{"id":1674089,"date":"2016-05-18T13:43:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T20:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/?p=1674089"},"modified":"2016-05-20T12:09:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T19:09:00","slug":"uae-retailers-slow-to-embrace-ecommerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/05\/18\/uae-retailers-slow-to-embrace-ecommerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East report: Omnichannel obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ecommerce market in the Middle East and North Africa is valued at $15b<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sarah Algethami, Gulf News Staff Reporter\"mainLogoSmall\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"UD<\/a>

Retail Pro International’s Rammohan Nair accepting the Partner Award from University of Dubai \u2013 presented by the VC, KHDA Chairman and the Indian Counsel General.<\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Dubai: The retail industry in the UAE is slow to adopt ecommerce, according to industry experts.<\/p>\n

Many retailers are not embracing ecommerce for a number of reasons, such as challenges in delivering goods and being discouraged by the failure of other companies in setting up ecommerce sites, said Rammohan Nair, Director of Strategic Accounts for the Middle East and India at Retail Pro, a global retail management software company. Nair was the moderator for a recent round table discussion with Middle East retail visionaries regarding directions for omnichannel customer experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe addressing system that we have in Dubai is not easy\u2026 also, there have been players in the market that have had high expectations but did not meet them. There are bad experiences that have deterred people,\u201d he said on the sidelines of an event organised by Smart Stores Expo in Dubai on Monday.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that some franchisees in the country are not allowed to set up an ecommerce site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big retailers are franchisees and certain franchisee business agreements don\u2019t allow the franchisee to have their own ecommerce sites,\u201d he said, adding that while consumers in the UAE are buying more online, many still prefer to shop at brick and mortar stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditionally here, shopping malls have been a place that people visit\u2026 visiting a shopping mall in this part of the world is a part of everyone\u2019s life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Colin Beaton, managing director of Limelight Creative Services, a retail consultancy in Dubai, said that consumers\u2019 concerns about cyber security is another reason why retailers are slow to adopt ecommerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UAE is an early adopter of technology for consumer goods. Ecommerce [adoption] is slower here than in some countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ecommerce market in the Middle East and North Africa is valued at $15 billion, according to Nair. The number of ecommerce users in the region is 90 million and only 15 per cent of businesses have an online presence, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] \u2026 half of internet users purchase something on the web at least once [a month],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On his outlook for the local retail industry, Nair said that brick and mortar \u201cis here to stay\u201d and that ecommerce will still be \u201ccomplimentary to the shopping experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ecommerce ] is where people learn more about a product or where should they go and buy it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reposted from Gulf News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ecommerce market in the Middle East and North Africa is valued at $15b Sarah Algethami, Gulf News Staff Reporter Dubai: The retail industry in the UAE is slow to adopt ecommerce, according to industry experts. Many retailers are not … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1674089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1674089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1674089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1674089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1674089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}