The Middle East e-commerce market has enjoyed significant growth over the past couple of years. Driven in part by the pandemic lockdowns, consumers and businesses have turned to digital channels to provide and purchase goods and services online.
For consumers, online channels provided a convenient, easy and safe way for them to conduct day-to-day activities such as banking and grocery shopping. According to UNCTAD, online business-to-consumer (B2C) sales for the world’s top 13 companies stood at $2.9 trillion in 2020. This growth was also evident in the Middle East where e-commerce sales reached $69.2 billion in 2021, from $4.3 billion just four years ago.
As for the business-to-business (B2B) space, the e-commerce market growth was even bigger. The segment was valued at $14.9 trillion globally in 2020, which was five times higher than that of the B2C market. In the Middle East and North Africa, the B2B e-commerce market is poised for a massive upswing and is forecasted reach $49 billion by the end of 2022.
Fundamental to the growth and success of e-commerce platforms is cloud computing. The technology enables businesses with the scalability, speed and flexibility need to keep up with changing customer demands.
A keen supporter of the e-commerce space, Alibaba Cloud – the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, offers a plethora of innovations aimed at supporting international and regional businesses to effectively embrace digital platforms.
“Alibaba Cloud serves more than 4 million customers worldwide,” said Phillip Liu, General Manager of the Middle East and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “Our solutions and services have been applied to many of the world’s top sporting events and entertainment shows, and has successfully brought immersive experience to millions of people during the pandemic.”
Over the past few years, Alibaba Cloud has doubled down on its infrastructure services in emerging markets including the Middle East and the e-commerce market is among its key focus areas.
“According to a joint study by Dubai Economy and Visa, the UAE is currently the most advanced e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa, revealing an estimated annual growth of 23% between 2018 and 2022. While customers continue to enjoy the ‘destination shopping’ aspect of visiting a physical store, Covid-19 has encouraged many people to try e-commerce for the first time. This jump in online users is not expected to reduce. Our cloud technology capabilities remove pain points and barriers for businesses large and small and especially across the e-commerce space,” explained Liu.
Demonstrating its continued commitment to the region, Alibaba Cloud recently signed a partnership agreement with B2B eMarketplace Tradeling to accelerate cross-border trade and boost the digital economy in MENA. Alibaba Cloud and Tradeling seek to create a smooth and seamless B2B experience for sellers from both regions and provide intelligent solutions for all of Tradeling’s customers while collaborating in running seller recruitment campaigns from beginning to end.
Alibaba Cloud, Tradeling join hands to bolster cross-border trade in MENA
The partnership will see Alibaba Cloud deploy its advanced and secure cloud technologies to strengthen Tradeling’s logistical capabilities, enabling it to further support local and international businesses to widen their reach in MENA via its online platform.
“This collaboration presents an attractive opportunity to China-based firms as well as other international sellers to list their products on Tradeling’s platform and fulfil local demand. Similarly, our partnership will enable MENA based sellers and manufacturers to list their products on Alibaba.com,” said Liu.
Looking ahead, Liu emphasised the importance of the Middle East for Alibaba Cloud, highlighting the vast opportunities in the region.
“The Middle East is an exciting place to be at the moment,” said Liu. “The region is dynamic, innovative and adapts very quickly to changing market conditions. From a technology perspective, the Middle East is already technologically poised to reap the rewards of the digital transformation and we plan to take advantage of the digital capabilities in the region with major announcements coming up in 2022 across important sectors.”
He revealed that in addition to the partnership with Tradeling, Alibaba Cloud also has several key partnerships in the region including WEMART, one of the largest Asian supermarket chains in the Middle East and Qatar-based systems integrator Mannai Corporation to showcase its technology and infrastructure. The company also plans to announce more regional partnerships within the year.
“Alibaba Cloud will be expanding its footprint in the region by leveraging its digital resources to businesses requiring technical support for 2022. We are excited with the digital opportunities in the region and we are committed to positioning MENA as a key market for building strong long-term partnerships,” said Liu.
