E-commerce in the UAE: is 2017 the year it finally takes off?
Employees pack boxes of merchandise at an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Peterborough, U.K. Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
SOURCE: The National - E-commerce in the UAE: is 2017 the year it finally takes off?
2017 has been hailed by many as the coming of age year for e-commerce in the UAE and the wider region. Emaar Properties chairman Mohamed Alabbar got the ball rolling in November last year with the unveiling of Noon, a $1 billion e-commerce venture offering 20 million items for sale in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, due for launch in early 2017.
In March, e-commerce giant Amazon acquired Souq.com, the region's largest e-commerce venture, for $580 million, prompting customers to dream about a vast range of consumer goods and services all available via a tap, click or swipe.
The arrival of Noon and Amazon on the scene in 2017 may have a seismic impact on the e-commerce sector; consultants AT Kearney expects e-commerce in the UAE to grow at a compound annual growth rate for 25 per cent per year up to 2020, with Frost and Sullivan estimating the market could be worth up to $10bn by next year.
"Anyone who executes the correct way in the next couple of years can get into the big league,"reckons Pratik Gupta, co-founder of Wadi.com, an online market platform that launched with great fanfare in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2015.
SOURCE: The National - E-commerce in the UAE: is 2017 the year it finally takes off?