Providing Aqaba’s small businesses with solutions to reach new customers
Across Aqaba, Jordan, many micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and home-based businesses (HBBs) struggle to reach customers beyond their immediate areas. Restaurants, retailers, and home-based producers often rely on foot traffic, nearby customers, word of mouth, and social media.
Aqaba’s heat, dispersed neighborhoods, demand for convenient delivery, and tourism economy made digital ordering and reliable delivery particularly valuable. Yet, developing an online sales channel and managing deliveries could be too costly and demanding for small businesses to do alone.
Sushi Box’ experience illustrates this challenge. This small business began from home before opening a shop in a mall, but a physical location did not automatically open the wider Aqaba market for them. Reaching customers elsewhere still required visibility and reliable delivery.
Smart Cart, an online shopping and delivery app, offered a relevant local commercial solution and had an incentive to expand, but limitations in its technology, marketing reach, merchant onboarding, and operational systems restricted how many MSEs and HBBs could effectively use its services.
To address these gaps, the Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa), funded by the United States Government and implemented by Mercy Corps, collaborated with Smart Cart to improve its service and merchant applications, strengthen marketing and onboarding, introduce merchant point-of-sale (POS) devices, and provide training and follow-up support.
These improvements enabled 118 MSEs and HBBs to join the application, access a digital sales and delivery channel, reach more customers, and manage digital orders more effectively.
Participating businesses benefited in different ways: orders and revenue increased for some, while others reached customers beyond foot traffic, and many gained greater visibility.
Smart Cart’s solution helped us move beyond foot traffic and reach many more customers across Aqaba
Nuha Fino, Sushi Box owner
After receiving a POS device and staff training, Kava Coffee House began using the services regularly. According to the business, it received at least 300 orders a month through the Smart Cart application and estimated that its income increased by 15% to 25%. “Smart Cart’s support team visit us every few weeks to check the POS device and whether new employees need training,” says owner Eyad Abu Saleh.
Mega Electronics experienced a different benefit. While the app helped us generate some direct orders, it also encouraged potential customers to discover our store, products, and location.
Aqaba’s tourism economy offered another route to customers. Through brochures and QR codes placed at small hotels and with accommodation providers, businesses listed in the app gained an additional opportunity to reach visitors staying in Aqaba, while accommodation providers could offer guests easier access to local products and meals.
At Hakaya Motel, the app’s “Order Anything” feature allowed guests to request food and other products, including items not listed in the application.
Among surveyed MSEs and HBBs, 95% saw an increase in app-generated sales. POS devices also strengthened day-to-day operations: 52% of businesses which used the devices experienced improved daily organization, while 45% recorded orders more accurately.
The app’s growth expanded the potential customer base and delivery capacity available to participating businesses. Within almost a year, the number of Smart Cart users increased from 5,000 to 56,000, giving MSEs and HBBs greater visibility across Aqaba. Daily orders increased from 200 to 350. Meanwhile, Smart Cart’s network of outsourced delivery personnel grew from 35 to 45, helping businesses without their own delivery services reach more customers.
Iqlaa’s collaboration with existing market actors such as Smart Cart helps expand MSEs’ access to wider markets while strengthening services that can continue and scale beyond the duration of the collaboration. Smart Cart’s continued investment in its application and merchant network demonstrates this potential, contributing to a more supportive and sustainable ecosystem in which MSEs and HBBs can access the customers database, tools, and services they need to grow and thrive.