Middle East e-commerce market to double to $69bn by 2020

The Middle East e-commerce market is set to double to more than $69bn by 2020, a recent report by online regional payment platform PayFort said.

The UAE’s $27 billion e-commerce market and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s $22 billion market, will be the two largest markets dominating the region by 2020, PayFort’s 2016 State of Payments report found.

The burgeoning Saudi market is fuelled by an increase in online travel bookings, the fastest growing e-commerce sector in the region.

By contrast the UAE saw stronger growth in their events and entertainment marketing sector, which is expected to grow more than any other sector in the region in the run-up to Expo 2020.

The slowest growth was found in online flight bookings in Lebanon, Kuwait and Qatar.

These numbers are expected to grow as more and more people go online.

Social media management platform Hootsuite shows the UAE has the world’s highest social media penetration and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the world’s fastest growing community of social media users.