Online shop Souq.com to open grocery store

Dubai-based online shopping company Souq.com is moving into the grocery business. Its new hypermarket - Souq superstore - will sell popular food brands, as well as organic and international foods. The move comes a day after the announcement of a multi-billion dirham online shopping platform - noon.com. Noon will not offer groceries at its launch in January, but they will come shortly after, said its CEO Fodhil Bent-urquia. A recent Morgan Stanley Research study showed that up to 34 per cent of online shoppers are expected to buy groceries online this year versus 21 per cent in 2015.