Madinah, Saudi Arabia — The number of existing electronic-commerce records in Madinah reached 1,834 during the 4th quarter of 2023, registering a slight increase of 2.6 percent from the 1,792 records for the third quarter, according to official figures.
According to the business sector bulletin for the 4th quarter of 2023, issued by the Ministry of Commerce, Madinah was the fourth-ranked city on the list of the top five regions in terms of existing e-commerce records, with approximately 1,800 records.
The existing e-commerce records in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia grew 24 percent during the last three months of last year, reaching approximately 37,400, compared to their numbers during the same period in 2022, which then amounted to about 30,100.
There is a major shift in the Saudi Arabian e-commerce landscape, with 74 percent of online shoppers in the Kingdom expressing intentions to increase their patronage of local platforms over international ones, the latest report from Kearney and Mukatafa suggested.
Saudi Arabia’s large and tech-literate population has made the country an attractive target for online retailers. Consequently, e-commerce has surged in recent years, the report said.
Online buying has been growing in Saudi Arabia in recent years at such speed that it is now estimated to be $970 million and is expected to grow by an average of 6.5 percent per year until 2026.
A report issued by Dublin-based ResearchAndMarkets.com has revealed that the Kingdom was a key Middle Eastern player in courier and parcel delivery market.
Local online retailers are starting to notice a shift in consumer behavior, which has sparked a gold rush in the Middle East’s ecommerce business.
According to a recent study from Dubai CommerCity, the GCC will have the fastest ecommerce growth in the MEASA region between 2019 and 2022, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading with CAGRs of 39 percent and 38 percent, respectively.