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Brico-direct.tn started in March 2016. How has it evolved since then?
Samy Majoul: Its development has been extremely positive from all perspectives. After more than one year of operations, we have quickly reached a high level of brand awareness. But the most important one and the one that our team is most proud of is that, since we have put the customer at the centre of our processes, and being a strong believer in customer-centric management, we have noted a high rate of "second order" among our customer base as a result of all these efforts.
What was the motivation for Majimpex Tunisia to invest in an e-commerce business?
Frankly, most of the players in the local market believe that the future of DIY is through using digital channels in harmony with other channels. It is all about identifying the right timing. During the Tunisian revolution, Facebook and other digital social media played a crucial and decisive role. That confirms that for emerging markets and Africa in particular, digital channels, when properly adapted to the local context, could bypass the distribution evolution we have seen in mature markets: large DIY stores might not be the natural next evolution for these markets.
On the other hand, having a B2C operation allows greater freedom to communicate with end users and test some of our products.
On the other hand, having a B2C operation allows greater freedom to communicate with end users and test some of our products.
What is Majimpex' core business?
Majimpex specialises in representing and distributing hardware and DIY products. We are a strong believer in branding. We are known in the local market as the "WD-40 distributors": our flagship and a strong global brand that we have managed exclusively in Tunisia for more than 10 years. Strong brands enable us to get more attention from the consumers.
We have also developed our own private label that allows us, for certain product ranges, to get away from the "price war" and focus on value products in the long run.
We have also developed our own private label that allows us, for certain product ranges, to get away from the "price war" and focus on value products in the long run.
What about the situation of e-commerce in Tunisia in general? To what extent do end consumers use the Internet as a purchase channel?
I call it a "boiling" market. Tunisian customers are more than willing to purchase online when it is perfectly adapted to the local context. Nowadays, the demand is much higher than what the market offers. Apart from us, electronics and home appliances sales through digital channels have grown in the last two years. Payments and deliveries are typically the bottlenecks in the e-commerce process. Cash against goods is the norm and card payments represent a fraction of all…
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