Life begins at the end of your comfort zone, said motivational speaker and writer Neale Donald Walsch. Travel is outside one’s comfort zone. Therefore, leaving your home to explore the Amazon or the Australian Bush must be the point when life begins. Sunsets over the savannah and picnicking by Niagara Falls are all very well, but how much does it all cost?
Globetrotter and one-time diplomat Muhammad El Gohary told this paper about the VoyShip and how to enjoy chopping your way through thick undergrowth and still have a hefty wallet when you have shelled out for this and that on your travels. For those of you who travel thousands of miles for that unforgettable shopping experience, Mr El Gohary can help, too.
Egyptian Gazette: Why did you start? What’s the driving passion?
MG: In 2018 with co-founders Eslam Shabana and Ahmed Mahmoud, who was working in Saudi Arabia at the time. My passion for travel came when I was ambassador. 100 international trips! I also made many shipments abroad for individuals and small businesses. The concept of crowd-shopping was also a source of inspiration.
Crowd-shopping enables people to travel and shop, all the while saving money. Voyship connects shoppers with travellers to get any products he wants for less expense.
EG: What’s your background?
MG: Diplomacy with the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Egypt, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and government of Dubai. I also have several years’ experience in e-commerce. Academic background: Politics and Public Administration at Cairo University and Diplomatic Studies from Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan.
EG: What are the issues that you are solving? What’s your value proposition?
MG: I see that shoppers from many countries face the difficulty of getting their needs from abroad, and even from city to city. On the other hand, travellers have extra space in their trips luggage, abroad and from city to city.
For shoppers, there is limited availability of some products in specific markets, high cost of shipping from abroad, high cost of tariffs. Also shipping from other countries takes time. And for the idea of travlling to buy, the cost of travelling is high and the frequent traveling for expats is impossible. The platform and the application offers a unique value proposition, not only expanding the shopping potential of Egyptian shoppers, but also creating a safe, insured, hassle-free experience that will take their shopping to the next experience, while benefiting travellers along the way, making extra income.
EG: Tell us more about the process, users and business model.
MG: We do offer three main services. First: we offer sharing space; shoppers connect with travellers through our app to make a deal for their shipments with them. Shoppers buy the items and they are delivered to the traveller’s address, and then the travelers get the cargo along the way. Second: Shop and Ship. Shoppers ask travellers to buy the items themselves and then deliver it with them during their trip.
Our app secures the payment through an escrow account up to $1,500 to insure the traveller’s money. This is done for both online and offline shopping, although the service is for offline shopping, where travellers will buy the items physically in offline stores, especially high-value items.
Third: Shoppers buy through our app directly. They send their requirements and we buy and deliver through our network of travellers. We are responsible for the whole operation from purchase to receiving it in one of our hubs abroad then delivery to the customer.
A traveller can use VoyShip to post their trips and the app matches their trips to shipments from their destination in exchange for money reward.
VoyShip helps people to travel any destination and earn money by helping others to ship products.
EG: What are your main challenges?
MG: Our main challenges are mainly facing us in the area of human resources for developing our technology. There were too many factors to consider expenditures and monthly revenues, in conjunction with the launch of the application, and the rise in monthly costs, Along with the cost of the time needed for the marketing and the ads cost to reach the target group of customers. So you have to think about two things.
EG: What are your achievements and future plans?
MG: Since we launched in September 2021, we reached 20,000 downloads of the app. We also reached 541 shipments and 372 trips and 650 prime shipments from our international hubs located in Germany and Saudi Arabia.
