Beijing-based JD.com had revenues of 745.8 billion yuan ($114.97 billion) for the year, news agency Reuters reported in March. Namshi—meaning moving forward—was founded in 2011. According to the agreement, the Dubai-headquartered platform will provide JD.com with local logistics, warehousing, marketing and content creation support in the region.

The Namshi platform sells more than 800 brands and has customers throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. Emaar Malls, the retail arm of Dubai Emaar Properties, bought a 51 per cent stake in Namshi in May 2017 for $151 million. In February 2019, it purchased the remaining stake from Germany’s Rocket Internet.

The e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was worth $14.3 billion in 2019, having grown 29 per cent over $8.5 billion in 2017.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SG)