We expect the sector to multiply 4x from 2020 levels to represent a USD 165 Bn market by 2025

Time spent on digital media has shot up over the last 1-2 years; social media & Messaging is the most consumed channel.

With 1 in 4 deals being in the fintech space and pulling nearly 30% of all the funding raised, the sector is poised for strong activity with the new liquidity...

MEA investments surged to USD 2.1 Bn YTD in 2021, already ~2x of last year

More than 95% of consumers plan to use some digital channel for product discovery this Black Friday.

Insurtech and Lending growth is expected to be ~5 times higher in future

Social and video media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube soon followed providing consumers with new ways to interact and brands adopted those platforms for ads....

MENA Q-commerce market is expected to grow by 24% to reach $20bn as consumers continue looking for convenience and immediate gratification....

In a span of one year, we have seen the KSA eGrocery market grow from negligible share in 2019 to 1% in 2020. However KSA’s eGrocery maturity still lags compared to oth...

Etailing Horizontals are the distinct leaders while Specialists are lagging

MENA Digital Economy to reach new heights

UAE Prime Day is still in emerging phase with 140% sales increase from an ordinary day compared to 250% in US

Electronics and Gaming were highly dominated by online channel whereas Kitchen & Dining and Jewelry by offline channel

QSR’s are usually met with the trade-off between focusing on their own app vs a marketplace app. Each have their own pros and cons. Broadly, having one’s own app crea...

Online Food service market penetration to remain stable at around 15-20%

Horizontals have captured majority of market share

Q-commerce has enabled consumers to try new online categories because of its convenience thus increasing the share of wallet.

MENA online electronics has ~3x penetration levels compared to online retail

Offline fashion is poised to recover this year while online fashion is growing strong Y-o-Y

The MENA market has grown significantly in recent years and its GMV has become comparable to other emerging economies such as India and Indonesia....

Ramadan 2021 to contribute more than $2Bn to e-tail GMV, 2x that of 2019

Players have been innovating to improve profitability, more players expected to enter

Consumer shift towards online is permanent and will drive further growth

Q-commerce is a market defined by very fast delivery from local shops, restaurants, and dark stores. It is usually characterized by under 2-hour delivery....

Social media now accounts for almost half of the digital advertising spend in the MENA region. We expect that in 2021, social media ad spend will overtake non-digital/tra...

EdTech platforms have seen a drastic rise in the number of new subscribers to the platforms.

UAE online food delivery is expected to grow by a CAGR of 23% with rising penetration of dark kitchens

e-Grocery players that address the pain areas will grow faster than the market

BNPL players in the UAE have only just entered the market and have cumulatively received approximately $40 million+ in funding.

Fast forward to today and this is reflected in usage of COD which has come down to ~20-30% of online shopping orders in UAE. One possible reason is the expected stickines...

Social media penetration stands at 99% in UAE and 72% in KSA.

An interesting factor is that an overwhelmingly large proportion of consumers believe that discounts during the white/yellow friday period are higher online than they are...

Pre-COVID estimates of $16bn, the food services market is now estimated at $9bn in UAE as lockdown restrictions suppressed the sector....

Consumers took advantage of the ~3000 deals on Amazon UAE during Prime Day which offered an average discount of 25-30%.

Q4 Festive sales to reach ~$1.5 Bn at a 65% y-o-y growth rate

MENA e-Grocery GMV had been growing in double digits YoY until 2019, and was expected to grow at ~60%. However, Covid-19 has more than doubled the eGrocery markets in UAE...

This is reflected in the ~15-25% increase in online shoppers in the first few weeks of lockdown. ~30-50% of the customers increased their online purchase for the essentia...

~30-50% of the customers increased their online purchase for the essential categories. This behavior is not just a one-time trend, a significant portion of these online m...

This increase in eGrocery purchases was propelled in part by a significant number of first-time users of online grocery platforms. What is interesting is that consumers d...

