Amazon Ends Souq By Launching New Middle East E-Commerce Service In The UAE
By Muhammed Aladdin.
Two years after Amazon announced its acquisition of Dubai-based e-commerce startup Souq.com, the mother company is announcing the release of a new service in the Arab World; Amazon.ae; the launch of this new service brought an end to Souq.com in all of the MENA region except for Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
“We are proud to announce that we are now Amazon.ae,” Amazon wrote in a letter posted on the new Middle East marketplace.
Experts have been anticipating the unification of the two brands under one name since January. The launch of Amazon in the Middle East comes at a time when international sales for Amazon are slowing down; for instance, in the most recent quarter, the company’s international sales grew only 9% from a year ago to USD 16.2 billion.
The rebranding gives Amazon a unified look in the promising MENA market as up until this point Amazon only existed through its acquisition of Souq. This will allow Amazon to use the same seller back-end system used in the U.S., and access to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), the company’s storage and shipping service, according to multiple sellers.
In a letter announcing the launch, the Co-Founder of Souq.com Ronaldo Mouchawar stated that Amazon’s MENA services will sell over 30 million products including the ones available on Souq.com and five million more products from Amazon U.S. He has added that for the first time ever, Amazon will allow users to shop in Arabic.
