The United Arab Emirates has a young, dynamic, and mostly mobile-based eCommerce market (UAE). In almost every phase of their shopping journeys, local customers use their cellphones more frequently than shoppers from Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, or the United States. During their most recent trips to the shop, over 70% of local customers utilized their phones in some capacity, whether it was to read product reviews, use a mobile wallet to make payments, track the progress of their online orders, or use a navigation tool to locate products in-store.
The UAE’s consumers’ high affinity for mobile-enabled shopping experiences is only one of the numerous traits that distinguish the country’s eCommerce sector from others across the world.
In “The 2022 Worldwide Shopping Index: UAE Edition,” the subtleties of how the UAE eCommerce market differs from other key global economies are examined, along with what those variations mean for businesses wishing to stand out. We surveyed 13,114 consumers and 3,100 merchants in six countries to see how UAE purchasing preferences differ from those of other countries, which shopping and payment features local consumers value most, and how successfully local businesses are meeting their customers’ demands.
The following are a few of the major findings of our investigation:
- In the UAE, smartphones are essential to both the in-store and online buying experience. Whether they were buying in-person or remotely online, 65 percent of UAE customers utilized cell phones at some point during their most recent retail excursions.
- Those in the UAE use curbside pickup and in-store pickup more frequently than customers in other nations. A third or less of local eCommerce customers choose curbside pickup or in-store pickup for their most recent orders.
- UAE retailers exacerbate buying friction by offering cross-channel purchasing options that consumers want but are not of the caliber they require.
- UAE retailers exacerbate buying friction by offering cross-channel purchasing options that consumers want but are not of the caliber they require. Customers in the UAE experience 35% more purchasing friction than the average customer across all six countries when they order things on their cellphones and pick them up in-store, suggesting that the quality of the mobile features they are utilizing may not be on pace with those observed elsewhere.
These are just a few of the major conclusions we were able to draw from studying the UAE eCommerce business. The UAE Edition of “The 2022 Global Digital Buying Index” offers a first-hand view of what makes this market distinctive on a global scale and how retailers may customize their feature offerings to fit regional shopping tastes.
