Amazon wants to move up a gear in its online retail operations in Israel. Source have told "Globes" that Amazon plans using its warehouses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to expand operations in Israel and streamline the consignments of goods supplied to Israel.
This step comes after Amazon greatly reduced its efforts to expand in the Israeli market following the outbreak of Covid-19. The pandemic resulted in a huge rise in demand on the US market with Amazon switches resources to meet demand there. Consequently Amazon cancelled shipping to Israel except by external suppliers and halted its free shipping offer. Amazon has resumed supplying Israel from abroad but many items are not worth purchasing because of the exceptionally high cost of shipping.
But now following the normalization agreement with the UAE, Amazon is considering supplying goods to the Israeli market from its warehouses in the Gulf state.
In contrast to other countries in which Amazon operates, in the UAE set up operations from the start through the Souq website, which it acquired three years ago for $650 million, and which became an Amazon subsidiary for the Arab world. 18 months ago it changed the name of the website from Souq to Amazon.ae
Amazon.ae is currently making efforts to expand in the Middle East and is reportedly building a 420,000 square meter warehouse in Egypt. Since 2018 Amazon has also had major operations in Turkey.
Amazon set up its Israeli Hebrew website 18 months ago under the name Local Delivery. The site only deals with external sellers, providing a platform for Israeli companies who are responsible for delivery within five days and the quality of the products. But Amazon did not move to build its own logistics center and warehouse in Israel and this has greatly restricted sales activities and the range of goods offered and the advantages Amazon offers in terms of price and speed of delivery.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 14, 2020
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