COVID-19 accelerates shift to online services in MENA region

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a significant shift in how business is done in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Grocery start-ups all across MENA are thriving.

For example, Nana, a Saudi grocery delivery start-up has been witnessing up to triple the number of orders; Nana’s Chief Growth Officer Karim Ebeid told MENAbytes, ‘We expect demand to increase even further when people get their salaries towards the end of the month’.

GetBaqala, a Bahrain-based grocery delivery start-up has also seen a major increase in business as more people self-isolate and practice social distancing.

GoodsMart, one of the leading grocery start-ups of Egypt is witnessing a big increase in both new clients and number of orders from existing customers. ‘The increase has been drastic lately, it almost tripled in terms of the order as everyone is currently looking for the contactless experience,’ Amr Fawzi, founder and CEO of GoodsMart told MENAbytes.

Finally in Oman, MarkeetEx, a marketplace and grocery delivery start-up, that recently announced the closing of its USD1 million seed round, has seen its orders increase over 350% on a weekly basis lately.