Dubai: Souq.com, an Amazon-owned company, has said that the number of items sold during its annual White Friday sale more than doubled compared to last year, making it the biggest shopping event in the site’s history.
In 2016, the Dubai-based online retailer reportedly sold a record 1.2 million items over the course of its four-day sale, meaning that this year it sold at least 2.4 million products.
Around one million deals were on offer during the event, whilst 18 items were sold per second during peak times, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, over 70 per cent of customers across the region did their shopping through mobile devices.
Almost half of the payments transacted during the event were made electronically instead of cash. This is the highest Souq has seen in the region to date, the statement said. This surge is a testament to customers’ rising confidence in online shopping and online payments, they said.
Souq had invested heavily in local operations in the UAE, KSA and Egypt by expanding its fulfillment center (FC) facilities, upgrading its technology, increasing its local resources and adding to its pickup points ahead of White Friday to prepare for the high volume of orders. Hundreds of full-time and temporary FC associates were added ahead of the event to provide an impeccable shopping experience to customers, Souq said in its statement.
Nevertheless, Souq customers have experienced delays in delivering orders. “Due to the high White Friday Sale demand,” said an email to one Dubai resident from Souq that was shared with Gulf News, “your expected delivery is between Saturday, December 2, and Thursday, December 7.”
In a statement to Gulf News in response to these delays, Souq was quick highlight the heavier demand that e-commerce sites face in such situations.
“The magnitude of volume online is not comparable to any shop, due to checkout times, traffic, [and] parking. Online you simply don’t constrain demand,” they said.
Commenting on the numbers, Ronaldo Mouchawar, Co-Founder and CEO, Souq, said: “We welcomed seven times more new customers during this shopping event compared to an average day. Our teams and thousands of sellers worked hard to make White Friday a great event for our customers – with over a million deals in total. It is exciting to see that so many customers used our convenient online payment options and our mobile app. Our teams will keep…adding more products and selection, improving delivery times and offering first-rate customer service.”
