An e-commerce strategy and business model for a regional logistics player

The situation

With the e-commerce market in the region expanding rapidly, a logistics company in Saudi Arabia was keen to reevaluate its strategic play. Management tapped Strategy& to assess key regional markets, business models, and categories, and provide a strategic recommendation that included plays that fit the capabilities and ambitions of the client and the way to play in the selected model.

How we helped

The Strategy& team first determined the overall market size and growth dynamics of the key countries served by the client. Identifying the target categories and their implications on various business models, and analyzing all potential options for e-commerce, their value chain dynamics, and the required capabilities, led us to recommend the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) play as the optimum business model. We then defined the necessary capabilities and mapped them to the client’s. Finally, we described the partnership models the client needed to develop and identified potential partners.

Results

The client is considering deploying the PaaS model.