Dubai’s Dragon Mart goes online with new e-commerce platform

Dragon Mart has launched its own e-commerce platform, taking Dubai’s largest wholesale B2B and B2C marketplace online.

Dragon Mart in Dubai is a mega mall that sells only made-in-China products.

Its e-commerce site is driven by a partnership between Nakheel Malls, which is Dragon Mart’s owner and operator, and logistics provider DP World.

Deliveries for orders on the platform will be made by an onsite fulfilment centre powered by DP World at Dragon Mart, said a statement on the Dubai Media Office on Sunday (September 27).

The platform will sell products across eleven sectors including fashion, home and furniture, computer and electronics, mobiles and accessories, beauty and health, toys, and jewellery. It does not offer foods and beverages.

A check on its platform reveals that it currently only delivers within the UAE.

Consumers in the UAE have been increasingly using e-commerce and digital platforms as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered physical shops and continues to impact in-store sales.

Responding to consumer demand, businesses in F&B turned to delivery apps and one start-up, the online marketplace InstaShop, was acquired by Germany’s Delivery Hero.

Others, such as Emaar Malls’ Namshi, the GCC-focused e-commerce platform retailing clothes, shoes and bags, saw its first-half 2020 revenue surpass 50% of its 2019 takings.

However, not all companies in the UAE have been able to ride the e-commerce wave. Awok, which started in 2013 and secured $30 million in financing last year for what it said was to be pumped into expansion, shut down earlier this month. It cited the economic downturn caused by the global pandemic as reason for its closing.

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