E-commerce in Qatar

E-commerce

Internet access

Qatar has been ranked number one in the world in terms of internet penetration rate for the period between January 2017 and January 2018. According to the "Digital in 2018" report, with over 2.6 million internet users Qatar has 99% internet penetration rate. The country’s smartphone penetration has reached 75%, with the usage being mostly concentrated within the 15-34 age group, split evenly between males and females (Qatari Ministry of Transport and Communications). The most popular web search engines in Qatar are Google (97%), Bing and Yahoo (1.5% and 1.1% respectively).

E-commerce market

Figures released by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) revealed that Qatar’s e-commerce market is expected to grow from US$ 1.3 billion in 2017 to US$ 3.2 billion in the next five years. In 2017 the e-commerce market already grew by 14% compared to the previous year. Travel, electronics and fashion are the main product categories purchased online. Famous websites for online shopping are Dohasooq.qa, Ubuy.qa and Getit.qa. Cash on delivery is the preferred payment method (75%), followed by credit card (19%) and other services like PayPal (6%) (Go-Gulf). With 2.4 million users, Qatar has one of the highest social media penetration rates in the world, according to a report by Hootsuite. Qatar also had the highest percentage of any population using social media through mobile devices (around 95%). Most internet users in Qatar use WhatsApp (93%) and about two-thirds use Instagram and Snapchat (70% and 64%, respectively, according to MidEastMedia). Fewer than one in four Qatari internet users use Facebook (23%).