Digitized Supply Chain Disrupts MENA Wholesale Industry, Boosts SMEs

Business-to-business (B2B) wholesale eCommerce has been gaining traction in recent years, with the emergence of a growing number of online marketplaces that are helping retailers save time and resources when buying goods in bulk.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, market fragmentation is high and businesses often have to deal with 50+ suppliers for their wholesale goods.

B2B eCommerce marketplace Sary is looking to solve that problem by creating a one-stop shop to streamline the procurement and delivery processes for manufacturers and wholesalers looking to connect with micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

“So, it’s basically removing all the hustle, all the operational hurdles that you have when you do procurement, and help micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) focus on their main goal which is catering to theirs customers,” Mohammed Aldossary, co-founder and CEO of Sary, told PYMNTS in a recent interview.

He said what separates Sary from competitors is the fact that they’re an omnichannel to manufacturers and producers, and instead of a unique reseller strategy, they operate a hybrid model with the wholesale component embedded within their infrastructure. Sary also operates a consignment model, allowing retailers to obtain wholesale goods but only pay for them after they’ve been sold.

The third component of their strategy is the marketplace, which, according to Aldossary, is what has enabled them to offer a wider product assortment and launch more verticals that deliver on their value proposition of a one-stop shop.

“We’re more of a complementary [tool] for every player within the market, giving each player an omnichannel to sell to their customers and make the route to market efficient, rather than removing the middleman from the wholesale process,” added Aldossary, a former general manager at Uber-owned online booking platform Careem.

Founded in 2018, the Saudi Arabian B2B eCommerce platform connects over 40,000 MSMEs with a network of wholesalers and manufacturers of consumer goods, helping retailers reach more than 350,000 customers across the Saudi and MENA region.

See also: Venture Capital Investment in Saudi Firms on the Rise

In December last year, the Riyadh-based firm raised $75 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to $112 million and making it one of the top venture capital (VC)-funded firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Africa Expansion, Quick Commerce

Earlier this month, Sary announced that as part of a strategic move into Africa — where the firm plans to build a regional network — it acquired Mowarrid, a B2B food and grocery marketplace in Egypt.

Why Mowarrid? Aldossary said it’s simply because the Cairo-based firm and Sary both share the same philosophy of a hybrid go-to market strategy, using consolidation, consignment and a marketplace that makes it easy for sellers and buyers to easily interact with each other.

Read more: Sary Expands to Africa With Acquisition of Egyptian B2B Platform Mowarrid

The company also views Egypt, where 65% of Sary sellers are also based, as a strategic market that has a huge synergy not only with the Saudi market, but the wider six-country Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region made up of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Connecting supply chains to empower local businesses in the region is also one of their goals, given that last year, 50% of consumer packaged goods (CPG) consumption was from local brands — most of which are struggling because shelves are adapted to large CPG goods and they don’t have the infrastructure, reach or visibility to drive business growth.

For Aldossary, the key is building out that infrastructure so each player has access to other markets to sell goods, adding that Sary wants to have that supply chain integration and remove barriers of entry so that supplies can easily reach the shelves of retailers and MSMEs.

“And because we have the hyperlocal understanding of neighborhood and consumer, we can tell you what works, what cannot work, the type of packaging and the right sampling, [after which] we will start derisking that expansion for you as you go and create what we call inside Sary, ‘a smarter growth,’” he said.

Regarding trends shaping the B2B platform, Aldossary said the retail-related shift to from next day commerce to ultrafast 15 minute delivery will play an increasingly important role in the sector. However, he noted that it will require a lot of dark stores and micro fulfillment — an area where Sary has the supply chain capacity to help bridge the gap.

“We’ve been working with a lot of players here in Saudi and we anticipate that to continue happening within the coming years, and [eventually dark stores will] become another channel that we can cater and connect manufacturers within,” he said.