GoDaddy, the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs around the world, announced the results of its MENA Survey 2021 where more 60% of Egyptian businesses surveyed plan to enhance their social and digital presence and online sales activity in 2022. The report also states that around 38% of respondents in Egypt have built their website with the help of an external supplier or professional.
Conducted in October, 2021, the annual topline report spanned over 800 respondents and examined the effects that the global pandemic has had on entrepreneurs and small business owners in Egypt. Using a three-pronged approach; Business, Marketing and Technology and Digital indices, the report evaluates the factors affecting the growth of small businesses in the country.
Selina Bieber, General Manager, MENA, GoDaddy said, “With the positive increase in digitalization among Egyptian small businesses as reported in the MENA Survey 2021, GoDaddy is dedicated to driving the success of small businesses with their online growth and expansion. We are here to support with the necessary tools and resources for website creation, ecommerce stores and digital marketing tools and by leveraging GoDaddy’s in-depth knowledge and experience, to help business growth.”
Focusing on factors such as the allocation of efforts and resources, sales channels and social media platform mix, the report shows that in Egypt, a large proportion of human resources is directed towards sales (20%), followed by marketing activities (16%). Egypt’s most popular sales channels are company websites and through social media at 46% each, followed by a brick-and-mortar shops at 40% and lastly In terms of social commerce, the report saw that Facebook was the most popular platform at 89%, followed by WhatsApp at 64% and finally Instagram at 47%.
In Egypt, annual revenue based on online sales channels figures was reported at 40%. Other factors studied in the survey research include types of customers, business challenges and the impacts of COVID-19 on business growth and development.
In Egypt, respondents observed that Business-to-Consumer B2C count as their main customer type, followed by small and medium businesses. Furthermore, seasonality and dependence on events as well as tourism and political decisions emerged as the top aspects on which companies believe their success depended on.
With respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report stated that 43% of respondents in Egypt said that their business has grown either significantly or slightly since the onset of the pandemic. All businesses have had to change the way they operate the business as a result of the pandemic. The entirety of respondents mentioned that the main challenge was to increase the number of new customers.
Research findings also discovered that Egypt businesses have started online shops as well as expanded their online presence at 21%. Expectedly, for those respondents who do use online sales channels, their sales were observed to have grown significantly or somewhat as a result of the pandemic (66%).
Overall, the outlook for a post-COVID period is quite positive with 60% of Egyptian entrepreneurs believing they will emerge stronger than before.
Having social media presence was observed to be one of the main marketing methods used by all Egyptian businesses followed by their own company website and logo. It is interesting to note that businesess seem to be very engaged in different types of marketing activities in the Egyptian market.
38% of Egyptian businesses claim to have built their website with the help of an external professional supplier with top website features including sales of products and services.
Finally, the survey concludes on an interesting remark that higher proportions of Egyptian businesses plan to enhance their social and digital presence along with online sales activities by advertising their business on social networks and positioning the company better in search engines in 2022.
GoDaddy had tasked market research and data analytics company, YouGov, to conduct the survey between founders, owners and CEOs of small businesses as part of a region-wide survey encompassing Egypt, UAE, KSA and Turkey across cities. The survey was conducted by way of online interviews and structured quantitative questionnaires administered in both English and Arabic.
After nearly two years of operating within a global pandemic, small businesses and companies across the region weathered the storm with varying degrees of success. Result from the regional GoDaddy MENA Survey 2021 indicate a promising future for entrepreneurs despite a global pandemic.
