Amazon Doubles Down on Middle East with Wing.ae
Just this year, Amazon acquired Souq for $580 million to expand its presence in the middle east. Souq is an Amazonesque marketplace headquartered in Dubai.
This week, Souq and Amazon purchased Wing.ae. Wing.ae is a logistics startup with an every expanding logistics network that offers same day and next day delivery services.
Wing.ae is very new and founded in 2016 with apparent some funding from Souq. The two companies had been collaborating before the Amazon deal, so this acquisition is a means to shore up an existing relationship and solidify the previous investment by Souq.
By purchasing Wing.ae Souq will be able to use Amazon’s resources to provide investment in the expansion of the delivery network.
Prior to this deal, Wing.ae was working with other marketplaces and merchants in the region.
The statement by the company was a bit vague if that direction would continue after the acquisition.
It is very possible the company will continue to offer merchant services via Wing.ae and utilize the backbone logistics network to expand Souq’s same day and next day delivery operations.
PRIME STYLE MEMBERSHIP COMING TO SOUQ?
With over 45 million visitors and 8.4 million products across 31 categories, Souq is the largest marketplace in the Middle East.
Wing.ae will allow the marketplace the ability to offer an Amazon style Prime Membership which hinges on fast delivery.
“At SOUQ.com, our customers will remain our key focus and we will continue to deliver an exceptional online shopping experience. Fast dependable delivery is key to this, and Wing.ae provides SOUQ.com customers with more convenience for their same and next day delivery. With Amazon’s support, we are putting all our efforts in providing an ever-improving shopping experience for customers in the Middle East.”
Ronaldo Mouchawar, SOUQ.com CEO & Co-Founder
As we just noted yesterday in an article, the Middle East is still a very young marketplace. But a lot of investment is flowing into the region, and there is great potential.
In turn, this should bring opportunity to small business sellers utilizing these marketplaces to reach new customers in the region.
What do you think? Do you see an opportunity for your business to sell to the Middle East? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Richard Meldner
Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.
To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.