Abstract:

Traditionally coffee shops known as “qahwa” were very common in Egypt. They still exist and people go there to socialize, smoke “shisha”, exchange stories and play games such as backgammon or dominos. Now newly initiated coffee shops or cafés are spreading very rapidly. Cilantro is one of those coffee shops that pioneered in introducing a modern atmosphere (Bizzari, H., 2010).

A lot of other coffee shops emerged and are continuously emerging in the Egyptian market. Beshir, Cilantro’s General Manager, says that, “the warmth of the people … is what we try to bring to Cilantro.” (Diab, O., 2009). “Warmth” has always been coupled with strong information systems at Cilantro. However, with the rise in the competition, the aggressive application of business intelligence systems and the use of database marketing and data-mining techniques are inevitable.