It would be very difficult for somebody outside the retail business to start up.

crowded in the region. Not only does Souq have the financial muscle of Amazon behind it, but Noon, the startup by Mohamed Alabbar of Dubai and backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is also active and ambitious in the e-commerce sector. Does Al-Tahan feel threatened by such serious competitors?

“The e-commerce space is very crowded but we are in quite a focused area of it,” he said. “We specialize in a unique area that is hard to replicate. So it would be difficult for anybody to compete easily with us. But somebody will eventually come into the same space, which is good because we believe in the benefits of competition.

“It would be very difficult for somebody outside the retail business to start up. They would have to invent a whole infrastructure of produce, warehousing and distribution.”

Meanwhile, he and Kenny are endeavouring to stay at the cutting edge of e-commerce technology. They were in Dubai to attend the Gitex technology exhibition and signed up with one Japanese company which has developed technology that can be applied in the AYM call center in Jeddah.

“It allows you to tell the mood of both the agent and the customer, before, during and after the conversation,” Al-Tahan said. “The aim is that we can measure the effectiveness of our call center. It’s quite revolutionary.”

That will add another layer to AYM’s already sophisticated technology, which aims to fulfil consumer needs across the board, but with a significant focus on fresh produce. “We’re marketing as ‘all your grocery needs’, supplying everything in the grocery space, but with a big emphasis on fresh food and produce,” Al-Tahan said.

“People are doing big transactions three to six times a month, but can do smaller ones for perishable foodstuff more frequently. The technology allows us to remember the last order and the pattern of recent orders, so if you want to have the monthly big shop remembered and automated, we can do that too.”

The next expansion will be in the payment systems used in the app. The service was launched as cash-on-delivery payment, but that is changing fast. “We’ve been moving toward an Uber-type solution which we’re rolling out now through the Sadat payment platform the government uses for all public payments,” Al-Tahan said. “It’s the biggest payment system in the country and will be a big boost to business.”

So some time soon Saudis will be able to fulfil all their shopping requirements from the comfort of their living room through the ease of their smartphone. But will they not miss out on the social and leisure aspects of mall shopping, which is a major factor in the Kingdom’s cultural life?

Al-Tahan has thought of that too. “In Saudi, going to the mall is an experience. People like to hang out in Danube, but we will help them fulfil their routine daily shopping needs from the app. If they really want the supermarket experience without taking up so much time, they can select via the app and arrange for in-store pick-up. That will actually enhance their leisure time in the mall,” he said.

Like many in the Kingdom, he expects a big boost to all economic activity from the recent decision to allow women to drive. “Women driving will have a big effect on the supermarket and malls business. It will lead to greater footfall,” he said.

Al-Tahan sees his business as a key part of the economic transformation underway in Saudi Arabia as part of the Vision 2030 strategy to escape oil dependence, but does not believe the time scale for implementation should be set in stone.

“The new leadership in Riyadh is young and understands the mindset. The leadership is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to achieve the transformation. There is always somebody working in the Royal Court, no matter what the hour.

“It is a very large country with some 30 million people and it is changing a lot in a short space of time. It does not matter if there is a small delay in the transformation process. A delay gives people the opportunity to get used to the idea of change,” he added.