A youthful, active, and primarily mobile-based eCommerce market can be found in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). More local customers use their cellphones than those in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, or the United States at practically every step of their shopping trips. Nearly 70% of local consumers used their phones in some way during their most recent trips to the store, whether it was to read product reviews, make payments using a mobile wallet, follow the status of their online purchases, or use a navigation tool to find items in-store.
One of several characteristics that set the UAE’s eCommerce industry apart from others in the globe is the country’s consumers’ strong preference for mobile-enabled buying experiences.
The nuances of how the UAE eCommerce industry differs from other significant global economies are explored in “The 2022 Global Shopping Index: UAE Edition,” along with what those variances entail for companies hoping to stand out. In order to understand how UAE purchasing tastes differ from those of other nations, which shopping and payment features local consumers value most, and how well local retailers are satisfying their customers’ needs, we questioned 13,114 consumers and 3,100 merchants across six countries.
The following are some of the main conclusions of our study:
- 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.
