Saudi e-commerce market will reach $13.3 billion in 2015, according to research published by a Dubai-based web design and development company PixHear.
The profits will come from 25 percent of Saudi Internet users who are already active in e-commerce, the report said.
It noted that an online retail market is considered to be developed if at least 8.5 percent of a country's total retail is done online, such as in Germany where online retail accounts for 11.7 percent of its total retail trade, or Australia with 8.9 percent.
And Saudi Arabia is getting closer to this target, with the Kingdom's online retail expected to account for up to eight percent of its total retail market in 2015, leaving the US (7.1 percent), Japan (6.8 percent) and France (6.7 percent) behind.
The study added that Arabic is the dominant language in the e-commerce space, while 55 percent of online consumer are from Riyadh province and 40 percent from Makkah province.
Moreover, the report pointed out that in spite of initiatives to increase the use of credit cards, 75 percent of online consumers still prefer cash on delivery (COD) as the dominant payment method.
Electronics are still the leading category for spending, in line with the previous studies by various analysts.
Despite being preferred to foreign counterparts, regional retailers still claim a minor share of the highly-fragmented Saudi e-commerce market, with Souq.com occupying 13 percent, Sukar eight percent, and Namshi seven percent.
Another study said statistics show that residents of Saudi Arabia are incredibly active on the Internet and social media sites.
As well as Internet usage, Saudi Arabia's population is also incredibly active on a variety of social media sites.
The majority of the population has never known life without the Internet. The number of text messages sent each day now exceeds the human population. More than 60 percent of the Saudi population are under the age of 24 and have never known the world without the Internet.
For example, YouTube features more users from Saudi Arabia than any other country in the world.
Social media and the Internet have proven not to simply be a trend – rather they represent a shift in how the world communicates and operates.
The Saudi Gazette
11 August
