The Power of Electronic Money

Online shopping trend in the Emirates is burgeoning swiftly as the UAE consumers spent quarter a billion dollars already making online purchases. This surging inclination is expected to reach $2bn mark by the end of 2016 in this region. Emirati consumers are becoming more tech-savvy and using their smartphones and personal computers for online shopping, as it is being followed in the rest of the developed world. And this trend is going to continue this festive season too as an average UAE consumer is expected to spend over $3000 dollars according to a survey led by Souqalmal.com.

 

 

Cashless Emirates Shops Online

Festive and holiday season around the corner, and shopping trend leaning towards online buying, many customers are expected to spend their money via credit cards. It shows how cashless the UAE customers are becoming. Souqalmal.com, a single platform which allows interested online shoppers to buy and compare products online carried a survey recently, which showed that 71% consumers prefer using credit cards for online shopping. Since the non-national population is composed of people coming from different countries, backgrounds and religions and the UAE itself welcomes everyone, this very convenience is comforting for everyone.

Another premier reason for the local consumers to prefer online shopping is its efficiency, safety and convenience. Consumers rating positive factors for the online shopping responded with 85% believe online payments are secure, 82% rate them convenient, 85% believe in price per value by browsing through the products and 80% consider the website friendly factor. According to a research firm Euromonitor International, Amazon is the most famous international site among the online consumers, while French retail giant Carrefour takes up more than 20% share of internet retailing.

Foreigners are the Real Consumers

Despite having rich natural resources, UAE economy does not rely heavily on them. Unlike few developing economies which rank above UAE are mainly constituted of remittances, but the Emirates’ builds up on construction and management sector, and relies heavily on expatriate workers. According to the compilation by National Bureau of Statistics, 90% of UAE population is comprised of foreign nationals. After recent visa relaxations for the foreigners and the country’s Free Trade Zones offering 100% foreign ownership and taxes coming out to be zilch, more opportunities are there for grab for the non-nationals. As the economic recovery is in the rebounding phase, so the new outlined construction projects majorly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and foreign influx would be the key protagonists for few years to come to get the economy back on track. A perfect example of this is that one quarter of foreign population will be spending 25% of their festive budget calling their relatives and friends world wide – directly bringing in revenue for the local telecommunication companies.