Cross-border fashion apparel retail in the Middle East has maintained a steady growth momentum in recent years, leading the growth rate of similar markets worldwide and emerging as one of the core growth engines in the cross-border e-commerce sector. According to authoritative data, the scale of the e-commerce apparel market in the Middle East and Africa reached 13.5 billion US dollars in 2024, and it is projected to maintain a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.72% over the next five years (2024-2029) — significantly outpacing that of mature markets in Europe and the United States, which demonstrates strong market potential.
From a regional segmentation perspective, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) serve as the core growth driver, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) contributing the major share of cross-border fashion apparel retail in the Middle East. The transaction volume of cross-border e-commerce in Saudi Arabia has seen an average annual growth of 22.5%. As a core category, fashion apparel in Saudi Arabia recorded a growth rate basically on par with that of the overall cross-border e-commerce, with a slight uptick. Meanwhile, the market size of cross-border e-commerce in the UAE has hit 15 billion US dollars, where fashion apparel accounts for approximately 20% of cross-border retail, and its growth rate aligns with the roughly 18% annual growth of the overall cross-border e-commerce market in the Middle East.
The growth vitality is more evident in the practical operation of platforms. After leading fashion cross-border platforms such as SHEIN expanded their footprint in the Middle East market, the sales revenue of settled merchants saw a remarkable surge. The average monthly sales volume of some merchants increased by over 400%, and the average daily GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) in the novice period even jumped nearly a hundred times — this indirectly validates the high growth potential of cross-border fashion apparel retail in the Middle East.
This growth trend is underpinned by the Middle East's youthful population structure, high per capita consumption power, high internet penetration rate, as well as the continuous improvement of cross-border e-commerce infrastructure, which provides a solid foundation for the cross-border retail of fashion apparel.