A smart investment

Expanding online shopping will have a knock-on effect on other parts of life, too

Amazon’s interest in making an investment in the online retailer Souq.com highlights the huge potential for growth in the regional e-commerce sector. E-commerce has the potential to radically change the landscape of shopping. Not only a change in mall culture – when people can easily buy hundreds of products online, malls will have to become much more than places to shop – but also in terms of where that shopping is done.

Already some supermarkets do home delivery. As that expands and online retailing does too, so will there be more places to pick up goods bought online. In some western capitals, Amazon purchases can be picked up at small kiosks, not merely at home.

And this will also have an effect on that bugbear of UAE life: the lack of street addresses. As online retailers thrive, so will location mechanisms improve. Meaning that not only will online shopping make it easier to buy that big-screen TV – it will also make it easier for the ambulance service and firefighters to locate an address.