Page 97 - Forbes - Asia (December 2019 - January 2020)

www.forbesmiddleeast.com PROMOTION I 7

E-Commerce Fit

For A Kingdom

When the scion and CEO of Saudi retail giant

BinDawood Group, Ahmad AR. BinDawood, met
Saudi entrepreneur Majed M. Al Tahan in 2014, it

marked the beginning of a partnership that would

redefine how people shop for groceries in the
kingdom. A new Bain & Company report found 45%

of shoppers in Saudi Arabia have bought groceries

online at least once. That number is expected to surge
in line with anticipated growth in the kingdom’s retail

market to $119 billion by 2023, according to the

latest data from Euromonitor.

hen Majed M. Al Tahan met potential for disruptive change in the when the partnership with BinDawood
Ahmad AR. BinDawood in Middle East e-commerce grocery space Group was established, I knew it was the
W2014, Ahmad had recently and he understood that Saudi Arabia was moment I’d been waiting for.”
taken over the Danube supermarket chain on the verge of a consumer revolution. Majed became Founder and CEO of
and had begun to explore bringing the While studying in London, he had become AYM Commerce and Danube Online.

brand online. At the time, e-commerce used to grocery shopping online and saw With Ahmad at the helm of Danube, the
in the Middle East, and specifically Saudi an opportunity in the Saudi retail market. two CEOs worked alongside each other to
Arabia, was ripe for dynamic change “I realized there was a gap in the launch an e-commerce platform to grow
but was still in its infancy, plagued by market for online home delivery of the online grocery space in Saudi Arabia.
logistical challenges and in need of an fresh food and groceries when I lived The two began testing beta versions
innovative spark. in London as a student and used [U.K. of the app to evaluate the appetite of
Ahmad had been approached by online grocer] Ocado a lot,” he says. Danube customers for shopping online.
several companies pitching to partner “When I got back to the Middle East, I It was a lengthy process, especially in
with BinDawood Holding’s retail saw nobody really doing it in the region. finalizing a working operations model,
brands—the BinDawood and Danube I also saw the big Saudi market, which but eventually Danube Online and the
supermarket chains—to bring the brands had a number of challenges. I couldn’t get Danube App was launched in 2017
online. None had the zeal he was looking the idea out of my head, so I approached simultaneously across three Saudi cities.
for and all lacked an understanding the BinDawood Group, pitching an idea The platform amassed two million users
of Danube’s brand DNA and what to build an e-commerce platform that in the first year—it proved particularly
makes customers happy regardless of combined scale, breakthrough innovation popular with the kingdom’s millennials—
the shopping format, which includes and superlative customer experience, and won multiple awards for retail
quality, value for money and customer highlighting that this was the missing technology and digital innovation. By
experience. That changed on meeting element in Saudi Arabia’s retail landscape.” the end of 2019, the CEOs are on target
Majed. Ahmad recognized the young He had the idea to establish a startup to hit three million users online. With

entrepreneur shared a vision aligned with to act as a “growth partner” for brands by the second BinDawood retail brand
the group’s online mission and values. building digital and online technologies soft-launched online earlier this year,
“The BinDawood Group’s success was that expand businesses and shape the their domination of the kingdom’s
built around a deep understanding of our future of key industries. “I founded AYM e-commerce grocery space shows no
customer base, driven by a clear vision to Commerce in 2016; the genesis of this signs of slowing down.
build the number one retail business in business was to bring the Danube brand
the region,” he says. online. I knew it was going to take time, www.bindawoodgroup.com
Majed knew there was enormous the right talent and the right partners, but www.aymcommerce.com