We’ve been watching 4Sale grow over the years and have used it to buy and sell items. The site has grown from a car classified website to the giant it is today. They recently announced record revenues in 2023 that marked an 11% increase in their main consumer division. Last year was an outstanding year for the platform; they saw increased activity across all their 197 categories while over 90% of sales were completed fully online – up from 65% as recently as 2019. The company is expecting 2024 to be another strong year for growth, especially with its implementation of hyper-personalized recommendations.

We had a chat with 4Sale’s Nabil Mohamed, Chief Product Officer (CPO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of 4Sale to learn more about the company’s stellar performance, his role in the company, and how he sees things changing in the future.

Nabil graduated from the American University in Cairo with Honors armed with an Industrial Engineering degree, joined Vodafone’s Discover program, and stayed there for 3 years. Next he moved to Boston and enrolled in Harvard’s MBA program. After graduating he spent five years working at Amazon. By 2020 he was back in Egypt and joined the 4Sale team, where he has been focused on transforming 4Sale into a regional powerhouse.

As 4Sale’s CPO and CTO he leads a workforce of around 80 people in both engineering teams and product teams that span Software Engineering, Product, UX Design, Analytics, and Operations. This is a rare setup in the tech world, yet this has helped 4Sale operate more smoothly. Team members are encouraged to focus on customer satisfaction and performance instead of on their products. This attitude has helped propel 4Sale forward. Currently, the platform has over three million users, 70,000 transactions monthly, more than one million listings annually, and 600,000 active monthly customers. These numbers just prove how big 4Sale really is.

The company is currently focusing on perfecting every part of its processes; from user interfaces to searching and the back end. It’s this level of attention to detail that has helped improve the customer experience and keeps users coming back for their next transaction. A good example of this is how they constantly collect information and feedback from their team in Kuwait as well as focus groups on how to phrase words so they can create better interfaces for the multi-lingual community they serve.

4Sale has four main verticals that create revenue; traditional consumer revenue from the ads that are being placed, which makes up about three-quarters of their income, but they also make money from commercial businesses and tastefully placed ads on their pages.

The fourth and final vertical is their latest addition to the 4Sale portfolio, 4Sale Realty. It’s a game changer when it comes to renting a place in Kuwait. Finding a new apartment is a daunting task when done through the traditional route. 4Sale Realty is a one-stop shop for people looking for a place to rent. The company noticed that this market was very fragmented, yet they had a lot of data on popular locations, units, and actual availability. So they decided to streamline the experience and offer users an easier channel to find a place to call home.

The platform shows users a 3D view of the space with measurements, so you can do a virtual walk-through from your laptop or phone screen. You can take a look at all the rooms without having to get up from the couch. It saves everyone time because you don’t have to physically visit unless you are sure you like the place.

If you are interested, then you contact the dedicated call center to schedule a visit. They have already hired experts from the real estate industry who understand how things are done and have poured a lot of time and effort in developing the technical process. Once you’ve reached a decision and would like to proceed, they also help facilitate the deal. It saves everyone time and money.

“We’ve been working like crazy for this past year and a half. We planned for this growth. We didn’t know exactly what it would be. There is something major that I learned from Amazon and it’s being input-driven because that’s what you can control. So, in the here and now, what can we get done? How quickly can we get it done? What are the trade-offs that we need to make and then what are the input metrics that we can use to measure how well we’re doing, whether it’s errors, whether it’s velocity, quality, or initial customer response to a feature that we’re working on. Yes, the growth was intentional, the 11% growth in the consumers category was a nice surprise. I thought it would be less,” Nabil explained.

They’re also using last year’s success to fuel 2024. This year they are focusing on helping more people find what they’re looking for by directly going to 4Sale, whether they’re looking for a new place to live or a car. The second thing they’re working on is their infrastructure, especially the back end and databases to become much more scalable. As their features become more sophisticated and their user base increases, they need to make sure that they’re stable. The third thing is hyper-personalization. By using sophisticated data science models they want to offer users alternatives that are the best for them.

All of this is going on while they continue their zero-tolerance policy towards foul play. They work hard to keep 4Sale an honest and open platform. They quickly blacklist and block users who engage in activities that go against their policies. Trusted Sellers, only receive that honor after they have proven their track record and have strong credentials. It is just one of the ways that keeps everyone safe and happy. 4Sale is slowly but surely shifting how we think about buying and selling used and new items, as well as renting and leasing property. We’re excited to see what they have in store for us in 2024 and in the coming years too.

Visit q84sale.com to make your next favorite purchase, or sell something to make more room for joy in your life. Follow @q84sale on Instagram to stay updated on special offers, deals and news.