After a slow start, the Middle East’s e-commerce marketplace is poised to undergo a major growth spurt. With e-commerce in the UAE valued at around AED9.2 billion ($2.5 billion), according to consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan, this figure is set to quadruple to AED36.7 billion ($10 billion) by 2018. E-commerce innovator, Cary!, the smartphone app for buying and selling online, is well positioned to meet these changes head on. Since launching in 2013, the app has harnessed the growing market’s potential to create an innovative platform which has evolved with consumers’ changing needs – ensuring that Cary! has become a key player in the region’s e-commerce industry.

“With the pace of growth, and increasingly savvy customer base, e-commerce is becoming a very competitive market in the region,” says Cary! founder and CEO Mohammed Johmani. “At Cary! we’ve set ourselves apart by continually adapting and updating our offering according to the latest market trends and technology, as well as the ever-changing demands of our customers and the regional market itself.”

Cary! was originally developed as a platform for buying and selling automotives – the company began by focusing on a single product category so as not to rush into the market before it was ready. After evaluating the industry and seeing that it was open for more possibilities, Cary! has recently expanded its offering to become a full e-commerce portal, encompassing a wide range of categories including fashion, health and beauty, mobile phones, accessories, homeware, kids items and much more. The app’s flexible approach has been well suited to a market where many regional consumers have been wary of purchasing online and prefer a more traditional face-to-face transaction. The brand consciously developed a simple, uncluttered and user-friendly interface to make purchases as easy as possible, and used a human-to-human commerce model and the option of payment on delivery to alleviate many of these obstacles. Today, the brand has evolved with its customers, and can directly collect payment from buyers on behalf of sellers to make transactions even easier.

“The next few years are a crucial time for the region’s businesses to make their mark on the digital economy,” says Johmani. “Cary!” that has been funded by the Dubai based enterprise “Eniverse Technologies” has grown organically to the successful enterprise it is today without the need for fundraising or external investors – this is an unusual position for start-ups and SMEs, which generally need to rely on investors to operate through their initial growth phases. Now with a strong team, the rapidly growing company is planning to expand through two significant markets in the mid-term – Egypt and Turkey – with long-term plans to enter the South East Asian market. Johmani pledges to continue to set an example for other e-commerce businesses in the region. “At Cary! we will continue to innovate and drive the market forward as we aim to become one of the Middle East’s leading e-commerce platforms,” he says.

“Up until now, I would put the region’s slower uptake on e-commerce down to two main issues: a perceived lack of simplicity, and the fact that many residents here enjoy the act of shopping in real life,” says Johmani. “At Cary!, we’ve tackled both of those issues directly and have made it our mission to make online shopping both effortless and an enjoyable experience.”

As the nation embraces the digital age, the UAE government is paving the way – from its transition to a ‘smart government’ to a national strategy to spread the ‘culture of innovation’ as a driver for progress. This digital innovation has a direct effect on the country’s e-commerce industry: changing consumer behavior, instilling more confidence in online transactions, and emphasizing the need for traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses to have an online presence to remain relevant. Smartphone ownership is at an all-time high (according to Google researchers, the UAE is ranked number one in the world in terms of smartphone ownership, with 73.8% of mobile phone owners possessing a smartphone), with residents of the GCC states ranked second in the world in terms of online transactions made via their mobile devices.