Dubai: The e-commerce industry in The Kingdom during the Covid-19 pandemic has witnessed a major transformation in consumer behaviour, particularly with technologies and online platforms gaining prominence in the country.
Ibrahim Mohammad Al-Saad, the Founder of Ajda, in a statement, said the consumer market has hit the roof with people in lockdown turning to the internet to make their purchases. Not only did volumes grow; the profile of goods being shipped changed, with more consumers ordering even the largest purchases online. In response, logistics companies, fast-tracked their growth and development strategies, while making significant investments in e-commerce, people and assets to cope with demand. Hence, transforming the last mile solutions have been crucial during the COVID-19 crisis. Ajda helped the logistics companies in optimizing the operations to gain greater supply chain and visibility key in real-time from the point of origin to final destination.
Dubai: Moving ahead, Al-Saad noted that the total e-commerce revenue across all product categories was $6.13 billion in 2017, and is expected to grow to $9.41 billion by 2021 with user penetration expected to hit 92.5 per cent by 2025. Therefore, the e-commerce supply chain, logistics and online payments or Financial Technologies (FinTech) landscape in Saudi Arabia is changing, and e-commerce is shifting in significant ways that are important to learn the rapidly changing industry as well as the dynamic demands of customers and the expansion of trade.
Established in 2016, Ajda aims at helping companies and consumers with expert services in e-commerce, logistics and FinTech adoption that assures high-quality standards and cost-effective rates. The companies can also make transactions, and manage their last-mile delivery serving e-commerce, B2B and B2C. “Our professional approach and logistics expertise ensure that every move, regardless of size, is handled with precision and urgency. We provide reliable land transportation services throughout the Kingdom. We have cultivated a reputation of trusted service providers and with trained professionals, reliable processes and advanced technology ensure secure, speedy and on-time logistics & FinTech services,” he added.
The Saudi Arabian freight and logistics industry is a large and dynamic industry, strongly supported by the state-led investment of around $ 36 billion last year alone in logistics infrastructure including rail, maritime, roads and airports which in turn also aimed at broadening the role of private sector investment. Today, the volume of the logistics market in Saudi Arabia is $ 18 billion, which is 55 per cent of the total GCC logistics services market. By 2020, the value of this sector is expected to be $25 billion, making it the fastest-growing market worldwide.
Al-Saad stated that the FinTech Saudi as well has gained huge popularity that inversely affected the e-commerce and logistics sector. Impacting the world of e-commerce, the sudden rise and equally rapid evolution of online and mobile e-commerce gave rise to FinTech and a wave of new payment methods. FinTech has dramatically shifted the way people and enterprises use and move money in the Kingdom. According to Statista, active FinTech’s grew by a compound annual growth rate of 147 per cent between 2018 and 2020 in Saudi Arabia. As the region rise in e-commerce, the number of operating FinTech has increased three-fold in a year, from 20 in 2019 to 60 this year.
Likewise, Statista revealed that Saudi Arabia is building up a FinTech market that is expected to reach transaction values of more than $ 33 billion by 2023. FinTech Saudi is an initiative launched by SAMA, in partnership with the CMA, to support the development of the FinTech industry in Saudi Arabia.
With the world adjusting to a new normal, the safe and efficient movement of goods is at the very heart of economic recovery. “We at Ajda are capitalizing in our experience to create a crossover between e-commerce, logistics/transportation and FinTech industry,” he said, adding “By the end of 2020, we delve in launching digital applications in logistics and transportation with functions to optimize our existing logistics service and solutions. Meanwhile, we are in a process of unleashing the e-commerce trading platform to buy and sell a variety of products that fulfill the needs of the Saudi market as well as FinTech services to create a new and innovated payment method helping companies grow by contributing to the transformation of the Saudi economy towards the digitalizing era, which is in-line with the Saudi Vision”.
