Dubai: “Mobile shopping” is coming into its own in the UAE. No, this is not the changing of expensive smartphones every few months that local residents have made a sport of, but the buying of consumer merchandise through e-commerce portals using a variety of mobile gadgets and apps.

Some of the leading e-com portals have confirmed that transactions sealed over mobile gadgets now easily outstrip those through the portals’ primary (static?) site. And with shoppers getting the hang of sealing transactions over their mobiles, including tablets, they are more likely to raise the frequency of their buying sprees than when they have to go through the process of booting up their desktop or notebook computers. A smartphone or tablet sure is handy, as these shoppers — and e-com retailers — will have you know.

“Mobile and tablets transactions represent more than 40 per cent of transactions on Souq.com and is our fastest growing traffic source,” said Wisam Daoud, Chief Technology Officer at Souq.com. “This is well above more mature markets such as the US and largely driven by the massive penetration of mobile devices in the region.”

But, the fact is, mobile e-tailing took its own time in building up scale in the UAE. A contributing factor was that local and regional e-tailers were singularly focused on getting their generic portals popular with the intended audiences. And until they felt comfortable with the number of visitors and transactions secured, getting the portals mobile-enabled was not an immediate priority.

That is changing now. MarkaVIP came out with its mobile app in January, having launched its generic portal in 2010. The take up since has been nothing short of explosive — “The majority in terms of transactions conducted and based on visitors are now through our mobile platform,” said Ahmad Zedan, Vice-President of Marketing at the portal. “Transaction-wise, it’s now gone over 60 per cent since the app introduction.

“There are a lot of bells-and-whistles that need to be in place for an e-tailer to create a mobile-friendly website. It involves a level of sophistication in recognising merchandising categories, user preferences and being a depository of sensitive credit card details.”

While there are the early adopters, other local portals are still waiting on the sidelines before going the mobile way. According to feedback, if the primary portal is still building up recognition and traffic, investing in a mobile interface could be costly. Despite some of the substantial numbers being mentioned as to the size of the e-commerce market in the UAE/GCC, portal vendors want to see some of these projections turn out into actual realizable numbers.

But Daoud is one of those already convinced about mobile e-tailing’s potential and its future. “The tipping point came in 2012 when it became apparent that mobile was a trend that’s going to remain,” he said. “Shortly after, in the first-half of 2013, the first set of mobile applications and a fully mobile-responsive site was released (by Souq.com). We grew over 10 times during the past two years on an already substantial base, and we continue to grow at double-digit rates month-on-month. The fourth quarter is usually our strongest quarter with little seasonality in other months.”