Noon looks to ride Middle East e-commerce wave

E-commerce platform, Noon, has launched in the UAE, with go live in Saudi Arabia pencilled in for the near future.

“We are excited to deliver orders to our first customers,” says Noon founder and Emaar Properties Chairman Mohamed Alabbar.

“We are proud to take this important first step in our journey, and we are committed to making Noon the region’s Arabic-first e-commerce platform. As digital technologies cause disruptions across industries and geographies, it is important for us to shape a digital marketplace that is relevant to our local markets and serves as a growth platform for brick and mortar retailers.”

Noon is a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund, and various Gulf investors headed up by Alabbar. 

The aim is to tap into a regional e-commerce boom, which has included Amazon’s purchase in March of the Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com for US$580 million. Online sales in the Middle East are set to double to $48.8 billion by 2021, according to BMI Research.