Black Friday 2021 in MENA to be a $7.2 bn opportunity: ArabyAds report Share via

The Black Friday opportunity in MENA is expected to be about $7.2 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) for the month of November 2021, which makes up around 21% of the overall e-commerce estimates for the region this year, predicts ArabyAds, a leading e-commerce marketing platform in the MENA region.

The “ArabyAds E-commerce Guide 2021,” the first of its kind in the region, estimates fashion to lead the spending followed closely by electronics.

According to the report, while fashion will see consumers spending around $2.5 billion during Black Friday, electronics will be a close second with an expected spending of $2.2 billion. Shoppers will splurge $ 1.5 billion each on Grocery & Personal care products and Furniture & Home Décor category. The report said that the Toys & Kids category is estimated to rake in business worth around $0.7 billion.

For this research, ArabyAds analyzed data from over $13.1 million transactions with around $31.6 million products accumulating to a total transaction value of more than $1.51billion. The company also monitored data across 136 brands in the top 5 verticals – Fashion, Electronics, Groceries, Toys, and Lifestyle with over 10,000 sample surveys across eight countries.

Moreover, the report said that KSA and UAE would be the top two countries in the MENA region where shoppers will spend the most on shopping during this year’s Black Friday, followed by Egypt and other countries. According to the detailed e-commerce report, shoppers in KSA will spend around $2.7 billion in November, followed by $2.3 billion in UAE and $0.83 billion in Egypt during Black Friday shopping.

“I am very confident that Black Friday 2021 will be a much bigger opportunity than previous years as our market & industry have grown, and customers have evolved & adopted e-commerce as a way of life. I firmly believe that our region belongs to mobile-first customers, and so our marketing strategy needs to be mobile-first as well,” said Mahmoud Fathy, CEO of ArabyAds.

Another interesting finding of the report said that the average per capita spend in the UAE and KSA is expected to reach $450 on Black Friday 2021, which is substantially high against the global average of $300. “However, the average can be deceiving, owing to the economic disparity between the countries. While some GCC nationals might have an average spend of over $1000, they may also have counterparts that spend as little as $100 and so the average of $450.”

ArabyAds E-commerce Guide 2021 contains an in-depth analysis of the MENA market size, demographics, consumer habits, and the e-commerce trends of the post-pandemic world.  The report also covers country and category-wise break up to guide your marketing campaigns. This includes well-researched insights for each of the three big countries that drive the MENA E-commerce revolution. Click here to download the complete report.