The UAE – and Dubai especially – is a place of convenience. There’s drive-thru pharmacies, food deliveries on tap, and you can even get your brows threaded from the comfort of your own home.
And a just-announced project looks set to make our lives even easier.
A new online shopping option is set to arrive in the Middle East next year, and it’ll offer same-day delivery – so no more needing to order things weeks in advance to guarantee delivery to Dubai in time for that party.
Noon.com, which will launch in January, is a US$1 billion (Dhs3.67b) venture which will sell 20 million products.
There’ll be categories for fashion, electronics, books, health and beauty, toys, sporting goods and more – kind of like a hyper-local version of Amazon.
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The e-commerce site, which was announced this week by Dubai businessman (and Emaar chairman) Mohamed Alabbar, will have distribution centres in Saudi’s Jeddah and Riyadh, as well as a 3.5-million-square-foot warehouse in Dubai.
It’ll be the largest site of its kind in the region, and Alabbar described it as “nothing less than a quantum leap in retail in the region and the world”.
“We want to turn the e-commerce market in the Middle East upside down,” he said.
One of the most exciting parts is the same-day delivery option, thanks to the site’s in-house express delivery service, and Noon will also have a mobile app.
The site, which is funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and another group led by Alabbar, says it will have 10 times more products than its market rivals.
“Our prices will be very competitive and we will offer a great customer experience,” said Noon CEO Fodhil Benturquia. “We will deliver authentic products on time and meet customer expectations. Physical stores also have the opportunity to sell on our platform.”
Noon isn’t the only company looking to bring super-express delivery to the Emirates either – Net-A-Porter has also signalled a move into that market.
Yoox Net-A-Porter Group CEO Federico Marchetti told Business of Fashion last month that the designer e-commerce portal is planning to offer same-day delivery in Dubai.
There’s no confirmed date yet as to when that might happen, but Marchetti also revealed the company will roll out the express delivery option in Tokyo and Milan too.
We’ll keep you posted…
Image: Getty
