Amazon and Souq on Wednesday announced the launch of Amazon.ae, which replaces souq.com nearly two years after Amazon’s $580 million acquisition of the e-commerce platform.
“Today marks a proud day for Souq and Amazon, a day that we have been working towards since the two companies came together in 2017,” said Ronaldo Mouchawar, co-founder of Souq and vice president of Amazon Mena.
Hello World. Your SOUQ is now https://t.co/2qqhfIqnP9
Download the app now and enjoy shopping.
Click here https://t.co/gpVLx1Ntx0 pic.twitter.com/yeA9VzGydI— Amazon AE (@souq) May 1, 2019
An email that I received today contains the announcement…
In 2005, the first item ever ordered on Souq was delivered to a customer in Dubai. In the years that followed, we have worked hard to continually enhance your shopping experience by adding millions of products, offering faster delivery and consistently focusing on great value.
There have been many milestones for Souq over the past 13 years and today, we have another to share with you. We are proud to announce that we are now Amazon.ae.
Amazon.ae brings together the best of Souq’s local know-how and Amazon’s global retailing experience, and features over 30 million products, including those previously available on Souq and five million products from Amazon US. Customers shopping on Amazon.ae will enjoy the same commitment to great prices as on Souq, fast and reliable delivery, and a range of convenient payment options. For the first time ever at Amazon, customers will have the option of shopping in Arabic on both the Amazon App and the website.
Our team in the region has grown to over 3,600 people, and each and every one of us is thrilled to invite you to join us on this journey. We consider this day one, and will continue to innovate on your behalf with the addition of many new services and product offerings in the future, making it easier and faster to receive your orders.
We look forward to serving you as Amazon.ae. Thank you for being our customer.
Customers who visit the Souq site are redirected to the new domain with a message from Mr Mouchawar, who founded Souq in 2005, initially as an auction site linked to internet portal Maktoob.
In the message, Mr Mouchawar says that Amazon.ae will “bring together the best of Souq’s local know-how and Amazon’s global retailing experience, and features over 30 million products, including those previously available on Souq and five million products from Amazon US”.
He added that the team in the region “has grown to over 3,600 people, and each and every one of us is thrilled to invite you on this journey”, and said many new products and services will be added in the future.
For the first time at Amazon, Arabic language has been introduced to both the mobile app and the website.
Souq has been attracting 45 million visits per month with its product categories including electronics, fashion, perfumes and beauty, home and kitchen, and supermarket.
With localised operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Souq opened a new 40,000-square-metre fulfilment centre in Dubai South in September.
The region’s e-commerce sector is growing at the fastest pace globally, with online sales expected to double to $48.8bn by 2021, according to a report by Fitch Solutions Macro Research. E-commerce spending in the UAE is expected to increase by 170 per cent to $27.1bn in 2022, from $9.7bn in 2017.
