E-commerce in Bahrain

E-commerce

E-commerce market

The Middle East is a growing market in transition. E-commerce is beginning to come into its own as economies look to diversify away from petrochemicals to more sustainable industries. In Bahrain, the segment has been expanding rapidly over the past few years. In 2017, there was an estimated US$ 651 million in online sales. Airline tickets, electronics and jewellery are particularly successful online retail categories. Major global e-commerce websites, such as Amazon, eBay and Aliexpress are the most popular ones in Bahrain, ranking ahead of regional e-commerce retailers like Souq, Namshi or Alshop.  Given the small size of the population, their share of the regional total e-commerce revenue is also small, especially when compared to Middle Eastern giants like the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The market still faces some challenges in the region. A significant one is that a lot of online shoppers are still reluctant to give away personal information online, which is why the most popular payment method in the country is cash upon arrival. With most of the population connected to the internet on their mobile phones, 56% of online shoppers use their smartphones to place orders. Also, with the high number of social media users, small informal businesses like Instagram stores are very popular in the country.