Demand for electrical appliances and lighting in Jordan has stayed moderate since the start of 2026 while local prices held steady, the Jordan Chamber of Commerce said Friday, even as importers faced higher shipping fees, insurance premiums and origin-country hikes driven by regional tensions.
Hatem Zoubi, the chamber’s electrical and electronics sector representative, used the same statement to warn traditional retailers against “misleading” social-media prices and unregulated personal-import channels that undercut the formal trade.
The Warning and the Numbers
In remarks carried by the Jordan News Agency Petra, Zoubi said goods remain abundant and competition benefits consumers. Yet sales of some electrical lines fell after importers and wholesalers halted credit sales. Some formal players now sell at cost simply to keep shelves stocked and meet market needs.
The sector itself is large. More than 3,000 merchants operate across Amman and the governorates and together they support roughly 25,000 jobs. That employment base sits inside a highly competitive import market fed by multiple origin countries.
- Demand: moderate since January 2026 versus earlier seasons
- Prices: stable despite rising operational and shipping costs
- Merchants: exceeding 3,000 nationwide
- Jobs: approximately 25,000
Those figures have been repeated by the same representative in earlier briefings this year, underscoring how central the formal channel remains to the retail economy.
Moderate demand does not mean empty aisles. It means the flow of stock continues while the pace of purchases has cooled from earlier seasons. Stable shelf prices under those conditions show how far formal traders have stretched margins to hold market share.
The 3,000-plus merchant base and the 25,000 jobs attached to it give the chamber a clear stake in any shift toward unregulated channels. When credit freezes and informal ads pull traffic away, the hit lands on a workforce spread across Amman and the governorates, not only on a handful of large importers.
Rising Costs Meet Frozen Credit
Zoubi listed the cost pressures that formal importers continue to absorb: higher operating expenses, elevated transportation and insurance fees, delayed arrivals, and price increases at origin linked to political and security tensions in the region. Despite those inputs, shelf prices did not climb.
The credit freeze compounds the squeeze. Without installment or deferred terms from wholesalers, smaller retailers lose a key sales tool that once moved higher-ticket items. Some are forced into cash-only or below-cost deals to stay liquid.
- Higher shipping and insurance premiums
- Delays in shipment arrivals
- Origin-country price hikes tied to regional tensions
- Halt of credit sales by importers and wholesalers
- Occasional sales at pure cost to maintain supply
Strong competition keeps goods available, Zoubi said, but the pressure lands first on the shops that carry inventory and payroll.
Each cost item works differently on the balance sheet. Shipping and insurance raise the landed price before a carton reaches a warehouse. Origin hikes do the same at the factory gate. Delays tie up working capital while goods sit in transit. The credit halt then removes the tool smaller shops used to bridge the gap between purchase and sale.
| Pressure | Where it hits first | Effect on shelf price so far |
|---|---|---|
| Shipping and insurance | Importer landed cost | Absorbed, not passed on |
| Origin-country hikes | Factory or export quote | Absorbed, not passed on |
| Arrival delays | Working capital and timing | Indirect, through cash strain |
| Credit sales halt | Small retailer sales tools | Forces cash or below-cost deals |
Taken together, the list explains why some formal players sell at cost. They are defending continuity of supply and payroll, not chasing a short-term margin.
Social Media and Personal Cards
Zoubi called social-media advertisements “misleading,” citing price manipulation that has damaged traditional retail. He also pointed to individuals who import goods on personal trade cards rather than commercial channels, and he urged regulation plus mandatory printing of the importer’s name on electrical products.
The goal, he said, is to shield consumers from sub-par goods sold at fake prices. Formal importers already face continuous oversight. Informal or personal-card routes can evade the same scrutiny.
| Channel | Oversight | Typical pressure on formal shops |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional importers and retailers | JSMO testing, customs, chamber coordination | Absorb cost rises, lose credit sales |
| Social-media sellers | Variable or none | Undercut with advertised low prices |
| Personal trade-card imports | Limited commercial checks | Bypass name-on-product and full inspection |
| Postal parcels | Often lighter until opened | Risk of untested devices reaching homes |
Retailers, he added, should avoid falling victim to unreal prices set by “intruders in the profession” or to credit purchases that later force sales below cost.
Name-on-product printing would make the formal chain visible at the point of sale. A buyer could see who brought the device into the country and who stands behind it if a fault appears. Personal-card routes and many social ads leave that trail thin or missing.
Price manipulation on social platforms works because the advertised figure can ignore testing costs, full customs paths, and long-term service. Traditional shops that carry those costs then look expensive by comparison, even when their landed and compliance expenses are the reason the goods are safe to use.
Postal Parcels and the Safety Gap
Zoubi specifically demanded that incoming postal parcels containing electrical devices undergo Jordan Standards and Metrology Organization tests for safety and compliance with Jordanian technical rules. Electrical equipment falls under mandatory standards that protect health and safety.
According to the U.S. Commercial Service guide on Jordan trade standards, imported goods subject to those rules require laboratory verification inside the kingdom. JSMO works with approved labs at its own facilities, the Ministry of Health, Greater Amman Municipality, Ministry of Agriculture and the Royal Scientific Society.
Global patterns show why the request matters. An OECD study documented how small parcels used for counterfeit electronics frequently travel by post or express courier, complicating customs screening. Jordan’s formal sector wants the same safety net applied to every electrical device that reaches a consumer.
Laboratory verification inside the kingdom is the mechanism that turns a rule on paper into a check on a physical unit. Without it, a parcel can move from border to doorstep with little more than a basic screen. Zoubi’s demand would put postal electrical devices on the same testing path already used for commercial consignments.
