In Pictures: Dubai’s CommerCity is all geared for ecommerce – and speedy delivery

When Dubai launched its latest free zone dedicated to host ecommerce businesses, it was clear about one detail – the location had to be near the Dubai International Airport. That meant being right in the heart of the city. The Dubai CommerCity has delivered that to perfection, taking up 2 million square feet in the Umm Ramool locality.

The focus is on speed – both on the pickup and delivery side. A shipment coming into Dubai International? The ecommerce business can pick it up within 90 minutes and start on the dispatch side of things.

Same-day delivery? Consider it as a given. Optimum speed on delivery will be standard practice for businesses at Dubai CommerCity. The target is to ensure handover to customer within 45 minutes in Dubai and same-day delivery when it comes to orders from the northern emirates or Abu Dhabi.

The CommerCity authority is packing multiple incentives to get potential clients looking closely at what the free zone has to offer. There will be no processing fees for ecommerce orders of up to Dh10,000.

There is duty exemption on all ecommerce orders up to Dh300, and “defined processes” for ecommerce returns and refunds of any customs duties paid. Businesses are also assured of direct selling from the free zone to mainland customers for B2C ecommerce shipments.

Why focus on ecommerce alone? This is where Dubai is playing to its traditional strengths in air transport, road networks and fast processing through Customs. Put all that together with the kind of growth that ecommerce is having – and continue to have – then Dubai can host a dedicated free zone for the industry.

This is a strategy that Dubai has scored wins in the past, most notably with Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City in the late 1990s, when both sectors were on the cusp of unprecedented growth in the region.

“My intent is clear - To establish Dubai CommerCity as the home of everything ecommerce and omni-channel,” said Devere Forster, Chief Operating Officer at the free zone. “We will have the region’s biggest talent pool in the digital space. The ecommerce ecosystem we are developing will thrive from the sharing of successes - and learning from the failures - from all of our clients.”

Another free zone in the UAE is not what CommerCity is planning to become. That means being something over and above being a landlord.

“We provide services that come with running a business versus trying to do it yourself,” said Forster. “We have the power of our partnerships pulling together to provide value to customers. We can compete well in the market to provide full turnkey solutions.”

Dubai CommerCity will have a staggered completion, with the Logistics Cluster being the one that will go past the finish line first. “We are now looking to complete our whole logistics cluster by Q4-2022 – this was originally set for mid-2023,” said Forster. “We are adjusting our plans to complete the build of the Business and Social clusters to around two years earlier - towards end of 2027 rather than early 2030.”

Potential tenants clearly are not waiting around – take up rates for space was over 30 per cent two months into the launch of leasing. At Dubai CommerCity, speed or service and of delivery are non-negotiable. For an ecommerce focused free zone, there can be no other way.