Guide
Middle East marketplace insights and new ASIN advertising tactics
Discover sales opportunities in the Middle East through insights into the marketing landscape, consumer behavior, and category preferences, plus effective advertising strategies for new ASINs in this growing digital retail destination.
The Middle East marketplace exhibits distinct market characteristics and regional consumer behavior patterns. Over half of consumers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia report shopping online weekly, with higher-than-average online transaction values. To succeed in this marketplace, it’s important to understand and implement marketplace-appropriate advertising strategies that will help effectively enhance your advertising performance.
The Middle East marketing environment
The Middle East e-commerce market reached AED 106.5 billion in 2023, with projections suggesting continued growth opportunities in the coming years.1
Research shows strong online shopping engagement across Middle Eastern marketplaces. Shoppers in the UAE averaged $122 per transaction, while shoppers in Qatar showed average transactions of $260.2 Additionally, over half of consumers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia engage in weekly online shopping.
Middle East holiday calendar
| January | February | March |
| Valentine's Day Ramadan* | Eid al-Fitr* | |
| April | May | June |
| Prime Day | ||
| July | August | September |
| Prime Day | Back to school | |
| October | November | December |
| Diwali | White Friday Double 11 |
*The dates vary from year to year
Consumer personas in the Middle East
The Middle East region has a large and growing young population, with a median age below 35.3 This represents vitality and opportunity for brands advertising in the region. Furthermore, female participation in online shopping continues to rise, making women a primary consumer force in the region. The UAE and Saudi Arabia now see balanced gender representation among online shoppers.4
Economic factors influence shopping decisions, with 71% of respondents regularly seeking optimal pricing.5 Additionally, 67% of Middle Eastern consumers consider delivery efficiency when selecting sellers.6
Digital engagement remains strong across the region. Social media usage continues to grow, with UAE users spending an average of four hours daily on social platforms.7
Category preferences in the Middle East
UAE marketplace
Key growth categories show strong performance in the UAE marketplace. Fashion, electronics, media, toys and hobbies, food and personal care, and home appliance categories help drive marketplace growth. Consumer interest expands into emerging categories, with home essentials and laundry care products seeing increased demand.
Saudi Arabia marketplace
Fashion leads category performance, followed by beauty and personal care products and electronics. Home goods continue to gain consumer interest. Generation Z helps drive electronics sales in this marketplace. Overall, Saudi shoppers value quality brands while seeking competitive prices.
Start with Sponsored Products
For new sellers, Sponsored Products offers an effective entry point into advertising. This solution provides three key advantages:
- Simple setup
- Straightforward management
- Automated Targeting
Sponsored Products helps create ads without design requirements. The self-service format uses existing product detail pages, eliminating the need for additional creative assets.
Access campaign controls through the advertising console. Manage multiple campaigns and ad groups while maintaining control over bids and budgets.
Save time with automation features that help identify relevant shopping queries and products. This approach helps reach audiences without manual keyword or product targeting setup.
Tactic recommendations
Based on your advertising goals, you can create a structured Sponsored Products campaign to help drive impressions and sales. View recommendations based on the goals below:
Goal: Validate relevancy and drive traffic while increasing visibility
Recommended approach: Use automatic targeting with broad matches, close matches, substitute products, and complementary products. Apply negative keywords and products to help refine performance.
Goal: Increase visibility through relevant shopping queries
Recommended approach: Create manual keyword campaigns using broad match, phrase match, and exact match types. Apply negative keywords to help optimize reach.
Goal: Expand product discovery and increase visibility through complementary placements
Recommended approach: Implement manual product targeting through product and category targeting options. Use negative targeting to help focus your advertising investment.
Review product indexing status
Before launching ads, review your product indexing status. If you're unfamiliar with the Arabic language, you can use manual product targeting to identify relevant ASINs and verify the system’s indexing.
When system-suggested ASINs show high relevance, consider launching automatic targeting campaigns to help expand reach.
When system-suggested ASINs show low relevance, review your product detail page content optimization. Use Brand Analytics and other resources to help identify relevant shopping queries for your content.
Sources
1 Wamda, How COVID-19 Unlocked the Adoption of E-commerce in the MENA Region, 2021.
2 Statista, Average spend per online payment transaction in the United Arab Emirates, 2020; QATAR E-COMMERCE OPPORTUNITIES, 2020,
International Trade Administration.
3 Median age, CIA The World Factbook, 2023.
4 DataReportal, THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 2023.
5 Median age, CIA The World Factbook, 2023.
6 PWC, Global Consumer Insights Survey 2022 Middle East findings, 2022.
7 Zawya, Revealed: How much time UAE residents spend online, on social media, 2022.
8 ArabianBusiness, Ramadan 2024: E-commerce transactions surge 23%, GMV up by 13%: Market study, 2024.