The partner lab network matters because it spreads capacity. JSMO does not work alone. Health, municipal, agriculture and Royal Scientific Society facilities all form part of the approved set. Extending that net to parcels would use existing capacity rather than invent a parallel system from scratch.
Why Formal Shops Feel the Squeeze
The merchants who already meet mandatory standards for electrical equipment are the ones carrying inventory costs, paying for tested stock, and employing the bulk of the sector’s workforce. When social ads promise lower prices or personal parcels skip full commercial clearance, those shops lose foot traffic while still bearing the overhead.
Importers and wholesalers are sometimes forced to sell at cost to maintain supply continuity and fulfill local market needs across various product lines.
Zoubi made that point directly in the Petra interview. He also urged suppliers to give small shops more flexible payment periods so they can settle obligations without dumping stock.
The chamber itself keeps talking to Customs, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to ease bottlenecks. Similar chamber-level engagement appears in other recent trade work, including Zarqa Chamber trade cooperation talks with foreign envoys and the broader push behind Amman Chamber export gains this year.
Flexible payment periods would restore a buffer the credit freeze removed. A small shop that can settle over a longer window is less likely to dump stock at cost simply to clear an invoice. That request sits alongside the regulatory asks, not in place of them.
Chamber talks with Customs and the ministries show the formal sector is not waiting only for new circulars. It is also pressing for smoother day-to-day clearance and fewer operational hurdles while the larger rules on personal cards and parcels remain open.
The March Echo and Supply Routes
This is not the first time Zoubi has raised the social-media issue in 2026. On 30 March he issued a nearly identical caution about low-cost or unidentified lighting products advertised online, saying they often fail Jordanian technical standards.
- 30 March 2026: Petra carries Zoubi remarks on energy-efficient devices, solar demand rise, stable prices, and warning against misleading social ads for lighting.
- 15 August 2026: Same representative reports moderate demand since the start of 2026, stable prices despite new cost pressures, credit freeze, and expanded calls covering personal cards and postal parcels.
In the March briefing he also noted that shipments continue to arrive via Aqaba from China and East Asia through the Bab el-Mandeb route, insulated from Hormuz disruptions. Supply chains held. The competitive pressure from informal channels simply grew more visible.
The two briefings share a core message and widen the scope. March focused on lighting and unidentified online offers. August keeps that warning and adds personal trade cards, postal testing, and the credit freeze. The supply route note from March still frames the later picture: goods keep arriving, so scarcity is not the driver of today’s strain.
Insulation from Hormuz disruptions via Aqaba and Bab el-Mandeb means regional tension has raised costs and insurance without cutting the physical pipeline from China and East Asia. Formal importers therefore face a market that is stocked, competitive, and still under price pressure from channels that do not carry the same compliance load.
Housing Ties Keep Appliance Demand Alive
Zoubi described the electrical and electronics sector as a cornerstone of Jordan’s commercial activity and tied it tightly to housing and construction. That link helps explain why demand stayed moderate rather than collapsing when costs rose and credit tightened.
New and refurbished homes still need lighting, appliances, and related devices. Construction activity therefore feeds a baseline of orders even when households delay discretionary upgrades. Formal merchants who stock tested goods remain the channel that project buyers and many households use when specifications and safety matter.
The same link raises the stakes on counterfeit and untested devices. A sub-par product installed in a home or building does not only fail a shop comparison. It can fail a safety standard that exists to protect health. That is why the chamber pairs its market warnings with calls for tighter import and distribution rules.
- Sector role: cornerstone of commercial activity
- Demand anchor: housing and construction needs
- Consumer interest: safe, efficient products still reaching buyers
- Policy interest: rules that keep untested goods out of homes
As long as housing and construction continue to draw on the formal channel, the 3,000-plus merchants and their payrolls stay relevant to more than retail foot traffic alone. They are part of how finished space gets equipped under Jordanian technical rules.
Competition Still Serves the Buyer
Zoubi stressed that goods remain abundant and that competition benefits consumers. Shelf prices held steady even while importers absorbed higher shipping, insurance, and origin costs. That outcome is the consumer-facing side of the same squeeze formal shops describe.
Abundance plus stable prices means households have not faced empty shelves or a sudden jump in ticket prices on electrical lines. The cost of that stability shows up instead in thinner margins, frozen credit, and occasional sales at pure cost inside the formal chain.
Competition from social ads and personal-card imports sharpens the price signal further. It also shifts risk. When an advertised bargain skips full oversight, the buyer may gain on the sticker and lose on compliance, service, or safety. The chamber’s argument is that lasting consumer benefit depends on keeping the competitive field inside the rules that already apply to formal importers.
Until personal-card routes, postal parcels, and online offers face clearer checks, formal shops will keep competing on price while carrying costs their rivals often avoid. Consumers see the stable tags today. The open question is whether the oversight gap stays wide enough to keep pushing tested stock toward break-even sales.
Calls That Still Need Answers
Zoubi closed by describing the electrical and electronics sector as a cornerstone of Jordan’s commercial activity, tightly linked to housing and construction. He wants import and distribution rules tightened, counterfeit goods fought, and operational hurdles removed so citizens keep receiving safe, efficient products.
Concrete requests on the table include:
- Regulate personal trade-card imports of electrical goods
- Mandate the importer’s name printed on products
- Subject all electrical postal parcels to JSMO testing
- Give small shops longer payment windows from suppliers
- Continue Customs facilitation and ministry coordination
None of those steps has been announced as new policy in the latest release. The formal merchants who already play by the rules will keep absorbing the cost and credit pressures until enforcement or new circulars change the balance. For now the goods stay plentiful, the advertised bargains keep appearing on phones, and the 25,000 jobs rest on shops that must still clear every invoice.
