The MENA region, including Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Israel, made up 1.1% of the global B2C ecommerce market in 2013, which represents a slight increase in comparison with 2012, according to research data issued by Ecommerce Foundation and based on figures released by the Global Online Measurement Standard for E-commerce (GOMSEC). For 2014, MENA’s online sales are estimated to have reached USD 20.7 billion, which means that it will have taken up about the same market share as in 2013.
With a B2C ecommerce turnover of USD 6.3 billion, UAE was the largest ecommerce market of the MENA region in 2013. At some distance, Egypt ranked second with USD 3.8 billion but, for 2014, Egypt’s ecommerce turnover is estimated to have grown faster, as a result of which it is closing the gap with UAE. In terms of B2C ecommerce turnover, Israel (USD 2.3 billion) ranked second, followed by Saudi Arabia (USD 1.7 billion), Qatar (USD 1.0 billion), Kuwait (USD 0.84 billion) and Jordan (USD 0.83 billion).
20.6 million consumers in MENA bought goods and services online in 2013. On average, each online consumer from MENA spent USD 817 online in 2013. This is considerably lower than the global average of USD 1,331. At USD 2,100 per person, e-shoppers from UAE were the biggest spenders online, followed by those from Qatar (USD 1,439) and Jordan (USD 1,317).
In terms of internet penetration, the MENA average of 7% in 2013 was slightly higher than the global average of 64.0%. Within the region, UAE was in the lead with 88.0% of its population being connected to the internet. It was followed by Qatar with 85.3%, Kuwait (75.5%) and Israel (70.8%). The country with by the most inhabitants, Egypt, ranked among the countries with the lowest Internet penetration rates within the region (44.6%).
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