With the recent acquisition of Souq.com by online giant Amazon and the anticipated launch of the new local ecommerce site Noon.com, the shift to online shopping in the GCC has become more apparent than ever. A recent study from YouGov has found that 83% of Local GCC Millennials have shopped online in the past 6 Months, with 42% shopping on local websites and 41% on international sites.

The research found that the most likely items to be purchased online by GCC millennials are mobile phones (20%) and computer software/hardware (20%), followed by electronic equipment (19%), games (17%) and e-books (13%). The least likely items to be purchased online are flowers (3%), pet related products (3%), music (4%), sporting goods (6%), hardcopy books (6%) and health products (7%).