A recent study on the “Development of E-commerce in Egypt During 2011-2021” has revealed some significant trends, placing Egypt at the forefront of Arab nations in terms of e-commerce exports. The study, conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), shows that Egypt’s e-commerce exports as a percentage of total goods trade increased from 0.2% to 2.9% during the ten-year period.
Interestingly, Egypt also ranked first among Arab countries in terms of the proportion of e-commerce imports to the total trade in goods. This figure saw a growth from 3.5% in 2011 to 4.8% in 2021.
On the global front, China-Hong Kong led in both e-commerce exports and imports as a percentage of total goods trade. The percentage increased from 42.5% to 61.2% for exports and from 40.4% to 57.5% for imports between 2011 and 2021.
In the context of e-commerce readiness, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Egypt ranked 109th globally and 13th among Arab countries in 2020. The UAE and Saudi Arabia led the Arab world in this metric, holding the 37th and 49th positions globally.
Libya and Morocco ranked just ahead of Egypt in the Arab world in 2020, according to the e-commerce readiness index, holding the 85th and 95th positions globally.
The study also provided insights into telecommunications subscriptions in Egypt. As of 2021, there were 11 million landline subscribers and a whopping 103.5 million mobile phone subscribers. Mobile internet users numbered 63.4 million, and there were 2.1 million USB Modem subscribers. Egypt also had 4,194 government post offices as of 2021.
