Brands in MENA are increasingly interested in e-commerce. Whether they building their own e-commerce platform or selling through available marketplaces, e-commerce is an additional touch point in the customer journey.
Reasons for brands in MENA to sell online:
- GCC is the biggest and fastest growing market for e-commerce: revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2017-2021) of 12.1 % resulting in a market volume of US$8,642m in 2021.
- More people are buying online and less people are visiting physical stores
- More people are researching online before buying in physical stores: a great opportunity here for physical stores to be present digitally, when customers are actually looking for their products.
Should brands sell online through their own e-commerce platform or through available marketplaces?
Two things to consider here:
- Does the brand have enough capital to build its own e-commerce platform? Development and marketing require a relatively high investment.
- Does the marketplace provide enough data and insights about the brands customers? The key to digital success is to make decisions driven by data…not guts.
What are the coming trends that will shape the e-commerce world?
- Real-time Content Personalization: content should be personalized to users shopping on the website.
- Bots/AI: moving forward, people will value and expect some kind of personal shopper that makes choosing products or services easier.
- Customer Experience: customer lifetime value is the one of the most important metrics for a brand to understand their customer. Brands should engage and interact with the consumer no matter where they are in the purchase lifecycle.