A report by the Saudi Central Bank stated that the share of electronic payments in the retail sector rose by 70 per cent in 2023 from 62 per cent the year before. The government has pushed to boost online payments and the fintech sector.
As reported by the Saudi Press Agency, 10.8 billion transactions were processed in 2023 compared to 8.7 billion transactions in 2022. The e-commerce sector is expected to exceed $13.2 billion by 2025, after a 60 per cent surge in online shopping in 2019-20.
Reports suggest close to 91 per cent of Saudi consumers now shop through e-commerce, and close to 14 per cent of money is spent online at least once a day. In 2023, Amazon Saudi also doubled its storage capacity in the year 2023. It had launched a 2.7 million cubic foot fulfilment centre in Riyadh that can house more than 9 million products.
