Over half of the products offered as part of this year’s Amazon Prime Day in the UAE will be sold by local innovators, entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses.
The third instalment of the 48-hour annual discount extravaganza is scheduled to take place later this month (June 21-22), with shoppers from the UAE joining over 200 million Prime members on the two-day bargain hunt.
Ronaldo Mouchawar, vice president of Amazon MENA, told Arabian Business: “We have a shop local section and over 50 percent of what we sell comes from these sellers so for us it’s very important that we’re inclusive of all different types of businesses.
“For us it’s about exposing these brands to the customers. Obviously because of the heightened traffic and increased visibility of the products and the number of customers visiting daily, it just expedites your journey in terms of engaging new customers shopping for your product.”
Customers can discover local businesses by category or directly explore the featured local brand owners such as Spanord, Homes R Us, Aquaplus, Caha Capo, and more, on the page.
Originally launched in 2019, Amazon Prime has this year included the UK catalogue to its list of products, as well as those from the US, with the offer of free delivery.
“Obviously in the UAE this is our third version of Prime and over the last couple of years we’ve had exponential growth in the selection of products on the website, the expansion of categories and the types of products you buy on Prime,” said Mouchawar, who revealed the number of Prime members in the UAE has doubled, as they reaped the rewards of the Covid-inspired boom in ecommerce.
Ronaldo Mouchawar, vice president of Amazon MENA
He added that, in some product lines, they have witnessed double-digit growth as the popularity of online shopping shows little sign of diminishing.
According to a report from Kearney Middle East the GCC ecommerce market is forecast to grow from $5.3 billion back in 2015, to a mammoth $50bn by 2025. The report revealed millennials account for over 45 percent of the user base, which is growing at six percent CAGR. It added that food delivery and grocery is anticipated to grow by 30 percent annually through to 2025, while fashion and beauty will witness growth of 18 percent each year over the same period.
Amazon Prime Day is one of two annual promotions run by the company, along with White Friday, which takes place later in the year.
Customers can pick up special deals on electronics, computers and accessories, fashion, beauty, home, kitchen and dining, appliances and more.
Mouchawar revealed that 2,000 permanent and seasonal jobs were created in the UAE in 2020 to ensure the highest levels of service, while the company doubled the number of last-mile delivery stations and sort centre space and increased its fulfilment network capacity by more than 45 percent.
Amazon added over 890,000 square footage of storage and multiple stations in Saudi Arabia, while they have also started shipping to Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman from the UAE. “We’re trying to cover customers in other countries that are very close to us and who fit in the GCC network,” said Mouchawar.
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