Amazon’s Growing Foothold in the Middle East

Amazon’s Growing Foothold in the Middle East

Amazon is aggressively expanding its e-commerce business in the Middle East, multiplying product launches with the introduction of home services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in July 2020, payment processing services in the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in December 2020, and the launch of Amazon Prime in Saudi Arabia in January 2021.

The American tech giant has been focusing on entering emerging markets to fuel its growth, eyeing these markets' rapid mobile Internet adoption, lack of legacy infrastructure and growing number of the population entering the middle class.

In MENA, Amazon's acquisition of Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com in 2017 marked its entry into the region and triggered a massive expansion push into the Middle East.

Amazon's moves in the Middle East

Since its acquisition of the largest commerce platform in the Arab, Amazon has been working on building up its regional offering and boosting its visibility, a strategy that resulted in numerous rebranding moves.

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Souq.com UAE became Amazon.ae in May 2019 and Souq.com KSA became Amazon.sa in June 2020. Similarly, Souq.com's payment platform Payfort was rebranded to Amazon Payment Services and made its debut on the Amazon ecosystem two months ago. Services provided include additional instalment plans, protection against fraud,