A case study by Mohammed Sajjad Bhojani3rd March 2013

“Al Shaya, online and digital”

70 brands, 2,400 outlets – Al Shaya is a retail phenomenon

International retail franchise operator

Founded 1980

Operates in MENA, Russia and EU

32,000 employees, $2billion turnover

Retail continues to flourish in ROW,but internet is now part of the

retail landscape

Pure plays start the eCommerce revolution & innovate where traditional retail has not

moved fast enough

Circa 2m member mark. MENA roll out 3m uniques per month

Trading in 6 Gulf markets

Secured $20m in funding

$1m turnover in 10 months –www.jadopado.com

Online shopping (2012 ) worth $2bn in UAE

Online sales in Egypt up 150%

Iran up 80%

Region is connected 24/7

Connected customers consume content

Mobile is ecommerce

Fear of credit card security starts to decline

Amazon et al fall foul of logistics, clearing & no COD

Aramex changes ecommerce with COD. Online sellers see 70-80% via

COD (low margin, high returns)

Last mile continues to challenge MENA just as in

more mature markets

Al Shaya select Magentoplatform for ecommerce

Mothercare.KW goes live March 2012

Not yet global/local and needs an Arabic version asap

Suffers from duplicate content with .com site

La Senza acquisition sees new web site released in 2012

New site is key part of La Senza re-launch in UK offering a national shop window

First phase Body shop live in Dubai, next step transactional???? Turkey? Russia?

Al Shaya sites suffer low volume of traffic, lacking digital plans & execution

Evidence of digital marketing exists with La Senza’s affiliate programme

Competitors leveraging large volume of ebay traffic (18m million visits per week)

PPC activity or lack of is a concern. Competitors bidding on brand name

Customer searches on la Senza

Figleaves and Ann Summers are picking off brand loyal, returning and high ROI customers

SEO rankings are poor vs competitors. Current approach lacking.

Customer enters Sleep wear

ASOS and Next rank for “Sleep Wear”

Large generic traffic keywords owned by competitors

Customer enters Lingerie

La Senzarankings not visible. Urgent SEM strategy needed with investment

SEO KPI analysis identifies poor LaSenza performance within market

La Senza BHS Selfridges

Page Authority

58 64 79

Page MozRank

5.18 5.69 6.16

Page MozTrust

5.72 5.84 6.1

External followed links

2,988 10,152 34,998

Recent changes have impacted Google shopping – this is no longer free but is

a large traffic driver

No presence for La Senza within Google Shopping

Suggests inactive feed or new PLA ads not set up with a CPC investment

Al Shaya SEO approach is questionable–Mothercare.KW Meta data requires rework

Keyword selection does not appear to be researched or chosen based on keyword volume – why would you target the keyword “Drive” “Combination”?

Page titles and meta data are core SEO components – site is not optimised

Page title only contains Car Seats this should be supplemented with target keywords eg Isofix, childrens car

seat etc based on a keyword plan

How many Al Shaya sites have a keyword plan?

Page source analysis shows meta data on car seats page is not page specific and loaded with

same keywords from home page...

Within the car seat category the content and keywords should be car seat related

Significant opportunity online for Al Shayaacross all markets

Needs to up-weight multi language roll out and deliver high volume of sites rapidly

Digital Marketing strategy needed to ensure cost effective/efficient traffic generation across all

sites and markets

Short term priority with la Senza to drive web contribution and web sales with Traffic plan

SWOT

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Retail experienceCost effective platform (Magento)

2 Trading sites live (LaSenza/Mothercare)Experienced management teamAl Shaya investment/resources

Strong brands & recognitionTrusted brands

Local language (Mothercare)Stock/Merchandising (Mothercare)Pace – roll out of multi lingual sites

Digital Marketing Lack of mobile (LaSenza/Mothercare)

AnalyticsTrading & Merchandising

Digital Marketing strategyNon Branded SEO

eCRMRetargeting

Social Media (LaSenza/MENA)PPCConversion via platform enhancement

Mobile – multi platform & multi channelGet logistics and customer service right

In Store POS

Local pure plays getting it rightMore nimble competitors with quicker pace of

developmentCustomer adoption (slow)

Customer fears ref credit card usage online