This is an edited crosspost from LinkedIn. 

Consumers have become smarter and faster in making buying decisions online, moving from showrooming to 'webrooming': the practice of evaluating a product online before actually placing the order.

The ecommerce market in the Middle East touched $39 billion in 2015 and this year transactions are expected to pass $45 billion. Globally the sector is worth an estimated $1.7 trillion.

So as ecommerce grows, so do the associated business streams such as digital advertising, social media, and payment gateways; as we see below, they are all beginning to boom in the Middle East.