Seamless Xtra’s August Skinner speaks with Ehab Eid, Executive Director/Board Advisor at Alarabia Group, Egypt. Alarabia Group is comprised of several companies that specialise in home appliances manufacturing and distribution, retailing, after-sales services.
Among the key topics of discussion, this interview delves into the expansion of Alarabia Group, globalisation and new product trends, how the company stays ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation and the pursuit of profit versus social and environmental responsibility. An edited transcript of the interview can be found below.
Ehab, what emerging trends do you see shaping the industry landscape in which the company operates and how is the company positioning itself to leverage these trends?
Today, with globalisation, regardless of the segmentation of social or economic or demographic the trend are the same. So when we’re talking about this we’re talking about product trends and the appliances that we are dealing with. We are also talking about a new who is tech savvy, who is very well connected with all information. So they want to put more technology into their devices. This is number one in terms of connectivity, which is very important. The other thing is a trend is the design. Before kitchen appliances and home appliances were a bulky thing that focused only on function. Now it’s a piece of art that you need to integrate in your kitchen, in your house, regardless what your house is. It may be a boho style, or it could be a contemporary style or a very modern or a classic style. So you want something to blend into this because this is a part of your life and you want to enjoy it.
So we are not only providing functional technology and powerful appliances, but also appliances that are beautiful and well-designed. This is one of the major trends that we see in the market and we deal with it on a daily basis.
The other trend, which is very important is the user experience trend is not like it was before. Now we are talking about 60 percent of your traditional trade businesses is coming from online even. Now it’s all omnichannel. You cannot only depend on e-commerce.
In some companies, I try to transform the business from traditional to e-commerce and blend them together. Now it’s very important. To my friend’s in the industry, I think it’s very important to talk about the omnichannel and having a real omnichannel. When you connect together the e-commerce with your traditional business they really complete each other. So now the customers are focused on the omnichannel experience where they can interact with you in a different way with the same strategy, with the same pricing, with the same information in a seamless experience. This could be in terms of product availability, in terms of integration of inventory across different channelsa nd in terms of pricing and payment options. These are the two major trends that we see in our industry, and we are trying them to follow them on a daily basis to tackle the challenges that we face.
Thank you very much, Ehab. Omnichannel is actually a topic that is going to be at Seamless as well. And we’ve seen that it’s going to be very prominent and a very important topic to discuss at our Seamless events. How then does the company stay ahead of the curve in terms of innovation and adapting to market changes?
When we are talking about innovation, we are talking about collaboration. Our commitment to innovation is very important to us. This takes a big part of our time and our investment because to be a leader in this industry and to follow the customer demand, you have to be very innovative. So we are trying to introduce a new range based on customer demand. The customer is now putting the standard on everything, not only the company.
So, for example, in terms of energy and efficient energy saving and digitalisation for the product, there needs to be a smart connection to the product. You may need some sensors in your cooking appliances so you don’t need to open the oven each time and test this, or you need to connect your stove with a smartphone so you can apply a preset cooking program.
This is very important and also collaboration. We collaborate even with different industries as an efficient way of providing beautiful art and technology appliances together in one machine. So this could even be a collaboration with some artists or a collaboration with a fashion designer or technology company for a new product. We are working in collaboration with international brands and international entities all over the world to provide a new product. This is very important for our future.
Finally, how do you balance the pursuit of profit with social and environmental responsibility within the company’s operations?
As I told you, we are a big group but a family business with a family spirit. You can feel it in dealing with our very important commitment to community and to te environment. For community, part of our subsidiaries is a recruitment company and this company is focused on developing the industry and developing the community together through a learning academy. The learning academy can preach the education background of the community worker and the international standard of the industry. So we are preparing them through different tech techniques and different learning channels to lead the industry standard and expectation. So we are helping them and through our connection with international brands that are all coming to our region to invest we can connect them together to the right channel. This is regarding the community.
Regarding the environment, it’s very important for us to use different technology, even in our production cycle or in our facility for green energy. We are working on that that even in our fleet of electric cars and some clean energy options, but the most important thing for our product is that we are transforming people to think about moving to more green options in using technology and saving power for the environment.
I think that’s a very important topic, of course, sustainability and green energy. Thank you very much. It sounds like you’re really doing the best you can in that area as well for the business. We really look forward to seeing you at Seamless North Africa.
