Where is Ecommerce at in the Middle East?
A new report from We Are Social and Hootsuite has analysed the numbers and the results may surprise some people. E-commerce in the Middle East is still a relatively new way of shopping, but if the announcements about what is coming are anything to go by, the future looks interesting indeed.
According to the report, the penetration of Ecommerce, or the percentage of the population who bought something online in the last month in the UAE is 62%, which is just behind the USA at 67%.
This goes against the general perception about Ecommerce in the region, however as previous studies have shown, this varies widely by category. My feeling is that many of these transactions are travel related (flights, hotel rooms, Careem) or food delivery. That said, there have been some high profile site launches in 2016, including Sephora.ae.
MCommerce
Every year they say ‘this is the year of mobile’, but in the Middle East, mobile commerce is a big deal. If your online shop or app is not mobile optimised then you are going to fail. In the UAE, 47% of ecommerce transactions were completed on a smartphone, second only to South Korea at 55%. Saudi Arabia is also a notable m-commerce market with 33% of transactions completed on mobile – the same percentage as the United States.
Ecommerce Value
While Ecommerce penetration in the Middle East is high, the amount spent online is a long way from more developed online markets. Ecommerce customers in the United Kingdom spend over $2000 per year online, while the amount spent by Saudi consumers was $465.
2017 promises to be an interesting year, with some large retail groups accelerating their Ecommerce plans and new players coming into the market.
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