Online fashion site Namshi sees 50% surge in Saudi revenues

Namshi, the online e-commerce site owned by Dubai’s Emaar Malls, has recorded a 50 percent growth in revenues from in the last year. (Supplied)
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  • Founded in 2011, Namshi – which means, moving forward – offers online fashion and beauty products

JEDDAH: Namshi, the online e-commerce site owned by Dubai’s Emaar Malls, has recorded a 50 percent growth in revenues from in the last year and is set to expand into a new warehouse facility in Riyadh.

While parent company Emaar Malls recently reported a 24.8 percent fall in revenues for 2020 to AED3.51 billion ($960 million), Namshi saw sales increase 28 percent to AED1.316 billion over the same period, with the Kingdom its biggest market.

“ typically contributes to over 70 percent of the total Namshi revenue,” a spokesperson said, adding that Saudi sales rose 50 percent last year.

Founded in 2011, Namshi – which means, moving forward – offers online fashion and beauty products. It sells more than 800 brands and has customers throughout the GCC in , the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain.

Emaar Malls, the retail arm of Dubai Emaar Properties, bought a 51 percent stake in Namshi in May 2017, for a reported $151 million. In February 2019 it purchased the remaining 49 percent from Germany’s Rocket Internet.

In a bid to benefit from its success in , the e-commerce site is expanding its physical presence in the Kingdom.

“We have been present with a local warehouse in Riyadh for over a year, and we are now moving into a dedicated, state-of-the-art warehouse in Riyadh. We are extremely bullish on and are making the investments necessary,” the spokesperson said.

Hadi Badri, chairman of Namshi, told Arab News: “Namshi’s business strategy is Saudi-first. The Kingdom is our key market, and we have a strong and improving market share and customer loyalty. The Saudi e-commerce market is attractive and local consumers are trend setters.

“Namshi is committed to continue on its growth path in Saudi by offering online shoppers the most in-demand global and local brands in fashion, beauty, and gifts, and delivering a best-in-class customer experience,” he said.

Speaking at the Retail Leaders Circle MENA Summit 2020 in Riyadh in February last year, Cyrille Fabre, partner at Bain and Co., said the e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa had grown 29 percent from approximately $8.5 billion in 2017 to $14.3 billion in 2019.

“ is booming in terms of e-commerce and is the No. 1 market in the region in terms of growth and size,” he added.

Saudi trade minister, Majed bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, said: “E-commerce in the Kingdom has grown significantly. We have more than SR80 billion in services and products and 45,000 shops and e-commerce platforms.”

Namshi has also announced it is expanding into Qatar and has already begun accepting pre-orders.