Lockdown measures have led to growth for e-tail. The growth rate during the lockdown has been ~20% by order volume and ~40% by value resulting in annualized GMV of $11 Bn...

UAE's internet penetration rose to 99% in 2019, while for KSA it touched 99% in 2019.

Grocery is the hottest category with 300%+ jump in daily order volume

E-tailers generate ~25% of their annual GMV during Ramadan time, which when compared with White/Yellow Friday sale, stands at ~5%. Brands also realize the importance of R...

Venture Studio - A new business model is emerging to support the start-up building space globally

UAE's internet penetration rose to 99% in 2019, while for KSA it touched 99% in 2019.

1. Fashion shopping in Ramadan peaks during Eid week Fashion is the most exciting retail category, when it comes to Ramadan shopping in MENA. Excitement levels for clothi...

1: Niche models gain traction Noon and Amazon have emerged as the key players in the online marketplace in the region. However, niche players have also emerged who eith...

Insight 1: Fast-paced etailing market growth in 2019 Online retail market grew at a fast pace this year compared to last few years – greater than 35% this year compared...

There are four key insights that we want to highlight from our study: Published on: Nov 2019 Customer excitement for the November sales season in both UAE and KSA is at i...

By Sandeep Ganediwalla

By Sandeep Ganediwalla

Published on: Nov 2019 Food service market of UAE is ~$ 15 Bn in size. The market took a hit in revenues during early 2018 due to implementation of VAT, but the sector is...

Middle East is a cluster of regions: GCC, Levant and North Africa. This region is bound by a common language but is different demographically and economically...

Buy Full Report Logistics is driving eCommerce in GCC; the two key sectors of Etail and online food deliveries stand at ~$11 Bn, expected to grow ~3X in next five years P...

GCC – a unique market showing characteristics of both developed and developing markets GCC countries have most of their population concentrated in urban centres. This h...

Globally, apps are taking superapp journey by adding services to its offering and increasing per-customer revenue Published on: Jul 2019 A country/region becomes superapp...

Preparation for Ramadan starts one month in advance and celebration continues 2 weeks post Eid, making it the longest celebrated festival globally...

Preparation for Ramadan starts one month in advance and celebration continues 2 weeks post Eid, making it the longest celebrated festival globally...

Preparation for Ramadan starts one month in advance and celebration continues 2 weeks post Eid, making it the longest celebrated festival globally...

Buy Full Report Share of organized grocery retail in UAE+KSA is expected to increase to 80% by 2022, from current 60%; Unorganized grocery retail to shrink Published on: ...

Buy Full Report Published on: Dec 2018 The Middle East e-commerce market is heating up with the increasing competition, driven primarily by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Acco...

1. Fintech: Funding in MENA fintech is led by lending and payment focused start-ups Published on: Oct 2018 Fintech based start-ups in the MENA region are seeing a lot of ...

1. Cab: After a first wave of rapid growth, MENA’s cab hailing market is ready for the next wave of expansion into smaller cities and realize its huge potential Publish...

INTRODUCTION   – Evolution of Lighting Systems The global lighting industry has seen a huge evolution right from incandescent to the light emitting diodes (LED...

INTRODUCTION   – Evolution of FM Service Facility Management (FM) has been one of the prominent sector longing for complete recognition over a long period of t...

INTRODUCTION   An aggressive budget by Saudi Arabia to lessen dependency on oil The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on a spending spree to decrease their dependence on oi...

Buy Full Report In today’s fast-changing world, smart solutions such as self-sufficient energy homes, efficient utility services, self-driving cars, smart healthcare ba...

Buy Full Report This document is an article which covers the expected growth of online retail industry in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by 2020. A Watershed Moment ...

As highlighted in our previous paper, “Understanding the inflection point for Online Retail”, indexing from the year when online share crossed 0.5% of total retail, w...

The goal of the project was to develop a comprehensive market strategy for an online classifieds player in the Middle East. The firm wanted to expand to a new geography a...