Middle East & Africa Retail Execution Software Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Regional Analysis By Enterprise Size; Application

The retail execution software market in the MEA is expected to grow from US$ 10.34 million in 2019 to US$ 14.40 million by 2027; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2020 to 2027. Big data analytics technology has a huge potential to transform the retail execution completely. With the adoption of big data solutions in the overall retail industry, the efficiency of distribution and production networks can be improved. With the real-time insights, customers can track their purchase orders on their devices and check the status. The integration of analytics dashboard in the retail execution software helps in tracking and evaluating the performance of retail execution agents. Further, the retail & e-commerce industry across all the regions has witnessed numerous transformations from the past few years. The growth in the industry has prompted retail execution software players to leverage big data analytics for the purpose of making smarter business decisions and earning higher profit. The use of this technology also provides valuable information on high traffic congestion and popular retail execution areas, thereby enhancing the retail execution operations. With the use of this technology, retailers would be able to evaluate customer interactions across the channels such as mobile, social, and web. For instance, retailers can categorize their supply chain to provide consumers with different types of products, where they can select features, such as color or size. Thus, integration of big data analytics technology in the retail industry is anticipated to provide substantial business opportunities for the MEA retail execution software providers. Additionally, machine learning to enhance retail execution business is expected to fuel the demand for retail execution software in the MEA.

Based on application, the mobile forms automation segment is expected to be fastest growing segment for the MEA retail execution software market during the forecast period. Mobile forms automation software helps to create transferable documents and data that can be accessed remotely or otherwise. It enables an organization's participants to stay linked by offering workflows and allowing forms to be submitted in real-time, allowing them to connect offline. This allows the team to keep assignments, work orders, and other tasks updated. The platform offers valuable analytics from retrieved data, providing insights for companies and creating dashboards. Form automation tools also communicate with the existing IT systems of an organization. In addition, these forms are inevitable and typically have a long-term processing from purchase orders to travel requests. Employees, managers, and senior management spend hours on different ways of filling in, signing, and delivering. Further, in comparison with manual data collection processing, form automation is much more effective. Automation of forms streamlines workflow, saves time for staff, and reduces errors. For instance, VisitBasis is a complete mobile solution for collecting data. It is a SaaS cloud-based software to manage, schedule, and monitor real-time field team activities. It enables managers of field operations to supervise all phases of store audit, field merchandising, and field sales processes, from allocating territories and scheduling visits/tasks to the immediate retrieval of results through the online dashboard and reports of VisitBasis.

Among the MEA countries, Iran has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 confirmed cases. Other major countries that are facing the economic impact of COVID-19 include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Morocco, and Kuwait. The region comprises many growing economies, which are prospective markets for retail execution software providers, owing to the huge presence of diverse customer base for the retail & e-commerce industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the global economies. Still, the impact on the Middle East region is somewhat more, as there was already a pressure on the economy of various oil-based countries due to falling oil prices. In addition to this, factory and business shutdowns and travel bans are further aggravating the economic problems of the countries in the MEA region. Hence, the estimated decline in the MEA’s economic condition and impact of COVID-19 on the growth of various industries in the region are expected to negatively affect the growth of the retail execution software market in 2020 and 2021.

The overall MEA retail execution software market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources. To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market. The process also serves the purpose of obtaining an overview and forecast for the MEA retail execution software market with respect to all the segments pertaining to the region. Also, multiple primary interviews have been conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate the data, as well as to gain more analytical insights into the topic. The participants who typically take part in such a process include industry experts, such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managers along with external consultants, such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders specializing in the MEA retail execution software market. EdgeCG (StayinFront, Inc.), Trax Technology Solutions Pte Ltd., Vanomnia, WINIT, and XTEL (Kantar Group) are among the key players operating in the MEA retail execution software market.