Describes how widely e-Commerce is used, the primary sectors that sell through e-commerce, and how much product/service in each sector is sold through e-commerce versus brick-and-mortar retail. Includes what a company needs to know to take advantage of e-commerce in the local market and, reputable, prominent B2B websites.

Egypt's Electronic Signature Law 15 of 2004 established the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) to act as the e-signature regulatory authority and to further develop the information technology sector in Egypt. An e-government initiative has been implemented to increase government efficiency, reduce service-provision time, establish new service-delivery models, reduce government expenses and encourage e-procurement. In 2009, the government implemented the e-signature service, allowing public and private companies to offer e-signature authentication.

In 2018, the Egyptian Government, along with the United Nations, updated the e-commerce strategy. The strategy focuses on leveraging Egypt’s key strengths and reducing the challenges. Those challenges include the telecommunication infrastructure, and services, logistics and trade facilitation, legal and regulatory environment, e-payments and e-procurement, e-commerce platforms, taxation, skills development, and awareness raising.

Moreover, as part of Egypt’s Vision 2030 “Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS), the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has launched an ICT strategy. This strategy supports the development of the sector and its contributions to economic growth   through initiatives   that encourage, among other things, e-commerce and e-government, electronics design and digital manufacturing and talent and human resources development.

The Egyptian market has the largest population of internet users in the MENA region. Egypt’s Internet penetration is expected to reach 53.5 million in 2019, of which 8% make regular online transactions. Most online transactions are in the categories of electronics, entertainment, airline tickets and fashion. E-commerce faces numerous challenges in the Egyptian market: there is a low number of credit/debit card holders - around 10 million - hence 80 percent of e-commerce in Egypt relies on cash on delivery.  However, the rate of credit card issuance is growing annually by around 40 percent, which indicates that cash dependency may decrease.

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.