The UAE's ever-vibrant retail sector is witnessing new trends as the industry tries to balance between bricks and clicks catering to ever high tech-savvy consumers.
While the oversupply of malls and shops may see the softening of demand retailers are now tapping the online route to ensure customers are retained both online and offline. New channels of social media platforms are engaged for a more effective shopping experience.
Prathibha T.J., lead solutions facilitator at Xpandretail, said: "It is without a doubt that retail has become and continues to become more vibrant and diverse. We are witnessing more independent stores - not fewer. Stemming from behaviour analytics, personalisation is now becoming the key retail trend as we move deeper into 2018."
So what are the new trends? Prathibha explained that robots will be playing an imperative role in supporting retail operations, such as fulfilment centres, and play another crucial role online, in the form of chatbots.
Consumer behaviour is rapidly evolving and is embracing instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. As the rise of Instagram Stories, Facebook Live and messenger apps is changing the way retailers interact with consumers, simply posting photos or updates to a branded social profile isn't cutting it anymore.
Retailers are now being pushed to up their social media game and use social networks and apps to tell stories to engage with their fans in real time.
Future retailing is integrating aspects of both physical store and e-commerce (bricks-and-clicks) formats by leveraging technology to deliver consumers the best shopping experience. With the convergence of various smart technologies, virtualising of physical objects, giving them an identity, connecting them, and interacting with them to capture data have all been made possible in today's retail scene which alone is putting retail in the forefront as the key economic denominator in the UAE.
"The rise of e-commerce has put an unprecedented amount of pressure on retailers to find ways to get their products to their customers faster, cheaper and with the best possible experience. Consumer expectations for faster delivery are reshuffling the whole supply chain model; from where inventory gets stored to how it gets delivered to customers," said Dani El-Zein, UAE general manager, Quqiup.
"The consumer's expectations today are high and are only getting higher - they want a seamless online shopping experience followed by fast and flexible delivery that arrives when and where most convenient."
The UAE is the home to the young and fashion conscious segment and many global brands are well entrenched in the market place. The recent announcement by the UAE Government to give VAT refunds to tourists is bound to give a fillip to the overall retail trade especially the luxury segment. With several mall projects and the several other localised shopping centres on the anvil in the coming two years is likely to spur growth for the retail businesses.
Krishnan Ramachandran, CEO, Barjeel Geojit, said: "The retail sector after about two years of slow growth is now on a consolidation mode and expected to recover during the second half of the year. The presence of large mass affluent population in the UAE along with the growing tourist footfalls will hold the retail sector in good shape in the coming years."
The latest report from Cushman & Wakefield Core indicates that brick and mortar retailers are increasing their presence online to target all consumer preferences. David Abood, partner, Cushman & Wakefield Core, said: "Consumer and business sentiment is expected to improve visibly over 2018 due to the launch of several large infrastructure projects announced by Dubai Government and various policy initiatives aiming to attract tourists and overnight visitors."
Dubai's retail sector sustained challenges over 2017 due to the lingering weakness in retail spend seen over 2014-2016 caused by a decline in business sentiment and oil prices. This decline was also compounded by a steady increase in retail supply exerting further pressure on mall operators to attract tenants and higher footfalls.
However, community malls and new retail developments in upcoming areas continued to see slow traction, pressing mall operators to offer additional incentives to attract tenants. Average occupancy in established malls across this sub-segment fell by 3-5 per cent to 80-83 per cent.
Abood said: "Although most mainstream retail stock is still held by state-backed developers, we are starting to see community retail gain interest from institutional investors. Emirates REIT holds Le Grande Community Mall in Dubai Marina and ENBD REIT recently acquired Souq Extra Retail Centre in Dubai Silicon Oasis. We expected this trend to continue, with well performing community retail centres with mid-tier brands and established catchment areas to achieve steady yields."