Ramadan Activations: Finding Opportunities In A Slow Season

Ramadan is a slow season for businesses across the Muslim world; working hours get shorter, people have little to no energy. According to Morgan Philips, productivity during Ramadan declines to half.

Despite its stagnancy, the holy month nonetheless spreads its blessings on some sectors. These lucky sectors include the F&B industry and consumer goods, mainly. However, companies working in other industries are still keen on taking a share of Ramadan’s perks. On this occasion, we speak to four startups that are making the most out of the Ramadani trends to pour back to their businesses.

ElMenus // On competition

“The risk in this season is the competition,” Amir Allam, CEO of ElMenus, tells Startup Scene. Products and companies in the food-tech space are on the rise in Egypt, and in a high-yet-slow season like Ramadan, the competition is fierce. Allam explains to us that the trick is to find an in-demand feature that none of these companies have executed before, and that was what ElMenus tried to do with their new feature. “That was a risk we made sure to mitigate in Ramadan, and it actually turned into an opportunity for us.”

People tend to forget to order beforehand and start ordering right before iftar time just to realise that they’re late and most restaurants take orders at least three hours before that hour. “So, we introduced a feature called scheduling order,” he says. “It is in very high demand, most of the recurring users of ElMenus during Ramadan are using it.”

Although sales trends differ in Ramadan due to the drastic change in eating habits and change of peak times, revenues don’t get really affected. “Maybe people use delivery a little less during Ramadan, but the major difference is that the peaks get higher.”

Allam and his team also found that people in Ramadan would also want to check out the menus of “Kheyam Ramadan” or Ramadan Tents beforehand to help them decide which Tent to go to, or whether they should go at all. In that sense, it was a great opportunity to hop on for their second feature this Ramadan.

“We created a second feature which is the tags and mood lists to help people decide what to order in Ramadan,” he adds. The dish tags are clickable circles – similar to theInstagram Story icons -  that collect each dish and provides information when clicked on. “So, for example in the Kunafa tag you would find all the types of Kunafas and where to find them and which vendor delivers,” he explains. “Basically, a Ramadan guide.”

ElMenus wouldn’t have gotten this far without keeping an eye and ear out for their users. “That is the benefit of being a local startup, we listen to and understand the customer’s concern better and therefore respond quicker to the market needs,” Allam concludes.

GoodsMart // On client-satisfaction

GoodsMart is a grocery-shopping app that aims to keep their clients away from time consuming daily errands while enjoying fresh and high-quality products and also saving money and effort. Clients order their daily fresh products and other household needs and receive it unattended through their GoodsMart box, hence avoid the usual daily hassles.

Staying on brand, keeping their clients’ smiles intact, Ramadan was a great opportunity to seize. “[This month] started with our clients opening up their GoodsMart boxes to find small gifts, drawing a smile on their faces and ours through their lovely comments,” Ahmed Nafea, Head of Marketing at GoodsMart, tells Startup Scene. “We then asked our clients to spread the happiness through sharing with us a situation that drew a smile on their face or something they’ve done or willing to do to draw smiles on other faces.”

Together with their clients, they started posting photos using either hashtags: #Donate_a_smile  #اتبرع_بضحكة. GoodsMart also asked their clients to donate toys and clothes through GoodsMart boxes to be delivered to an orphanage, spreading GoodsMart’s smile even beyond their client base.

“Our sales during Ramadan is quite similar to normal days as our clients’ order and receive their daily household products on daily basis hassle-free, hence the urge to bulk certain products in preparation for Ramadan to avoid the hassle of shopping again during Ramadan is not there,” Nafea tells us. “The nature of sold products would differ a bit though as Ramadan has a set of unique products that households tend to use more, like fresh dairy products.” 

Therefore, this holy season was also an opportunity to increase the product range and engage in various revenue generating activities with GoodsMart’s suppliers allowing them to direct-access to view, promote and sample their products to the target segment efficiently.

“On the other hand, there are few risks related to the operational side, with the extended product range, increased demand and limited working hours while ensuring our quality and reliability are as good as normal months to maintain our brand’s promise,” he adds. “These risks are mitigated through outstanding operational team that ensures any capacity and resource allocation changes are planned for ahead and attentive friendly CRM team that stays in-touch with our clients around the clock ensuring their requests and concerns are resolved immediately.”

iCommunity // On the sense of togetherness

iCommunity is a one stop shop for real estate developers to facilitate all their residents' requirements. Their activations often begin with on ground training of the workers and security then working closely with the management or board member to plan the communication method to educate and create brand awareness to the residents. “In our strategies, we see the option of a themed event to have a personal engagement with the neighbors and get residents to be familiar with the app,” Mona Seleim, iCommunity’s Chief Community Officer tells Startup Scene.

During Ramadan, Seleim and her team decided to focus their activation on one compound. “On Tuesday, May 28^th, Katameya Residence will host an iftar event where we will network with the residents, create an awareness of iCommunity and build a strong rapport with our influencers who generate traffic on the app when we support them,” Seleim says.

The startup launched their campaign through social media last week for Katameya Residence, and so far, the rate of interest has been “good.” The main pain point of iCommunity is app engagement, so they agreed with the compound management to announce that iCommunity App will be the official communication platform which would encourage people to migrate from WhatsApp or Facebook to the app.

“We expect after the Iftar gathering, the numbers will multiply rapidly as our level of interest depends on word of mouth,” Seleim says. “Once interaction between neighbors and the developers begins, there usually is a snowball effect where people sign up so they don't miss out on discussions or announcements.”

In the case of iCommunity, sales are relatively nil during Ramadan. Seleim explains that the reason behind this is that Home Owner Associations are at their own businesses during short working hours, so discussing compound issues is not of a priority. “Developers are arranging summer launches and preparing for the summer activities so again the opt to initiate anything new in Ramadan is not really an option,” she adds.

“The days are shorter with our clients, which makes decision-making very slow and inattentive to address or encourage something new,” she explains. “But because its preseason for our summer launch, we are quite consumed in operation planning. In the next two months, we will launch in 6 new compounds.”

The only opportunity that Ramadan brings is that people like to get together and enjoy gatherings. So, launch events usually have a higher attendance rate.

Tayary // On benevolence and collaboration 

One of the startups listed under Startup Scene's 25 Under 25, Tayary, had another idea on how to spend their Ramadan. "Food wastage is an issue, especially in Ramadan. Restaurants and consumers throw away clean excess food while thousands of people are starving," Malak El-Bahtimy, Co-founder of Tayary, tells Startup Scene.

It all started with a Facebook post by El-Bahtimy's fiancee and co-founder Amr Abdelfattah. "We found students with the same initiative, so we decided to team up with them and launched “Eftaddal Ma3ana,” Arabic for “Join Us.” Tayary distributed ten boxes around Alexandria so that people can wrap up their extra food and leave it in the box. They can also request a courier - free of charge - to pick up their order and place it to the nearest location. Then, people in need can open the box and take the food, which adds up to the name of the campaign.

The results exceeded all expectations, they launched the initiative in the beginning of Ramadan, and they received hundreds of requests on the app 10 days later. Although Tayary's sales witness a slight decline during Ramadan, the couple co-founders are putting this behind them for a while. "We are launching this collaborative campaign entirely for the sake of good, and so far it got great media exposure, so maybe that's what we're taking in return."