How Quick Retail is Reshaping MENA​

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Quick retail has become MENA delivery’s second growth engine after food delivery, and it is changing where the market’s growth and profits will come from. It accounts for only about a third of GCC delivery value, yet it generated more than half of the segment’s growth over the first nine months of 2026, expanding almost three times as fast as food delivery. Across the nine MENA markets Redseer tracks, quick-retail GBV grew 63% year on year against 22% for food delivery.

Saudi Arabia is driving this second curve. Quick-retail GBV in the Kingdom grew 112% over the period and contributed roughly 64% of all incremental GCC quick-retail value. With online grocery penetration still near 5% of grocery retail spend, well below the UAE’s 12%, the runway from better store coverage, range and reliability is long, and Saudi is on course to overtake the UAE as the region’s largest online grocery market by 2028.

The proposition that wins customers has widened beyond speed. Speed is the single main reason to use quick retail for 43% of UAE users but only 28% in Saudi, and consumers increasingly weigh assortment and price alongside it. As range and reliability improve, platforms have an opening to capture a larger share of regular grocery spending rather than top-up missions alone. Dark stores are consolidating that advantage: first-party fulfilment reached 67% of GCC quick-retail GBV in the third quarter, up eleven points in a year, because owning stock and delivery gives platforms more control over availability and experience.

With demand established, profitability has more levers than before. Transaction economics, advertising and subscriptions, and operating efficiency each offer a route back to margin, even as global consolidation and tighter fee regulation reshape how value is shared. At the region’s largest listed platform, advertising revenue is now equivalent to around 70% of adjusted EBITDA, up from about half a year earlier, a sign of how monetisation beyond delivery fees is becoming a core earnings lever.

WHAT THE REPORT COVERS

01. The second growth curve – Why quick retail, at a third of GCC delivery value, now drives most of its growth, and how the growth mix differs across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the rest of the GCC and the wider MENA markets.

02. The runway in Saudi Arabia – How food delivery is maturing while online grocery sits at an earlier stage, why the binding constraint has moved from connectivity to supply and economics, and the path for Saudi to become the region’s largest online grocery market.

03. The customer proposition – What makes consumers choose an online grocery platform, how the weight placed on speed, range and price varies between the UAE and Saudi, and where the opportunity lies to win more of the regular basket.

04. Operating models and categories – Why dark stores are gaining share, what they give customers and cost platforms, the role of grocers’ own apps, and how pharmacy, beauty and other non-grocery missions are widening what quick retail can sell.

05. Competition, ownership and profitability – How a well-funded new entrant and two global consolidation deals are reshaping the competitive map, how regulation is changing who captures value, and the three routes to more profitable growth.

REDSEER PERSPECTIVE AND STRATEGIC TAKEAWAYS 

The next phase of MENA delivery will be decided by who captures the everyday customer and who makes money doing it. More markets and consumers will come online as store coverage, reliability and selection improve, with Saudi and the newer MENA markets carrying the most runway. Quick retail should steadily take a larger share of the retail basket, drawing in regular grocery spending as well as newer pharmacy and beauty missions. Growth will become more balanced over time as improving monetisation offsets the near-term pressure from deeper-pocketed owners and tighter fee regulation. Supply brings people online, a stronger offer wins their spending, and monetisation turns that spending into profit.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS REPORT 

1. Delivery and quick-commerce platform operators and their strategy teams
2. Grocery retailers and FMCG, beauty and pharmacy brands building their online and quick-commerce channels
3. Investors and private equity firms with exposure to MENA delivery and online grocery
4. Corporate development and M&A teams tracking consolidation across the region