The Middle East has been a strategic location for international trade since ancient times. The overall impression given by this region is that it has high consumption power but lacks supplies. Therefore, people are very enthusiastic about cross-border online shopping, and the unit price per customer is relatively high. The cross-border market in the Middle East is concentrated in Israel and Saudi Arabia. Amazon’s website visits from Saudi Arabia accounted for 0.6%, ranking 21st in the country, while eBay’s website visits from Israel also accounted for 0.6%, ranking 11th in the world. Lantingji Shi, Dunhuang, and AliExpress also have a certain proportion of traffic from the Middle East.
Souq Cobone and Sukar are the three largest e-commerce websites in the Middle East. Souq, the Middle East version of Amazon, is the largest, with 6 million users and 10 million unique visits per month. In addition to Saudi Arabia, people in wealthy Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are also keen on online shopping. Their Internet penetration rate and mobile phone ownership rate have reached more than 70%, and 50% of people purchase goods and services through the Internet.
The Arab countries are a big market, and Ramadan has become a peak for online shopping for consumers in the Gulf region. It is expected that the scale of online shopping in the entire Middle East will grow rapidly in the next two to three years. The Middle East mainly has remote areas where express delivery cannot be reached and distribution is difficult, so dedicated logistics lines are also very popular.
The Agility Emerging Market Logistics Index ranking launched by Agility, a world-renowned logistics service provider, in 2016 shows that the UAE ranks second after China, including infrastructure, transportation, customs and border management, and logistics suppliers. , freight forwarders, shipping companies, air cargo companies and distributors ranked first in the “Connectivity” sub-category. Other top-ranking “GCC” countries include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. In addition to various postal services, Aramex is the local express delivery king, and international dedicated lines such as DHL and TNT also occupy the mainstream. There is no shortage of money here, and the demand is acceptable, but it seems to lack the “atmosphere” of the Internet.