A recent study released by the Northwestern University in Qatar revealed some interesting statistics on how people use internet for 
conducting routine banking and shopping transactions.
About 77% of internet users in the survey search for information about productsonline. Users in UAE (90%) are on the top of this activity followed by Saudi Arabia (90%), and Bahrain (87%).
By contrast, only 57% of Egyptian internet users gather product information online.
However, online transactions are far less common. Fewer than half of internet users use online banking services (39%), make travel reservations (41%), pay bills (38%) or purchase items(35%) online at all , and even fewer are investing online (16%) at all.
Majority (54%) of holders of bank and credit cards are not especially concerned about the security of their cards when or if they were to use them to purchase things or make other transactions online.
UAE has the second highest credit card penetration (74%) in the region after Saudi Arabia (76%) country in the region. In contrast 55% of the credit card holders in UAE are concerned with online financial transactions via credit card.
Source: NWU
