An exploratory study on e-tailing in United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The advent of the internet has dramatically changed the retail landscape. Online shopping is a thriving market, it is assumed that retail e-commerce sales worldwide will be doubled between 2016 and 2020. Online purchases or e-tailing has been increasing annually since last several years, but it accounts a small percentage of total retail sales. With the potential for growth being relatively unlimited in e-tailing mode, many online businesses have emerged during the recent past. Today, the conventional retailers are questioning whether their current brick and mortar business model will continue to be successful or to meet the new challenges they should adapt to click and brick model i.e. adding the e-tailing mode to their conventional physical store model. They found that e-tailing has already evolved and accepted at large in many developed countries but the culture of e-tailing is yet at its infancy in the developing countries and regions like Middle East. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and scope of online business (e-tailing) in United Arab Emirates; with special reference to Dubai- a world-class destination for retailers and shoppers.