Souq.com, the Middle East’s largest online retail and marketplace platform, has launched its latest category- Global Bookstore, to provide customers access to over 6 million books on the platform.

This huge category expansion for Souq.com makes books more accessible to the region and is in line with the UAE’s government vision to prepare a national framework that helps prepare a generation of readers, reinforcing its position as a capital of content, culture and knowledge.

Souq.com’s Global Bookstore features  a phenomenal assortment of books covering all classifications including culture, children, family, education, business and many more, to cater to all readers in the UAE and neighbouring countries.

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Souq.com CEO and co-founder comments: “We are delighted to launch the books category to provide our customers with easy access to such a large assortment of books and we plan to grow further in future. We look forward to cooperating with national organisations concerned with reading and knowledge mainly Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and Dubai e-Library.  We are aligned with the UAE’s National Reading initiative and this category expansion comes at an interesting time when we are witnessing new momentum in the culture of reading across the region. This initiative will make books more accessible to people in the region.”

According to a recent survey by the Arab Reading Index, people in the UAE read for around 51 hours a year, well above the average of 35 hours for the rest of the Arab world and read 24 books a year compared with the regional average of 16. Souq.com’s latest initiative seeks to further promote a culture of reading and seeking knowledge in the region.

E-commerce in the Middle East is continuing to show robust growth, supported by the acceleration of m-commerce. According to a recent report by global consultancy AT Kearney, the e-commerce market in the GCC countries is expected to grow phenomenally to $20 billion by 2020 from $5.3 billion in 2015. As the regions’ tech savvy shoppers are embracing e-commerce, this growth in consumer adoption is paving the way for more product categories to come online.

With the introduction of books on Souq.com, the customers can now get their hands on their favourite bestsellers and books at the click of a button, he said. - TradeArabia News Service