Revealed: The UAE reports highest online spend per shopper

The UAE represents the biggest annual spend per online shopper at $1,648 in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region.

This was revealed in the ‘UAE eCommerce Landscape 2020’ report by Dubai Economic Development and Visa. The report also compares UAE to mature and emerging benchmark markets including the US, UK, Australia and Singapore, as well as Brazil, South Africa and Malaysia.

According to the findings of the survey, the UAE continues to maintain a healthy lead in average transaction size compared to both mature and emerging e-commerce markets. The average transaction value in the UAE was $122 in 2019-20, compared to $76 in mature markets, and $22 in emerging markets.

“We’ve seen a number of adoption barriers reduce as the demand for e-commerce and contactless commerce skyrocketed during the lockdown. We call these habit forming behaviours as more consumers and merchants have now experienced the security, convenience and range of online commerce and we anticipate this trend to continue post-pandemic,” said Marcello Baricordi, Visa’s General Manager for Middle East and North Africa. 

“Because of this, businesses that work to adapt to this new world of e-commerce and digital payments have the best chance at both recovery and thriving. All merchants regardless of size must now think beyond just adapting and focus on their medium and long term strategy”, she added.

Also read: Study shows 49% UAE consumers shift to online shopping

According to the report, more than half (58%) of UAE consumers surveyed by Visa in 2020 were found to have abandoned their online shopping cart because of authentication delays or failure. Solutions like Visa’s Click to Pay button help to reduce that friction. Additionally, making online payment the norm and eradicating cash on delivery will reduce the cost, complexity, and risk for online merchants.

While almost every business has been impacted by the pandemic in some way, small businesses have struggled the most. Helping small merchants move online so they can survive challenging market conditions must be a priority for the communities they operate in.

“With the perfect set of supportive factors – from digital-friendly policies to relief measures, high internet, smartphone and social media penetration, and world-class infrastructure – there is no market better equipped than the UAE to take e-commerce and the payments ecosystem to the next level,” Baricordi added.