How online shopping is evolving in MENA

by Edward S. Marketing Executive

In the MENA region, we are used to buy our products from malls and shops. Few years ago, many online shops started to open in MENA region. Although most of these stores have a physical location and represent specific brands, they gained lots of exposure. According PwC, e-commerce is disrupting the whole industry in MENA region.

According to the PwC report, the market is growing at rate above 25%. This is considered a huge rate when compared to other sectors. In addition, they noticed that most shopping in the Arab world is done from mobile phones. Further, social media is considered very important marketing channel in Middle East. They estimated that social media derived 48% of sales in MENA in the past year.

On the other side, most online stores in this region suffer from security problems. According to their research, 62% of Arab customers are worried to share their personal data with the online store. Beside security, Arab customers are considered very loyal after first successful purchase. They estimated that 32% of online shopper are likely to remain loyal to the stores they bought from before. Finally, for luxury products, most customers prefer to check a showroom rather than online stores.