Dubai: In a sharp departure from convention, Dubai’s neighbourhood malls are being roped in to take on prominent parts in the upcoming Dubai Shopping Festival campaign. By doing so, the intention is to create more depth to the key retail season and at the same time bring about some balance vis-a-vis the destination malls that have traditionally dominated this period.
DSF 2014 will run from January 2 to February 2.
More than 20 neighbourhood malls — those having less than 100 outlets — have already signed up for the DSF run and more are expected to follow.
“The impression is — and to an extent this is quite true — that DSF campaigns are always about Dubai’s mega-malls; but the city’s retail landscape has evolved over a much wider area,” said Eisa Ebrahim, member of the board of directors at Dubai Shopping Malls Group (DSMG). “But beyond the tourists who come in during DSF and head for the destination malls, there is a vast domestic shopper base who need options on where to buy and take part in the promotions.
“With the neighbourhood malls participating fully in the 2014 DSF run, these shoppers now have a chance to do so.”
‘Shop & Win’ promotion
This is where the ‘Shop & Win’ promotion will play its part. For Dh200 spent at any of the participating outlets, the shopper wins a raffle coupon and an automatic entry into the draw for a possible Dh500,000 bonanza on the campaign’s final day.
The last three years have seen more community malls opening in Dubai serving well-defined residential clusters. While scoring consistently high traffic over weekends, they have also managed to draw in those looking to do their everyday shopping or entertainment needs. As the city widens further, the stock of new community-themed shopping destinations will only grow further.
“Dubai’s destination malls have historically run their own campaigns during DSF, but with the next version DSMG’s brief was to fully exploit the potential that the city’s community shopping locations could provide,” said Baiju Kurieash, CEO at Buz Marketing, which is advising the mall grouping on the promotion. “What it means is that an everyday shopper somewhere in the city gets an equal opportunity to win by visiting his neighbourhood mall with the new promotion.
“There’s a fine balance that Dubai’s retail sector can achieve between sales generated by visitors to the city during DSF and domestic shoppers - neighbourhood malls can help in that process.”
Among the malls to have signed up for the promotion are Bin Sougat Centre, Barsha Mall, Etihaad Mall and Time Square Centre.
