. 
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET
1998, 20 April edition
Kilen Mathews Special to the Middle East Times
I want to congratulate ABC Supermarkets on the first
online shopping website in Egypt!
Surfing to the website, it loads and works quickly and
is easy to use. I didn't know this web page existed,
and just last week I had been discussing with a friend
about which web-based commerce (e-commerce) applications
would be likely to succeed in Egypt.
We concluded that home-based grocery shopping was the
best candidate, and made initial plans to market the
idea with the large supermarket chains in Egypt. I
feel a bit silly for thinking I was coming up with
a new idea one that had already been implemented five
or six months ago.
The web site
abcsupermarkets.com was developed by In-touch Communications,
Egypt's first ISP and a local leader in Internet and Telecommunications
innovation. I learned about it while attending Cainet '98, Egypt's
third annual Internet Conference and Exhibition, at the Marriott Hotel
(22-24 March) and listening to a presentation by Ms. Alia Saleh of
Brand Marketing, who described the project of putting ABC Supermarkets
into cyberspace. She wouldn't reveal the cost of the project, but she
did say that ABC have already generated about 65 percent of the cost of
the website implementation in online purchases. The ABC online
supermarket site was fun to use. I just surfed to the site and followed
the menus. They have lots of information about ABC, online shopping,
where to find the stores and the like. The whole site has a nice
consistent feel to it. First thing, I signed up for the ABC card.
This costs E£30 for the year and gets you a small discount on each
item when you shop at ABC. Then I went shopping from my web browser. I
had noted there is a E£30 minimum purchase, without which they
won't deliver your ABC order, and a 5 percent delivery fee on goods.
ABC has not yet opened a store in Maadi (though they say they plan to)
so I thought my little order would be a good test. I answered a bunch
of questions about whom I was, where I lived and who I worked for. They
also ask about your car(s), TV(s), a/c(s) how many you own and who
makes them but these questions are optional and you can skip them.
One thing that surprised me was that they didn't ask how I had heard
about the website. Since I don't watch TV or read daily newspapers I
get my world news from the Internet like more and more people sites
like ABC should be interested in how to get the word out about their
new service. So how did it work? The technology side worked very
well. After I filled in my application for an ABC card I was invited to
do some online shopping. I browsed through the beverages, milk
products, dry goods and packaged goods sections. From each major
category you can select subcategories and are then given a list of
items you can buy. The items are shown 10 at a time, and display the
regular price and the ABC discount price, which seems to be about a 2
to 3 percent discount. After you have selected an item to purchase,
you click a button to increase or decrease the quantity, and then click
another button to add it to your shopping trolley. On the right-hand
side of the screen is a list showing all the items you have
"placed into" your shopping cart, along with a running total
of your bill. I found some items I always buy (bottled water and
skimmed milk) but didn't find others I wanted to order (diet cola, my
favorite healthy cereal). ABC is continually adding more items to their
online inventory and what was there was a pretty good variety already.
When you have everything you need, you click the "Check
out" button on the bottom of the shopping screen, and enter some
confirmation that you want to buy the stuff. So far so good. After
making the commitment to buy, I got a message that ABC would be sending
me an e-mail message to confirm my purchase order. Indeed, I switched
over to check my e-mail and there it was, a short, detailed and very
polite e-mail message. It confirmed my name, address and assured me
that the order would be delivered
"as soon as possible."
"Uh-Oh," I thought, I'm here at the Marriott and no one is
home. Oh well, since I live in Maadi, they will probably call first
since there's no ABC store there and Maadi is at the edge of their
delivery area. Still so far so good. The e-mail verification also
showed the complete details of the order with the delivery charges and
grand total, and even listed a phone number I could call if I had any
questions. I was impressed. ABC accepts credits cards in the store,
but they haven't gotten their website set up to securely handle
credit-card collections. So, for online shopping, your only payment
option is cash on delivery. Not surprisingly, secure e-commerce in
Egypt is still just an idea on paper. I got home later that evening
and indeed the phone rang with someone from ABC confirming my order.
Yes, I said I had not been home earlier but it was fine to make the
delivery anytime. Still, so far so good. Then came the first glitch
before I hung up: "Sorry, do you want brand X bottled
water?"
"Yes," I said, "brand X, a case of large and a case of
small bottles just like I ordered."
"Oh, you do not want brand Y or Z? We do not have
X."
"No, brand Y and Z are more expensive. Just bring the card and the
milk."
"Ok, then brand X water only and the milk?"
"Yes, the skimmed milk. You can come now."
"OK." A half-hour later, the delivery man showed up,
carrying the bottled water (brand X as I had ordered) seemingly
purchased from someone else (a big clue was that the carton had
disintegrated and the bottles were presented piled into plastic carrier
bags). And the milk: full cream. Ouch! Well, I was gentle with the
deliveryman, who was polite and immediately agreed to take the full
cream milk back with him, presented me three separate receipts (another
clue!) and headed off into the night after giving me my new ABC
discount shopping card. I had never ordered from ABC by phone
before, so I don't know how reliable this process is, but I figured
with the computer printing out the order it should reduce errors.
The technology had worked very well, but the mix-up on delivery kept it
from getting a good score. And the "out of stock" on brand X
water is something ABC will definitely have to fix. Their website will
have to filter the items that are available for delivery and those out
of stock, or they will end up with customers feeling they can't rely on
the service. All in all it was fun, and a great idea. I salute ABC
for venturing into cyberspace, and I'm sure they will learn from the
trials and errors along the way. The design is good, there are just
some bugs left to work out in this first year of operation. I'll be
ordering again from the web site soon.
Email comments and questions to: kilenm@bigfoot.com
.
.
.
