Zbooni, the leading provider of digital solutions for e-commerce and SMEs in MENA headquartered in Dubai, announced on Wednesday opening its new office in Cairo. The fast-growing startup, backed by international and regional strategic investors, intends to participate in supporting the Egyptian economy related to digital commerce by providing solutions to about 3.5 million SMEs across the country. Conversational commerce, through chat applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, helps increase the sales of businesses and companies, as conversations can be converted into real transactions by sharing shopping baskets and payment links in real time. Given the competitiveness of the Egyptian market, and with 50 million users of social media platforms, Zbooni provides an ideal opportunity for companies to receive orders, make payments and sell more while ensuring that the transactions are widely tracked within the country. The average rate for shopping baskets in conversational commerce is 2.7 times that of traditional e-commerce and the average conversion rate is 20 times higher than that of e-commerce. "We are excited to be working here in Egypt and leading our business with inspiring Egyptian entrepreneurs and companies," said Ashraf Atia, Founding Partner and COO of Zbooni. "As an Egyptian American who has lived in many countries across the world, I'm glad to be able to provide new technical solutions to my country, Egypt. We also expect the support of thousands of Egyptian companies to make more sales, with the help of our main partner JumiaPay and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) in 2022." The launch of Zbooni's business in Egypt is a clear indication of the continued growth of the company's business, which has headquarters in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It currently serves a client base of more than 6000 companies. In September 2021, Zbooni closed a $9.5m round of financing, reflecting continued growth and the development of new solutions and products for expansion in the region and recruiting new key members of its workforce. In December 2021, Zbooni signed a payment partnership agreement with JumiaPay, the fast-growing payments platform in Egypt, which is part of the Jumia e-commerce group. The agreement enables payment via the e-commerce platform of Zbooni through JumiaPay's payment portal. Businesses across Egypt will be allowed to benefit from Zbooni's conversational commerce solutions to interact and communicate with customers as well as ensuring the safety and security of transactions made through JumiaPay. The benefits of conversational commerce include the ability to conduct e-business through popular chat and social media apps without having to download any additional apps or create e-commerce baskets for their website. It ensures a fast, seamless, and secure purchase that is compatible with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Moreover, Zbooni uses advanced machine learning and AI tools, as well as merchant and consumer protection methods, in addition to know-your-customer assurance mechanisms, and anti-money laundering, and fraud prevention through its global world-check database.
