Tech-savvy consumers, a wholesome product suite and a city with high internet penetration.
E-commerce in Dubai has arrived.
The pandemic has been a point of inflection for everyone, around the world. From individuals, to businesses, to global economies – everyone has been affected by the pandemic. The arrival of Covid-19 has caused demand and supply issues, slowed down most industries and made many businesses rethink about their strategy to survive in a competitive market. The positive outcome of the pandemic was that it forced people to think outside the box, it led to new innovation and drove a lot of sectors to embrace the digital wave which had begun a few years ago. The pandemic became a catalyst to the rise of e-commerce.
Consumers and businesses both pivoted to technology – consumers wanted to shop online and businesses needed to ensure their products are available online, therefore the natural winner here was E-commerce.
Looking at the consumer spending habits during the pandemic; a lot of businesses want to go online and would like to make their products and services accessible to consumers not just locally, but also regionally and globally. The companies who were accessible during the pandemic and upheld the quality of products and services during these challenging times, have now garnered a huge loyal customer base.
If history is a precedent, then growth of this sector is expected. From a mere $5.3bn in 2015, rising to $17.7bn in 2019, the GCC’s e-commerce market is expected to become an almost $50bn market by 2025, as stated in a report by Kearney Middle East.
E-commerce is growing stronger each year. Every year we have been seeing 20% growth in this sector. Consumers have become accustomed to shopping from the comfort of their homes. They want to access more products without spending a significant amount of their day to physically go and shop. According to a survey, 58% of total purchases in UAE are from websites that are from North America or other Asian countries, which makes UAE a huge potential market for e-commerce.
For retailers and brands that want to setup an e-commerce store, it is far easier to setup than a physical store. You can sell more products on an online store than a physical store with no infrastructure restrictions. All a business needs isa good web and app development team and a well-rounded e-commerce platform which can cater to all needs of the business.
In terms of technology there are numerous platforms available today, but the one that is regarded as an enterprise market leader is – Magento. Magento is considered the most reliable e-commerce platform today for online businesses. Magento is known for its scalability, performance and huge marketplace, which is why they hold one-fourth of the e-commerce market share. Big brands like Coco Cola, Jaguar, Burger King, Nike use Magento. It is an open-source platform, hence easy to customize, it has a lot of extensions to accommodate all sort of functionalities. Magento has a huge online community, meaning support is easily available.
Magento is best for enterprise-level business but if you are a smaller business then you can use the free version. If you are business who sees itself expanding in few years, then it is better to go with the enterprise edition. Magento is not an easy platform, so you would require experienced developers to develop a Magento store.
Another contender in the e-commerce space is Shopify.
Shopify has one million merchants around the world. It is the most popular platform due to its clean and easy to use interface. It’s a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform meaning the hosting is done on Shopify’s server with a monthly subscription service. Shopify is a good choice for small and medium sized businesses. However, it is not an open-source platform, so customization will not be easy.
If the objective is to offer a unified experience across mobile and web platforms, Magento is the e-commerce platform of choice. Developing native apps powered by a single Magento e-commerce backend and integrating with ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics is not trivial, but with an experienced Mobile Apps development partner like Mobiiworld, you could be up and running in no time.
When it comes to Magento, Mobiiworld is one of the most trusted Magento Developers in Dubai, UAE. To name a few notable projects, Mobiiworld has developed the Mobile e-commerce platforms for Abdul Samad Al Qureshi. Mobiiworld has also recently developed and launched the Magento e-commerce website for Community Health Solutions Pharmacy that is fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP System.
Mobiiworld has been delivering award winning e-commerce, m-commerce apps and websites since the year 2010 for numerous regional and international brands. Mobiiworld was instrumental in launching the e-commerce, m-commerce mobile apps and websites for Global Village that helped them have a very successful season 25. Global Village Mobile apps bagged two Gold and one Silver Award at the Stevies Awards 2021.
Contact Mobiiworld today for your Magento, Shopify or any custom e-commerce, m-commerce project.
