In her latest column, Charlotte McEleny looks at quick commerce in MENA, and why it's attracting serious advertising investment...

Quick commerce across the Middle East and North Africa has moved from novelty to necessity faster than almost anyone predicted. This has been fuelled by some of the world's highest smartphone penetration rates, cashless payment adoption driven by government mandate, and a surge in dark store infrastructure. The region's q-commerce market is now attracting serious advertising investment and industry attention.

ExchangeWire spoke with Sohail Nawaz, VP of retail media at Landmark Group; Dalbir Gill, MENA digital media expert; and Oliver White, group executive director commerce at MCN MENAT, to explore the forces reshaping quick commerce and retail media across the region.

The consumer was ready before the infrastructure

The consensus is that MENA's q-commerce boom did not arrive by chance. Demand was latent, held back by a supply side that has since scrambled to catch up.

"The simplest answer is the consumer here was ready before the infrastructure was," says Nawaz, "The UAE has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world, a population that is overwhelmingly young and working-age, expat-majority, and everyone has a loaded digital wallet. Cash on delivery is on life support. Talabat and Noon processed nearly 80% of their 2025 orders through Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and other digital wallets."

The logistics scaffolding that makes sub-30-minute delivery possible includes dark stores, micro-fulfillment centers, and rider networks, which have been constructed at a pace over the past two to three years. Amazon has opened its first Abu Dhabi fulfillment center. Noon and ADNOC have partnered to convert fuel stations into fulfillment hubs. Dubai CommerCity is building dedicated q-commerce infrastructure, while government policy is reinforcing the momentum: the UAE Central Bank has set a target of 90% cashless transactions, providing a regulatory tailwind that few markets can point to.

KSA is the region's most underappreciated growth story. The Saudi q-commerce market was valued at close to USD$300m (£234m) in 2025 and is projected to surpass USD$1bn (£780m) before 2032, driven by the rapid urbanisation of Riyadh and Jeddah. "When government, infrastructure, and consumer behaviour are all pulling in the same direction," Nawaz adds, "you get what we are seeing right now."

For White, the more significant change is behavioural rather than infrastructural. "The bigger shift is behavioural," he says. "It's moved beyond emergencies into a habit. Smaller, more frequent shops replacing the planned weekly trip."

Dalbir Gill draws on first-hand experience to illustrate how embedded this expectation has become. "When I first moved to Dubai, I was astonished to learn that my car's fuel could be filled within hours, and groceries and medicines delivered within minutes. These strong last-mile logistical capabilities, coupled with high smartphone penetration and a digital native population, have given rise to quick commerce."

First-party data as the new currency of retail media

The transactional data that delivery platforms are accumulating is reshaping the value proposition of retail media in the region and drawing investment from holding companies. WPP Media's latest MENA forecast projected retail media to grow by over 18% to USD$434m (£339m) in 2025, with the channel expected to surpass USD$700m (£546m) by 2028. 

Nawaz is clear that the headline figures, while significant, are not the real story. "The real shift is not the money, it is the data. Retailers and delivery platforms are sitting on first-party transactional data - what someone bought, when they bought it, how often, what they bought next. Due to the signal loss from third-party cookies and privacy regulation tightening globally, that data becomes gold for advertisers."

The practical implication is a fundamental shift in what media can claim to deliver. "Advertisers can now target high propensity to buy moments and measure whether the ad drove a sale tracked to SKU level data," Nawaz continues. "Not a click. Not an impression. An actual transaction. That simply was not possible at scale in this region three years ago."

Gill frames the same shift in terms of the media environment it creates. "Media is no longer just about impressions, but it's about proximity to purchase and measurable outcomes," he says. "Advertisers now have a strong way to target not only demographics but also intent in real time."

White's perspective adds a measured note about where the ecosystem currently sits relative to that potential. "You're inside a live shopping mission, influencing what people see, choose, and add to their baskets in real time. Closed-loop, high intent, directly tied to transaction," he says. "But it's uneven. Some platforms are building proper media products. Others are just selling placement and the difference shows. The potential is significant, but the product still needs to catch up to the pitch."

The buy side is moving nonetheless. Publicis Media has partnered with Talabat to plug platform data directly into media planning and signed with GoWit to build out retail media capabilities across MENA and Turkey. For Nawaz, the signal is unmistakable: "When the holding companies start building dedicated retail media desks rather than burying it inside the shopper marketing team, you know the serious money is following."

FMCG brands are also beginning to treat q-commerce as a test-and-learn launchpad rather than simply a delivery pipe. Nawaz points to Unilever's launch of Wonderwash through Noon, the brand's biggest laundry innovation in decades, as a case study in the category's growing strategic weight. "Full app takeover, branded delivery riders, even the tracking pin on the map changed for every delivery. Concept to shelf in three months. You just cannot move that fast through traditional retail here."

Fragmentation, consolidation, and the data unlock ahead

There is, however, a tension between the scale of the opportunity and the structural friction holding it back… and where the resolution is likely to come from.

Measurement standardisation is a significant barrier. "Platform fragmentation is holding back the retail media industry, as each platform operates its own ecosystem with limited standardisation in measurement and reporting," says Gill, though he acknowledges that the same criticism applies to other advertising channels. There is also, he notes, a skills gap: "Many brands and agencies are still structured around traditional digital channels and haven't fully adapted to retail media buying. This is where ad tech plays a role in helping unify access, improve transparency, and enable programmatic curation."

White is more direct about the structural dysfunction the issue creates on the demand side: "Fragmented ownership, trade, e-commerce, brand, performance all touching it, nobody fully owning it." His verdict is pointed: "It's not under- or over-investment. It's misalignment."

Consolidation is already underway. Talabat acquired InstaShop for $32m (£25m). For Nawaz, that deal will not be the last. "The unit economics of q-commerce are brutal. Dark stores cost money, riders cost money, and some operators are burning north of 18% of gross merchandise value on promotions just to hold share."

White maps the trajectory: "A clean-up, then a step change. Consolidation first. Too many platforms, not all will survive. It's already happening. Then the media product matures to less selling space and more selling outcomes. Basket size, frequency, new customers, and margin."

On resilience, all three are broadly aligned: q-commerce's domestic design insulates it from the geopolitical and macroeconomic pressures that weigh on cross-border trade. "Quick commerce is relatively resilient because it's tied to individuals' everyday needs," says Gill. "Unlike tourism, real estate, finance or luxury retail, it's driven by domestic demand. We saw the same during COVID, and if anything, uncertainty created an acceleration of digital adoption."

The longer-term prize is data portability. Retail media audiences currently locked within individual apps could, through clean rooms and privacy-safe matching, begin to power media well beyond the platforms where they originated. For White, that is the moment the category's status fundamentally changes: "That's when the category stops being a nice-to-have channel and becomes core commercial infrastructure."

Nawaz, meanwhile, is watching a related convergence play: stitching together q-commerce data, in-store data, loyalty data, and digital media into a single advertising proposition. In a region where shopping malls are cultural anchors rather than struggling relics, the opportunity is distinct from anything available in more mature markets. "The question is which retailer wakes up and starts treating their footfall as media inventory, not just a sales channel."

MENA's q-commerce story has moved faster than the infrastructure that once constrained it. The question now is whether the advertising ecosystem, its measurement frameworks, its organisational structures, and its data architecture can move at the same pace.