At the same time, 68% of UAE consumers noted that irrespective of how good the deals are, there is no excuse for a poor online shopping experience.
With UAE consumers gearing up for the annual end-of-year holiday shopping sales, new data from Cisco AppDynamics reveals that most will rely on applications and digital services to get what they need. Compared to 2022, this year, 70% of UAE consumers plan to do more of their holiday shopping online via applications and digital services.
The study surveyed 12,000 consumers across 12 countries — including 1,000 consumers in the UAE — and explored consumer intentions, behaviours, and preferences regarding online shopping during the holiday season. On average, UAE consumers expect that 68% of their holiday shopping will be through applications and digital services, compared to an estimated 61% last year.
The biggest driver for this uptick in preference for online shopping is that 52% of UAE consumers feel that they can choose better online than in stores. UAE consumers also cited the ability to shop during working hours (34%), wanting to avoid last-minute panic buying in-store (32%) and the ability to shop outside of regular retail hours or at convenient times for them (24%) as key reasons for preferring to shop online this upcoming holiday season.
For online retailers in the UAE, this represents a huge opportunity to attract new customers and drive revenues. But the pressure on brands to deliver seamless digital experiences is also higher than ever before. 77% of UAE consumers stated that if the applications and digital services they use to do their holiday shopping fail to perform, they will feel anxious and angry. In a clear warning to online retailers, 68% of UAE consumers noted that irrespective of how good the deals are, there is no excuse for a poor online shopping experience, and 72% said retail brands have just one shot to impress them this upcoming holiday season.
“Retailers that can combine great deals with seamless application performance over the coming months will have a decisive edge when it comes to attracting customers and driving sales. But managing IT availability and performance of today’s complex hybrid environments can be challenging for some organisations,” commented James Harvey, CTO Advisor EMEA, Cisco AppDynamics.
“To mitigate this risk, they need to implement an observability solution that spans both cloud native and on-premises environments and allows technologists to monitor the health of key business transactions distributed across their entire technology landscape. With real-time insights from the business transaction’s telemetry data, technologists can swiftly understand the root cause of issues and expedite resolution so that applications always operate at peak performance.”
