Elsewedy Electric Ecommerce marks the company's first direct-to-consumer platform, bringing decades of industrial trust to the digital shelf. Amir Hassan, Group Director of Ecommerce at Elsewedy Electric, shares details of the transformation and how CEQUENS SMS and WhatsApp APIs are powering post-purchase communication, ensuring every touchpoint is built for speed, security, and confidence.

Elsewedy Electric is a name that's been synonymous with industrial-scale infrastructure for decades. For those who may not know the full story, can you walk us through what the company represents today and what inspired the decision to launch Elsewedy Electric Ecommerce as your first consumer-facing platform?

We have always been more than a manufacturer. For decades, we've powered cities, mega projects, utilities, and national infrastructure across multiple continents. We've built our reputation on engineering excellence, scale, and reliability. But behind every industrial cable or transformer, there's a homeowner, a contractor, an electrician … someone making very real decisions about safety, budget, and long-term quality. Launching our eCommerce arm was about bridging that gap. It was about making a trusted industrial brand accessible directly to the end user whether that's a household consumer finishing their apartment or, soon enough, a contractor managing multiple projects. We wanted to translate decades of industrial trust into a seamless digital experience.

Moving from a purely B2B model to direct-to-consumer is a significant strategic pivot. What were the key business drivers behind this decision?

Let me first correct this by saying that we're not shifting away from B2B, but rather we are evolving into a hybrid approach with our propositions to operate in both B2B and B2C ecosystems. First off, Elsewedy is a powerful name with a very strong equity in Egypt and all the countries where we operate, so building up this rapport with the end consumers will enable us to learn more about our consumers' needs and then use these insights for our product innovation moving forward. Secondly, we're being proactive, facing the challenge of counterfeit economy by developing a platform through which our consumers can confidently find their 100% authentic Elsewedy Electric products to add to their basket. Last, but surely not the least, is the fact that we can always scale with the eCommerce model. Scalability is an important factor as we're expanding into new markets with this D2C model.

Let's talk about CEQUENS SMS API. Can you tell us why SMS OTP was a priority from day one, and how having that instant, reliable layer of authentication at registration, login, and checkout is shaping customer confidence in the platform?

Trust is everything … especially when you're introducing a new digital channel in a market where counterfeit products exist and security concerns are real. From day one, we knew authentication had to be frictionless but secure. SMS OTP achieves both. It reassures customers that:

• Their accounts are protected

• Transactions are verified

• Their identity is secure

So, beyond security, speed matters. OTP delivery has to be instant. Delays kill momentum and conversions. CEQUENS gave us that reliability layer we needed to protect both the user and the brand without complicating the experience.

Once a customer places an order, the experience doesn't stop at checkout. What role is CEQUENS WhatsApp API playing in how you communicate with customers post-purchase and why did you choose it as the channel for those critical transactional moments?

Checkout is not the end of the journey, it's the start of trust building. In Egypt and the wider region, WhatsApp is where customers feel most comfortable. It's immediate, personal, and familiar. Using CEQUENS WhatsApp API allows us to confirm orders instantly, reduce inbound calls, and provide important delivery notification. This constant communication increases confidence, since, when customers receive real-time confirmation on a channel they use, anxiety drops dramatically.

When you think about the full buyer journey— from the moment someone creates an account to receiving their order confirmation on WhatsApp — how do you expect these communication touchpoints to directly impact your KPIs?

Communication over every touchpoint surely does influence our performance, and how we strengthen the rapport with our consumers. For us, fast OTP means higher registration completion rate, and definitely the confirmation the user receives upon completing an order will surely boost our conversion rates and customer trust. I strongly believe that trust accelerates conversion, transparency increases retention, and reliability improves lifetime value.

Launching an eCommerce platform at this scale required bringing together the right ecosystem of partners. What made CEQUENS the right fit as your communications partner for this launch?

CEQUENS is really a partner in success, which shows us from day one a great product offering, agility in product launch and execution, and reliable customer success team. CEQUENS team understands that communications are not 'Nice to have', rather they are mission critical in digital commerce.