BoxCommerce, a South African e-commerce platform that serves SMEs and startups, has launched in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), betting on the country’s booming mobile commerce market, vast SME sector, and the limited availability of user-friendly e-commerce solutions tailored for local businesses looking to scale.
The move positions BoxCommerce among a wave of African startups setting shop in the Middle East’s commercial capital. The UAE’s e-commerce market is projected to hit $8 billion in revenue this year, surpassing $10 billion by 2029.
Launched in 2017, BoxCommerce offers tools for building online stores, managing inventory, processing payments, and handling logistics. The company began operations in Kenya in 2022 and claims to have onboarded more than 5,400 merchants in its first year, 16 times the number reached by Shopify over the same period. The UAE represents a strategic entry point for BoxCommerce into a region with strong consumer demand but limited user-friendly solutions for small businesses.
“The UAE is a strategic market for BoxCommerce,” said CEO and founder Craig Mcleod. “With mobile commerce dominating and over 70% of the population shopping online, the country is on track to grow its e-commerce market size to AED 48 billion by 2028. Our platform is designed to help local businesses tap into this explosive growth.”
In the UAE, BoxCommerce will focus on helping SMEs set up their online store in minutes with no technical expertise required. The platform will also support sales across websites, social media, and marketplaces, helping merchants expand their reach.
“Despite having around 600,000 SMEs in the UAE, there are still very few easy-to-use eCommerce solutions designed to help local SMEs grow and scale,” Rahul Vaish, MENA Director of BoxCommerce, added. “SMEs are the bedrock of any economy, representing 94% of the UAE’s companies and employing over 86% of the private sector workforce.”
BoxCommerce is backed by MasterCard’s Start Path program and previously participated in Facebook’s Commerce Accelerator in 2020. The company says it aims to become the go-to platform for emerging-market merchants looking to build omnichannel retail operations without technical complexity.
