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19 March 2024

iPhone 6 @ Dh2,099, iPad Mini @Dh749...

Many retailers are bundling accessories and loyalty points along with their deals. (Supplied)

Published
By Vicky Kapur

Call it Black Friday, White Friday, Cyber Monday or just another day for the UAE’s gadgets freaks to make a killing, but it seems like either Santa’s come early, or the Gitex Shopper has made a surprise comeback this week for those of us who missed out on a bargain earlier in September.

That’s because several online retailers in the UAE have announced some rather tempting bargains on gizmos both old and new. While the coming weekend promises to bring with it loads of discounts, several ecommerce retailers in the UAE are already offering price-offs and bundle offers with some electronics.

Among those offering the discounts are Jumbo.ae (which launched its shopping portal yesterday), Souq.com, LetsTango.com (which has unveiled a revamped site), SharafDG.com, CarrefourUAE.com, CrazyDeal.ae, and AlShop.com, etc., with some deals running until after the UAE National Day.

Some of the hot deals include:

· iPhone 6 16GB, 4G LTE Gold @ Dh2,099 (Souq.com)



· Samsung Galaxy S5 3G 16GB Black + S-View Case @ Dh1,799 (CarrefourUAE.com)



· TCL LCD 32inch TV @ Dh299 (SharafDG.com)



· Lenovo Yoga 8 Tablet @ Dh499 (Jumbo.ae)



· Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 P3110 8GB @ Dh369 (CrazyDeals.ae)



· Sony PlayStation 4 console @ Dh1,449 (AlShop.com)



The deals listed above are just a small selection to offer a brief on what’s available, with many retailers also bundling accessories and loyalty points along with their deals to make them even sweeter.

The UAE’s retail sector is set to witness an explosion in e-commerce activity over the course of the next few years, experts reckon, with both UAE nationals and expats becoming increasingly tech-savvy.

The UAE was ranked 25th in AT Kearney’s global retail index 2013, a study that ranks countries on their online retail potential. According to the index, the UAE’s e-commerce industry has strong potential to grow in the next five years and rival the markets of developed countries.

The total value of the country’s e-commerce market is estimated at $2.5 billion (Dh9.2bn) in 2014, but this is expected to surge four-fold to $10bn by 2018.

E-commerce is picking up rapidly, at a rate of about 20 per cent per annum, says Vishesh Bhatia, CEO of the Jumbo Group.

“Mobile is booming in this region, and in the UAE, we have the highest smartphone penetration in the world, with almost three smartphones per person,” says Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO & Co-Founder of Souq.com.

In fact, ecommerce on the smartphone platform is growing at a much faster clip than the PC/laptop segment, say experts, and retailers have been quick to leverage that fact by gearing up payment gateways to the mobile medium.

“On Souq.com, we see a much higher conversion rate on mobile than desktop, and we’ve launched this mobile preview with Pepsi in a bid to reward our mobile consumer,” says Mouchawar.

“You’ll notice that Jumbo.ae resembles the design and functionality of a mobile app – that’s by design as we realise that today’s user and shopper is much more comfortable with that format,” says Jumbo’s Bhatia.