The GCC's e-commerce story in numbers: Saudi e-commerce reached about 15 billion dollars in 2024 and is projected to hit about 29 billion dollars by 2030 (IMARC). Saudi social commerce is worth about 1.37 billion dollars in 2025 (GlobeNewswire), WhatsApp reaches about 33 million users in KSA (DataReportal), and COD still dominates many segments (Go-Globe).
How big is e-commerce in the GCC?
The anchor numbers, each with its source:
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi e-commerce market, 2024 | ~$15 billion | IMARC |
| Saudi e-commerce projection, 2030 | ~$29 billion | IMARC |
| Saudi social commerce market, 2025 | ~$1.37 billion | GlobeNewswire |
| Saudi social commerce growth | ~10% year over year | GlobeNewswire |
The IMARC trajectory implies Saudi e-commerce roughly doubling over six years. Social commerce, purchases that happen through social platforms and chat, is growing on top of that base, which matters for anyone deciding where to invest in channels. If you are building on this market, our complete Saudi Shopify guide turns these numbers into a setup plan.
How dominant are WhatsApp and social platforms in the Gulf?
The GCC is one of the most socially connected regions on earth, per DataReportal:
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WhatsApp in Saudi Arabia: about 33 million users, roughly 87 percent of social media users.
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Instagram in Saudi Arabia: ad reach of about 16.9 million people.
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UAE social media penetration: roughly 99 percent of the population.
The practical read: in the Gulf, chat apps are not a support channel bolted onto e-commerce, they are where a large share of commerce conversations start and finish. A store's WhatsApp and Instagram response quality is as commercially important as its checkout flow. Our social commerce playbook covers how merchants act on this.
What do the COD and returns numbers say?
Cash on delivery remains a defining feature of GCC e-commerce:
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Up to 75 percent of transactions in some Saudi segments are COD (Go-Globe).
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About 45 percent of Middle East shoppers prefer COD (Go-Globe).
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COD returns in the UAE run roughly 12 to 13 times higher than card-order returns (Quiqup).
Together these numbers describe the region's core operational tension: COD unlocks customers who will not pay online, and simultaneously creates the biggest leak in the P&L through refused and failed deliveries. The stores that win at COD are the ones that confirm orders before dispatch and communicate fast during delivery. Our post on UAE returns unpacks the cost side.
What about conversion benchmarks like cart abandonment?
- Cart abandonment averages about 70 percent globally, per Baymard Institute's long-running research.
Seven in ten started checkouts do not finish. In the GCC context, where shopping is chat-heavy, a meaningful share of those abandoners are reachable: they have already DM'd the store or shared a WhatsApp number with their order. A follow-up message inside the conversation where the customer already lives recovers carts that email never would.
What do these statistics mean for merchants in 2026?
Reading the numbers together, four conclusions:
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The Saudi market rewards building now. A market heading from about 15 to about 29 billion dollars (IMARC) forgives imperfect starts and punishes waiting.
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Chat is the storefront. With about 87 percent of Saudi social users on WhatsApp and about 16.9 million reachable on Instagram (DataReportal), pre-sale questions, order confirmations, and delivery issues all live in DMs.
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COD is a communication problem. The gap between COD's popularity (Go-Globe) and its return rates (Quiqup) closes with fast confirmation and delivery messaging, not by dropping COD.
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Abandonment is recoverable in chat. Baymard's 70 percent average is the pool; conversational follow-up is the net.
All figures above are point-in-time estimates from their named sources; markets move, so check the sources for current editions before quoting them in your own planning.
This is also the operating environment ReplAi was built for: an AI agent for Shopify stores that answers Instagram DMs, Messenger, WhatsApp, and web chat 24/7 in Egyptian, Gulf, and Levantine dialects plus Franco-Arabic and English. Across our merchant cohort (Q1 2026), it replies in under 14 seconds on average, fully automates about 80 percent of messages, and handles more than 4,000 DMs a day across merchants, taking Shopify actions like order tracking, returns, COD orders, and cart follow-ups inside the conversation. To date, ReplAi has processed more than 500,000 customer messages. Book a demo to see what those statistics look like on your own store.
Frequently asked questions
How big will Saudi e-commerce be by 2030?
IMARC projects the Saudi e-commerce market at about 29 billion dollars by 2030, up from about 15 billion dollars in 2024. Projections vary between research houses and get revised, so treat the direction (strong growth) as more reliable than any single figure.
How many people use WhatsApp in Saudi Arabia?
DataReportal counts about 33 million WhatsApp users in Saudi Arabia, roughly 87 percent of the country's social media users. That penetration is why WhatsApp functions as a primary commerce and customer service channel in the Kingdom rather than a secondary one.
Is cash on delivery declining in the GCC?
Digital payments are growing, but COD remains substantial: Go-Globe reports up to 75 percent of transactions in some Saudi segments and about 45 percent of Middle East shoppers preferring COD. For most consumer categories, dropping COD still means dropping revenue.
What is a normal cart abandonment rate?
Baymard Institute's research puts the average around 70 percent across industries. Your own rate depends on category, traffic mix, and checkout friction. The actionable move in the GCC is conversational recovery, following up through the chat channels customers already use.