Middle East Retail: #SaudiArabia's Jarir Sees Growth Opportunity - Bloomberg

Middle East Retail: Saudi Arabia's Jarir Sees Growth Opportunity - Bloomberg:

Jarir Marketing Co., a stationary and electronics retailer in Saudi Arabia, sees an opportunity to open as many as five stores this year and raise market share despite the coronavirus pandemic.

“Traffic has come down but basket size has come up,” Chairman Muhammad Al-Agil said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

Most retailers in Saudi Arabia had to shut shops following government guidelines to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Jarir Marketing closed most of its stores for 22 days and some for “much longer.”

Online sales rose six-fold in the second quarter. They “will come down as we go on, but still it’s going to be much larger than last year,” the chairman said.