC not in Dubai where I'm also based But in other countries in MENA The second element which is very important is the government role And in government here, I want to take it into two different directions. One is government leading by example So in many countries in MENA governments are still collecting their own money through cash And even if they have acceptance means they're still surcharging their other issues within the policy Mechanism of governments. So this is government is the largest merchant across MENA So this is one very important role that government has to play in in our experience The other one is the policy and regulation And here you're talking about technology that is very fast moving every day. There is a new innovation in payment We're talking proximity payments and online and I will conclude my intervention with this So the policies and regulations need to be agile and nimble and always changing and adapting rather than feeding What's coming? So the minister and the other panelists will begin to hear their their views on these. Thank you Uh, I think I probably didn't give it a lot of justice in my opening remarks, but I did touch on mindset And you're absolutely right. We have to change the mindset and educate and always make consumers and retailers aware of this changing paradigm and how Purchasing habits are changing Uh, it has to do with with probably curriculums at school. It has to be to do with awareness campaigns And I think it started already. I mean I can talk about Bahrain as as a definite case I'm sure other countries in the MENA region have also adopted some form of it It won't change overnight a lot of this is to do with the trust issue between the consumer and the retailer And one of the biggest biggest things we face in the minister of commerce and our consumer relations our consumer protection department is fraud and and non-genuine products and Both on instagram or any other social media and it's difficult It's difficult because you don't know who you're buying from Sometimes we don't even know who the seller is. He could be some guy in malaysia and you know, how can we track him? How can we? Stop him, but As an evolving process, I think the process will solve itself with time We can expedite that period or shorten it by putting regulation by putting You know more floodgates But there will always be cases of Fraud or mistrust. Yes But the mindset is definitely where we should start that this is the wave of the future I remember Earlier when when for example accounting packages were launched a lot of companies were reluctant to switch their accounting to computers or IT based solutions said no no I can't I can't afford at the end of the year the system could crash I won't be able to close my books. I'll lose the list of who owes me money my banking all that now. I think Almost everybody does it That way Government role leading by example. I think like I said Bahrain. I mean we're we're we're definitely leading by example going cloud based pushing all all the Government services on it We still do accept cash in very very small Portions in government boss, but most of the payments today are done electronically Recently in Bahrain, we've had a huge launch of all these e-wallets and Prepaid services on a consumer basis and they've been catching up steam and For the better or worse, I don't know now we lose track of how much we give our kids money and What our household expenses, but it's a fact of life. We're getting accustomed to it But policy will have to play a vital role to make it a long-term success and we have to Shut out the violators at a very early stage the quicker we do that the more More genuine the process becomes for the ones who really want to make it work Great, I think we have time for one last very very quick question Very quick question. My name is Hamoud al-Mahmoud editor-in-chief Harvard business of uArabia to yukarim for digital transformation Physical stores are struggling if they want to create their own Virgin digital version or not There are some failed experiences like walmart in the u.s. They did it Both virgins Conflicted and competed each other. Do you think it will it will work eventually? You have car for online and car for physical Different prices may be different costs or yeah So funny enough we work with car for and walmart globally on exactly these these two challenges Um And both have accepted. They've been so slow to start. They will never catch up So their whole business modeling has to change from a global point of view if we regionalize it Grocery market is the smallest commerce market right now behind electronics beauty Leisure and everything like this so the growth opportunity there is phenomenal But if you go on to any of the the grocery retailer sites right now very limited lines Okay, probably 10 to 15 percent of what's available in store. So why would I even bother? The delivery consistency is so poor. So we talked about last mile They also call it last mile because that is the only time you actually see somebody in the transaction. So you're Closing stage of experience has to be positive if i'm waiting four hours for somebody who called me saying they'll be there in 10 minutes Or they call me and say i'm outside your door. I'm three hours early It's you know So there is inconvenience rather than convenience to the overall program and the return policy I mean, there is very variable quality of return policies in a sense. This is a representation of how I will call it a broken commerce kind of Modeling that exists inside of these organizations I don't know what the dark store Experiences for example. So did they have stores that are set up in the middle of nowhere designed to service? um Online purchasing or is it just done through current stores where they run around somebody run around to pick up the order you've done online So there is a number of steps. I think regionally. We need to be taking again, though The supermarkets are owned by the same brand that owns multiple other brands Okay, so there is an there has to be a belief from the the licensee owner Who is a responsibility to grow that business and also the international brands such as car for to want to enforce The ways of working the commerce drive In order to roll it out properly. I think we're years away from that happening I'm sure you have heard about, you know omni channel. So if you you can go and check it On the online platform, so, you know, it's not anymore about e-commerce or mobile commerce Is any channel? That the customer wants to approach you is and then you as a customer when you come and then you say you want to buy mongols For instance on on on a colorful platform The colorful should be able to tell, you know, everybody that boasts both mango or so both the banana that is coming from Nigeria or whatever You know, so that you have all these suggestions that you actually wouldn't have by yourself And and that generally, you know, this is how this mango has been rated compared to the mango that is coming from Peru So these are all information that you want to have without having to click and search anymore And that's why it is important to have all of it integrated so that you have a much better customer Unfortunately, sorry, Kareem. We're out of time. So we can continue this discussion After the session. Thank you very much for a very insightful panel and it was full of hope. Habir told us how There is appetite for Consumers to use online and they're getting more and more used to using financial payment online the minister told us about Bahrain and how it's more open now To startups. So, you know your next destination Amadou told us how they see opportunity with collaborating with startups and how they are actually willing to invest with them and Kareem basically talked about how Either for the readiness that every or the retailers are ready And those who are not are not going to be in business anymore. Thank you very much Thank you very much