It’s impossible to talk about the benefits of advanced technology and not mention E-commerce. Buying and selling products online, from any part of the world, has never been easier. Just by typing in a few keywords, scrolling through the available options, and finally clicking that checkout button, you already have a shipment that is set to arrive in the next few days.
The GCC has quite a few online shopping websites, and the biggest one to date is Souq.com. Souq.com is a one stop shop for people who want to find great deals without the hassle of going out to look for them. Recently, the leading E-commerce website of the GCC has been acquired by the international giant, Amazon. Another online shopping website that is set to launch soon is Noon.com, proving once again that technology has transformed the gulf, even in the area of shopping.
YouGov, one of the world’s leading market research companies, has recently conducted a study on the online shopping habits of Local GCC millennials and the results were quite surprising.
The survey found that 83% of Local GCC Millennials have shopped online in the past 6 Months, with 42% shopping on local websites and 41% on international sites. The research found that the most likely items to be purchased online by GCC millennials are mobile phones (20%) and computer software/hardware (20%), followed by electronic equipment (19%), games (17%) and e-books (13%). The least likely items to be purchased online are flowers (3%), pet related products (3%), music (4%), sporting goods (6%), hardcopy books (6%) and health products (7%). YouGov found that the most common barriers to online shopping were related to not being comfortable with making online payments (41%), high shipping charges (37%) and long delivery times (34%). Among female GCC millennials barriers also included a lack of cash on delivery options (33%), uncertainty of authenticity of products found online (30%) and a lack of information about the return process (20%).
