The Indian consulting firm Redsair's report expects e-retail to play a major role in the growth of the digital economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. .
The report also expected, according to MEED magazine, that the value of this economy will reach about $100 billion in 2023, compared to its value in 2020 of 44 billion and 52 billion in Year 2019.
The growth is due to increased Internet penetration in the region - more than 85% of the population has access to the Internet. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, more than 95% of the population has access to the Internet.
The report believes that the decline in the use of online travel platforms has reduced the size of the overall digital economy in 2020.
By 2023, e-tail will constitute approximately $41 billion (42%) of the digital economy in the MENA region.
The company further adds that the prevalence of e-commerce in the UAE and Saudi Arabia still lags behind other mature countries such as the United States. This may in part be due to the lack of larger ticket investment in this sector, with significant skewness in investment values below $100 million.
