Even if you have Brisbane ecommerce websites selling mostly to regional or national customers, it’s a good idea to keep your eyes open for other markets as well. That’s one of the big benefits of ecommerce, its global reach. You never know when or where the next big opportunity will be.
Middle East
Online shopping has grown 1500% over the last decade in the Middle East, and is rapidly evolving. Payfort released the State of Payments report which details some statistics from the Arab world. For instance, there were $7 billion worth of ecommerce business conducted in the Middle East in 2014. The United Arab Emirates leads the pack with $2.3 billion in market share, followed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan.
Notably, men do most of the shopping. In Egypt, 77% of online shoppers are male, and in Saudi Arabia it’s 59%. Another trend is that the shoppers are in the younger age group primarily, 26-35. The most popular items to buy are electronics, fashion, and airline tickets.
Social Media
Social media’s influence has not gone unnoticed in the Arab world. The main way ecommerce owners interact and reach out to their customers is through Facebook, with 41% of online brands using the service. Instagram comes in second at 23%, Twitter third at 13%. Other social media channels such as LinkedIn and Google+ are under 5%.
Mobile
From a mobile standpoint, the Middle East is still trying to gain traction there, with only 10% of orders being made on a tablet or phone. The other 90% of orders were made on desktops, according to data from PayPal.
So how can your Brisbane eCommerce websites benefit from this information? Well it’s clear that Facebook is the leading platform on which to reach out to potential customers in this region, so using Facebook is one strategy. Furthermore, since the age group that is doing the buying is 26-35, that information is useful so you can target your marketing and branding to that demographic. If your product or store does not naturally lend itself to that age group, there may be other ways to get the wanted demographic involved.
If your niche is travel, electronics or fashion, those are the products and services being bought the most in the Middle East, so you have a head start. But if you are in a related or similar niche, or can reposition your store to relate to one of those popular niches, you might see improvements.
Clearly the Middle East is a rapidly growing and evolving market that you can’t afford to ignore. Use these stats from Payfort to help inform your next strategy sessions when it comes to marketing. Or hire a Brisbane agency specialising in Magento ecommerce to give you a hand, such as Alinga Ecommerce.
