Another "blue ocean" market has arrived, with sales exceeding $100 million in revenue!

Outside of Europe and the United States, cross-border e-commerce sellers are extending their tentacles to other blue ocean markets!

As we all know, the European and American markets are the mainstream markets for cross-border sellers. With more and more entrants, market competition is becoming more and more fierce. Cross-border sellers have begun to target those emerging blue ocean markets with great potential. The "young and wealthy" Middle East site has become a focus area that has attracted much attention. Amazon Global Selling's Chinese seller survey in the second quarter of 2023 showed that compared with the previous quarter, the increase in the willingness of the interviewed sellers to expand the Middle East site ranked first among all sites.

Public data shows that Anker Innovations has achieved outstanding results in the entire Middle East market, with revenue reaching US$110 million in 2022, up 35.71% year-on-year, accounting for 5.35% of global total revenue. Currently in the Middle East market, many sellers, including Anker, have successfully achieved outstanding results.

The Middle East market is "young and rich" , and many sellers have seen a surge in sales

The potential for e-commerce development in the Middle East market cannot be underestimated. Data shows that by 2030, the retail scale of the three countries, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is expected to grow to US$350 billion, among which the UAE ranks 16th in the ease of doing business among major economies in the world, ranking first in the Middle East.

The Middle East market is known as "young and wealthy". In terms of "young", the population under 30 years old in the UAE and Saudi Arabia accounts for 40.4% and 51.1% respectively. Consumers are very receptive to online shopping and are accustomed to ordering various goods through online platforms. In terms of "wealthy", the per capita GDP of the UAE and Saudi Arabia is very high, even higher than many developed countries. The per capita national income of the UAE ranks seventh in the world at 87,700 US dollars. Middle Eastern consumers have strong spending power and are not very sensitive to prices. The average customer unit price of Middle Eastern e-commerce has reached 40 US dollars, which is higher than that of the United Kingdom and the United States.

In addition, the business environment in the Middle East is good. The UAE ranks 16th in the ease of doing business among major economies in the world and first in the Middle East. The UAE ranks 9th in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index and ranks first in its attractiveness to foreign investment among emerging countries.

Whether it is the fast-growing e-commerce market or the superior e-commerce environment, these factors have brought huge opportunities for sellers to expand into the Middle East market.

Ronaldo Mouchawar , Amazon's global vice president and head of the Middle East and North Africa, said, "Many sellers from China have achieved initial success in the Middle East. They come from different categories and different stages of development, but they all meet the changing needs of Middle Eastern consumers through creativity and innovation."

So far, UGREEN's sales on Amazon Middle East have maintained double-digit growth for three consecutive years; UGREEN's Middle East business accounts for more than 6% of UGREEN's overall Amazon business. UGREEN's Nexode series of chargers and power strips have become popular products on the Middle East site, especially during the Double 11 and White Friday promotions.

TYMO is a very young technology brand. Its main category is personal care and its core product is a hair straightening comb. It entered the Middle East station in June 2022. According to local religious culture, it uses nylon hair to replace the pig brown hair commonly used in combs. The product became the number one in the hair straightening comb category in the Middle East station only one month after its launch.

Public data shows that Anker Innovations' revenue in the Middle East market exceeded US$100 million in 2022, up 35.71% year-on-year. Anker also performed well on Amazon Middle East. Faraz Mehdi, Anker's sales director for Middle East, Africa and South Asia, the United Kingdom and Ireland, said that Amazon Middle East is an important part of Anker's global business layout. At present, Anker's main products on Amazon Middle East include cables, headphones, sweepers, etc. In 2023, the sales of high-end models of sweepers increased by about 30% compared with 2022; in addition, during the White Friday in 2023, Anker's brand soundcore true wireless headphones achieved a year-on-year growth of more than 100%.

Chinese sellers have obvious advantages when going to the Middle East

In recent years, trade between China and the Middle East has become increasingly close. In 2022, China's trade with the Middle East reached US$507.152 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%. China remains the largest trading partner of the Middle East. Among them, China's exports to the Middle East reached US$228.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%.

The achievements of sellers such as Anker Innovations and UGREEN in the Middle East market have allowed more people to see the opportunities and possibilities of success in the Middle East. More and more Chinese sellers are accelerating the expansion of cross-border e-commerce business in the Middle East through the cross-border platform Amazon. As of June 2023, the number of Chinese sellers who have launched on Amazon Middle East has increased by more than 40% compared with the same period last year.

This is closely related to Amazon's increased investment in the Middle East market in recent years. As of now, Amazon has more than 10 operation centers, 65 self-operated and third-party delivery sites, and a network of small and medium-sized enterprise distribution service providers in the Middle East and North Africa. Take the UAE as an example. Last year, Amazon's largest operation center in the UAE was officially opened, increasing Amazon's storage capacity in the UAE by 70%, allowing sellers to store larger and richer products; this year, Amazon also plans to open its most technologically advanced operation center in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi, UAE, to further promote logistics innovation and empower sellers.

In addition, in 2023, Amazon officially launched the "10,000 Stores Launch" plan for the Middle East site , which will provide new sellers with full-link support such as entry, compliance, product selection, and branding. In the next three years, it will support more than 10,000 Chinese sellers to settle in Amazon's Middle East site every year.

When it comes to exporting to the Middle East, Chinese cross-border sellers have obvious advantages. In detail, Chinese sellers mainly have the following advantages:

1. Category advantage. There are not many light industrial products in the Middle East, which mainly rely on imports, especially daily necessities and consumer goods. In addition, the local demand for consumer electronics, furniture, personal care products, etc. is also very large. These are categories that are relatively lacking in local production, and they happen to be the advantage categories of Chinese sellers.

2. First-mover advantage: The penetration rate of e-commerce in the Middle East is very high. Under this background, brands that have entered the Middle East earlier can occupy the minds of local consumers to a large extent and gain a first-mover advantage.

3. Scale advantage. Amazon Middle East Station is one of the 19 stations in the world. Many Chinese sellers have accumulated a lot of experience in mature stations such as the United States, Japan, and Europe. Sellers can easily form scale advantages by copying these experiences to the Middle East market and then making localized improvements.

Song Xiaojun, vice president of Amazon China and head of Amazon Global Selling's Chinese seller development, said that many Chinese products are popular among consumers in the Middle East. At the same time, in the Middle East, such as in the UAE, there are not many local manufacturers. Now more than 50% of retail purchases come from foreign sellers, which can be said to be a huge business opportunity for Chinese sellers.

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