eCommerce market in the UAE

The United Arab Emirates is the 40th largest market for eCommerce with a predicted revenue of US$6,721.3 million by 2024, placing it ahead of New Zealand. Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 8.7%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$9,378.6 million by 2028. With an expected increase of 9.0% in 2024, the UAE eCommerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 10.1% in 2024. Like in the United Arab Emirates, global eCommerce sales are expected to increase over the next years. Seven markets are considered by ECDB within the UAE eCommerce market. Electronics is the largest market and accounts for 33.7% of the UAE eCommerce revenue. It is followed by Fashion with 30.6%, Grocery with 16.0%, Hobby & Leisure with 8.5%, Care Products with 3.9%, Furniture & Homeware with 3.7%, and DIY with the remaining 3.6%.

The online share refers to the proportion of the retail volume that is transacted via the Internet. It includes purchases via desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, both via website or app. Only retail of physical goods is taken into account. In the UAE retail market, the online share is 14.4% and will increase by an average of 3.4% to 16.5% by 2028.

The biggest player in the UAE eCommerce market is amazon.ae. The store had a revenue of US$682.9 million in 2023. Store rankings include every store that generates revenue in the United Arab Emirates. These stores can either have a national focus and only sell in their main country or operate on a global scale. For this evaluation, only revenue created in the United Arab Emirates was considered.

With 96.0% VISA the most commonly offered payment method of all online stores in the UAE eCommerce market in 2023. Like VISA Mastercard with a share of 96.0% and American Express with a share of 49.5% the payment type Cards is the most common used by online retailers in in the UAE eCommerce market in 2023. Other commonly used payment methods in that market are Cash on delivery (Cash on delivery) with 69.7% and PayPal (E-wallets) with 38.4% of stores offering that payment method to the clients.

Despite Aramex's dominant position with 53.4% of online stores opting for its services, the UAE eCommerce market in 2023 remains diverse and competitive. Several other shipping service providers, including Own delivery service, DHL, FedEx, and Emirates Post, hold smaller but significant shares, contributing to a dynamic and fragmented market.

Although Shopify holds a commanding lead with 22.5% of online stores using the shop software solution, the UAE eCommerce market in 2023 remains vibrant and competitive. This is due to the presence of several other shop software solutions, including Magento, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and SAP Commerce, which collectively hold a significant share of the market.