83% of UAE residents had made a purchase online during October - December 2014, and four out of five respondents said they were satisfied with the process, according to the Online Shopping Behaviour report survey issued by MasterCard, zawya.com reports. Top categories for online spending include airlines, travel and hotels, followed by shopping for home appliances and clothing.
Aaron Oliver, Head of Emerging Payments - Middle East and Africa, Mastercard said that online shopping is popular for more shoppers in the UAE due to the high level of awareness amongst consumers about the convenience, speed and safety of their transactions. They are adopting new technologies, such as MasterPass, which allows consumers to store all their MasterCard or other branded payment card information, as well as shipping and billing address details in one place. This gives them the ability to make online payments with a single click, tap or touch of the MasterPass button at checkout.
In the UAE, Souq.com emerged as the most commonly visited website for shopping online, with over 45% of respondents having made a purchase from the website during October -December, 2014. The next most visited website was Amazon.com, with 16% of respondents having purchased from it, reflecting UAE consumers preference for local websites over foreign websites. The advantages cited for shopping online locally included convenience and economy, followed by safety and the fear of hidden charges on foreign sites.
Results of the survey also highlighted an affinity for making purchases through smart handheld devices. Of the respondents polled, nearly one-third made online purchases through their mobile phones, which is higher than what was observed in the UAE for results collected in 2012 and 2013. According to Mouchawar, 40 to 50% of sales on Souq.com are made through mobile devices, demonstrating a huge opportunity for growth in this category.
Respondents pointed to convenience and the wide availability of apps as key reasons for relying on their mobile phones, with fewer people mentioning a preference to shop in brick and mortar stores compared to the results of the 2014 study (results collected in 2013). Airline tickets and phone apps were found to be the two main categories of products purchased online via mobile phones, followed by clothing, accessories, hotel accommodations and cinema tickets.
The Online Shopping Behavior Survey measures consumers propensity to shop online and was conducted at the end of 2014. It is based on interviews with 4000 respondents across eight markets in the Middle East and North Africa including the UAE.
Check out our Cross-border Ecommerce Research section here for more info on country-specific ecommerce facts and figures, preferred payment methods, risk and fraud, as well as ecommerce legislation and regulation for mature and emerging markets.
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