Amazon to buy Middle Eastern online retailer sources Inc has agreed in principle to buy Dubai-based internet retailer, one of the best-known names in the Middle East’s online shopping market, sources familiar with the deal said on Wednesday., which sells consumer electronics, fashion, household items and other goods, lays claim on its website to being the largest e-commerce site in the Arab world.






“Mobile device penetration is quite high” in the Middle East, particularly for smartphones, Jacobson said. “Pair that with a significant population and healthy GDP per capita in countries like Saudi Arabia and in the UAE, and those factors make it an interesting market.”





“Western products and brands which are big in the United States and the UK sell really well,” said Guru Hariharan, a former Amazon manager and now chief executive of retail technology company Boomerang Commerce.

Shoppers “are ready to pay a 50 percent to 100 percent premium on an average basis (particularly) for the high-end brands,” he said. initially launched as an internet auction site and has developed into a retailer and marketplace for third-party vendors.

Interest is growing in the region’s e-commerce market, estimated to be worth $20 billion in 2016. Last year Emirati businessman Mohamed Alabbar teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and other private investors to launch a $1 billion Middle East-focused e-commerce platform.

“Amazon acquired the Chinese e-commerce company ‪ to establish a beachhead in China in the early days of online shopping, and we believe can take lessons from that experience to better manage the growth opportunity in the Middle East,” Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian said in a note.

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