A recent analysis by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed that e-retail companies in the UAE have succeeded in these times of high online demand and disrupted supply chains.
The companies have even managed to achieve benefits beyond the domestic market to include neighbouring markets as well.
The analysis, based on updated data from Euromonitor attributed this digital success to government initiatives, the presence of modern infrastructure and a strong logistics sector.
The analysis reviewed the percentage of goods that are not in stock in 38 major economies around the world, and monitored the levels of inventory for the major e-commerce platforms, and the daily percentage of stock keeping units (SKUs) that were marked as goods not available on the retailer websites for each country.
The data shows that the UAE occupies an advanced position globally, due to its pivotal position on the global trade map, its large storage capacity and its extensive logistical networks which contributed to record low percentages of materials that were out of stock before the outbreak of the epidemic (3.4% on January 21 2020).
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The country's position further advanced after the outbreak of the epidemic, as unified exceptional measures taken by the government and logistics companies helped to ensure the continuous flow of necessary materials during the emerging pandemic.
This resulted in a decrease of out-of-stock percentage to just 1.8% by April 21 making UAE occupy the sixth position in the world, surpassing many developed economies.
The benefits of the UAE’s strong logistics and warehousing sector extend beyond the domestic market to neighboring markets, for example, Saudi Arabia, which has a similar low rate of 2.2%, given that the Kingdom is the top regional trading partner for the UAE.
The emerging market economies in general recorded a low percentage of the basic materials that ran out of stock because most of their products are obtained locally.
Developed markets have longer supply chains as large part of their requirements come from abroad. This explains why the great impact of the emerging epidemic is more evident in e-commerce supply chains in Europe and North America.