Wakilni is a logistics partner targeting SMEs working in e-commerce. Wakilni offers last-mile delivery services, and dark warehousing including shelving and storage solutions, and international shipments, and is currently developing data analytics solutions and an e-commerce marketplace.
We talked to the Wakilni team about the impact of the support received through their participation in the WEEL Project, funded by the European Union and implemented by Expertise France.
Growth and Impact
“Through WEEL project, we have received the needed support to complete the development of our marketplace and develop the franchising toolkit that will allow us to access new markets under the franchise model. Additionally, and through the grant, we are installing a solar power supply to power our North regional office.
The impact of the support has been substantial. We expect to be able to onboard over 200 e-commerce SMEs onto the developed marketplace creating additional sales channels for them as well as last-mile demand for Wakilni. The franchising toolkit is allowing us to explore several large markets that would have otherwise been missed opportunities for us. We expect to enter a franchise market in 2023. And finally, the installation of the solar system is expected to decrease our maintenance and office running costs by at least 25%.
We have been and continue to operate in challenging macro conditions: fluctuating black market and fuel rates, decreased purchasing power leading to brain drain, etc. One key to our success in surviving these conditions is a dynamic pricing model we developed, which accounts for currency exchange rates and fuel prices – we run this model to review our prices when these external rates change beyond a certain percentage. We keep a close eye on competitor prices and tweak accordingly.
With that, we aim to be MENA’s preferred logistics partner for SMEs in e-commerce. To achieve this, we need to continue innovating, improving our processes, developing and empowering our team.”
About WEEL
WEEL is part of a larger programme, the EU for Women Empowerment (EU4WE), a 42-month programme (October 2019 – March 2023) funded by the European Union and implemented by Expertise France. It aims at promoting full and unconditional equality between men and women in Lebanon. The specific purpose of EU4WE is to reduce gender-based violence through women’s empowerment and enhance existing institutional mechanisms working towards gender equality.
