Thousands of pages of country by country statistics, a gold-mine of information for marketers, product managers and anyone else interested in what’s happening in digital in the world. Among the information, some statistics about Ecommerce is some of the markets in the GCC and wider Middle East.
The reality of what is happening in Ecommerce in the Middle East is hard to pin down. Anecdotally, on the one hand, it is buzzing, but there seems to be a reluctance by retailers to dive head first into online shopping. Since the acquisition of Souq by Amazon last year, and the launch of Noon, there has been very little to shout about.
So for what it is worth, here are some numbers from the report by Hootsuite and WeAreSocial. Unfortunately there is not a complete set of data for all countries in the GCC. The most comprehensive set is for Saudi Arabia, with some for the UAE.
The first point to note is that Ecommerce sites are largely absent from the most visited websites in KSA and the UAE. In Saudi, Amazon is the 10th most viewed website. In the UAE, Souq is the 7th most viewed.
Ecommerce Activity in the Last 30 Days – Saudi Arabia V UAE
Trends in the Saudi E-commerce market.
In Saudi Arabia Fashion and Electronics are the most valuable categories. Both are valued at around USD$1.6bn. Travel is values at USD$673 Million. The fashion category is growing at 13% year on year, Electronics and Travel at 11%.
There are an estimated 11.6 million online shoppers in KSA, up 11% on the year before. The annual revenue per user (ARPU) for those consumers is USD$ 469, also up 11% on the year before. This values the Saudi Ecommerce market at around USD$5.4 billion a year.
The impact of new regulations.
This week, Saudi Authorities announced new laws that specified certain jobs had to be done by Saudi nationals. Specifically, the laws relate to people working in shops. This law may see retailers move more of their sales activities online. Time will tell.
No Comments