UAE: Dubai Retail

While Dubai’s retail space continues to expand and adapt to global trends, recent years have seen some particular external challenges for the local sector. A sustained period of low oil and gas prices, starting in 2014 and continuing into 2018, has impacted sentiment and disposable incomes in many Gulf states, while economic slowdowns in Asia...

Cranes and skyscrapers are a familiar site on the horizon, but Dubai is soon to become home to a 210-metretall Ferris wheel, the Ain Dubai. Set to be the largest in the world upon completion, the wheel will act as the centrepiece of the Bluewaters Island project, a mixed-use development being built on reclaimed land by the government-backed...

Although multiple factors are reshaping Dubai’s retail sector, new changes to visa regulations have helped the emirate achieve a significant increase in the number of international tourists, helping it remain a top global destination.

Dubai is one of the world’s leading shopping capitals, and the retail and wholesale sector is the biggest single contributor to the economy. Local iconic malls are constantly reinventing themselves, searching for new brands and experiences to attract global consumers to spend on fly-and-buy excursions.

The retail industry has played a key role in the rapid development of Dubai over the past four decades and remains a firm pillar underpinning economic growth. The interplay between retail, real estate, air transport and tourism is fundamental to Dubai’s value proposition for consumers and investors. The city has established itself as the...

The combination of alluring destination malls and a rapidly expanding airline has created a “fly-and-buy” shopping economy in Dubai in recent years, but retailers in the emirate have found it more difficult to tap into the broader global potential of e-commerce. “E-commerce is the largest threat and the biggest opportunity,” Nisreen Shocair,...