Interview with Mumzworld Founder Mona Ataya, during the E-Commerce MENA Summit in Dubai
The E-Commerce MENA Summit was hosted in Dubai from the 27th until the 30th of January.
The summit focused on the travel, recruitment, restaurants, retail, promotions and mobile sectors. It also shed light on the e-shopping industry in the UAE; e-retail in Europe; fighting cyber crime and cloud computing among many exciting subjects.
The conference was organized by the International Quality & Productivity Center.
The list of speakers included representatives from Landmark Group, hotels and resorts chain Mövenpick, Offerna, Mumzwold.com, Bayt.com, Royal Jordanian Airlines, as well as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates among others.
During the final day of the event, mumzworld.com COO Michael Ghandour gave a talk on shipping and customer satisfaction.
We had an exclusive interview with Mumzworld CEO Mona Ataya during the summit.
Mona studied marketing and finance and worked at Procter & Gamble before moving to the Middle East and joining other giants such as Johnson & Johnson. She later founded Mumzworld in October of 2011, and has been featured previously as a speaker at the ArabNet Digital Summit 2012 in Beirut.
ArabNet: What does E-Commerce MENA mean to Mumzworld in specific and to the entrepreneurship scene in the region in general?
Mona Ataya: "Mumzworld.com has been one of the pioneers in the e-commerce arena, and is the first and largest online marketplace for all things mother, baby and child in the region owning more than 85% market share for this vertical. The target for women represents over 350 Million USD of the regions’s wealth and the “mother” target is virgin territory online that mumzworld has been able to effectively capture and own very quickly."
What was the tipping point that made Mumzworld the online retail it is today? Was it: the market need; the quality of the products; the price; the design of the website; the dedication of the team; the UAE market in specific; all of them; or other additional factors?
"The first thing that has really distinguished mumzworld.com is the professional experience of the founding team. We have all been part of successful online ventures before so we understand the online world well. The second, is that we have the widest portfolio of products and excellent relationships with suppliers both regionally and globally. Mumzworld.com has been able to secure many exclusive relationships with a number of suppliers, which sets mumzworld.com apart. The third factor is our collective experience in logistics and supply chain which set mumzworld apart with superior delivery timings and unparalleled customer service. The company is a customer centric organization where all touch points are anchored to ensure the customer comes first each and every time. The fourth and probably most important factor, is our first-hand experiences as parents. As parents we have experienced the frustrations in the segment for product choice, accessibility, comprehensive information, convenience and transparency in price and availability. We demand a lot from the site we have built.
This is still only the beginning for mumzworld.com, and there is so much more in the pipeline that will further enhance the user experience to ensure that we are truly empowering the parent to make the most informed choices each and every time. We are expanding our product lines to give mothers best selling items that she would not normally find in the region, as well as re-launching a newer revamped loyalty program to reward our consumers even more. Mumzworld.com has become synonymous with shopping for mother, baby and child very quickly as it presents a real value proposition to the consumer and puts the customer at the focal point of everything we do."
Do you plan to join an incubator/accelerator in the future? And what are your plans for the future in general?
"No. We are beyond that stage. Mumzworld.com is fully operational as a logistics and customer centric operation operating out of both warehouses and offices.
Mumzworld.com’s vision is to become the premiere, trusted and definitive source for all things Mother, Baby and Child in the MENA region. mumzworld.com is committed to becoming the most customer-obsessed company in the Middle east which offers parents the most comprehensive product catalogue. Empowering parents with the power of the Internet to make the most informed purchase decision each and every time is one of the main goals of mumzworld.com. Mumzworld.com aims to develop a community platform that will be the gold for e-commerce sites in the Middle East."
How do you see the entrepreneurship scene in the technology sector in MENA in 2013?
"With so many businesses realizing the importance and value of the online market in the MENA region, I believe that we will see a large number of businesses making the shift to online in 2013. In the new year, mumzworld.com will be making improvements and updates regularly to ensure that we are setting the standard in both technology and service to our customers."
Thank you Mona.
"Thank you very much."
You can visit the summit's page here. You can also check out Mumzworld on the ArabNet Startup Database.
Follow Mumzworld on Twitter: @mumzworld
Facebook: facebook.com/mumzworld
and Pinterest: Pinterest.com/mumzworld
Check out the following Infographic on the state of ecommerce in Saudi Arabia.
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