UAE most prepared country for B2C e-commerce in Middle East, says UN

The UAE remains the most prepared country for B2C e-commerce in the Middle East region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to the latest UN report.

Other regional countries in the top 10 include Oman, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Bahrain, Jordan, and Iraq, said the UNCTAD’s Business-to-consumer E-Commerce Index 2020 released on Wednesday.

Globally, the UAE was ranked 37th on the index, slipping nine slots from its previous position.

Kearney Middle East has projected that the growth of the GCC e-commerce sector will be accelerated by the effects of Covid-19 to reach $50 billion (Dh183.5 billion) by 2025. It predicted that e-commerce will become the main source of growth in the retail sector over the next five years, which has grown from a mere $5 billion in 2015 to about $24 billion in 2020.

Globally, Switzerland replaced the Netherlands at the top of UNCTAD's Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Index 2020, which ranks 152 countries on their readiness to engage in online commerce.

Denmark, Singapore, UK, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Hong Kong make up the top 10 countries. While the least prepared countries belong to Africa, led by Niger, Chad, Burundi, Comoros and DR Congo.

The UNCTAD said last year that e-commerce sales hit $25.6 trillion globally in 2018, up eight per cent from 2017.

Europe remains by far the most prepared region for e-commerce, but wide gaps with countries with the lowest level of readiness need to be addressed by tackling weaknesses in those nations to spread the benefits of digital transformation to more people.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com