An increasing number of online shoppers in the UAE are ready to pay more for same-day delivery, new research suggests.
In its Total Retail Middle East 2016 report, consultancy PwC said that 63 percent of those surveyed in the UAE said they were willing to shell out more money for products to be delivered on the same day.
This compared to 54 percent of respondents in Saudi Arabia, the report found.
In November, UAE e-commerce firm Souq.com began started offering same-day delivery in Dubai and plans to expand the service to other major markets in the first half of next year. In the US, online retailers such as Amazon are ramping up expedited shipping and same-day delivery services ahead of Christmas Eve.
While the frequency of online shopping in Middle Eastern markets increased compared to last year, the report said that 10 percent of UAE shoppers claimed to have ten years’ online shopping experience compared to an average of five percent across the whole of the Middle East.
All those surveyed from the UAE said they owned a mobile phone, while seven percent of the respondents across the Middle East region said they did not own a phone.
Meanwhile, 37 percent of online shoppers in the UAE said that after-sales service mattered to them, compared to 31 percent in the Middle East, while 27 percent favoured “click & collect” services against 22 percent for the region.
The report also found that UAE consumers were more likely to opt for a retailer based on their stock availability (24 percent compared to a regional average of 18 percent).
However, 22 percent of respondents from the UAE said they were “more concerned about online security risks” against 14 percent in the region, which helped prompt 46 percent to use a debit card for shopping compared to a regional average of 25 percent.
The Middle East – one of the fastest-growing populations in the world – will see its population doubling to 500 million by 2100 with half of them aged under 24, the report said.
“Because of these demographic shifts, compounded with the other seismic changes provoked by the global megatrends, the Middle Eastern retail sector, is no doubt undergoing a change, a revolution, albeit at a different pace compared to the more developed countries,” Norma Taki, retail and consumer partner at PwC Middle East, said.
The survey is based on feedback from 23,000 online shoppers in 25 countries, including over 1,000 consumers in the Middle East.
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