Dubai: Rewarding shoppers with big-ticket items has long been used as a strategy to lure consumer spending. It is one way for traders to maintain parity with the competition.

However, in the case of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), the winning proposition is not intended solely to generate sales, but to provide incentives to people for patronising the event.

"The raffles are not seen as tools to boost retail revenues, but are part of rewarding shoppers and visitors of DSF in a unique and spectacular way," said Abdullah Amiri, government relations manager and head of raffles committee of the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment, formerly known as the Dubai Shopping Festival Office.

The Lexus and Nissan raffles are just some of the massive promotions that offer shoppers and visitors a chance to win a fortune during the month-long DSF.

Participating malls are dangling exciting prizes ranging from luxury cars to Dh1 million in cash. At the Mall of the Emirates and Deira City Centre, those who shop for Dh300 or more at any of the 800 stores can win a prize worth Dh2 million.

One winner will have the choice to own a luxury sports car, a private yacht or a Tuscan villa, all worth Dh2 million each.

At Ibn Battuta, every Dh200 spent entitles a shopper to win pricey and sought-after items in the "Lucky Scratch, Instant Win" promotion. Products to be won include LCD TVs, iPods, laptops and gift cards.

The Festival Centre, for its, part, is offering shoppers a chance to win Dodge cars, while Al Ghurair City has teamed up with Emirates to give away return tickets that will allow residents to fly in their loved ones.

Sales increase

Mercato and Town Centre Jumeirah are offering a brand new luxury Jaguar XF to a lucky shopper.

Even those who are not spending money can win a prize. Through the "Ultimate Wish List" promo, visitors who write down the things they wish to get stand a chance to bring home some prizes. Mall tenants have sponsored Dh50,000 worth of products to grant shoppers' wishes.

Rana Jaser, PR and corporate communications manager, Mercato and Town Centre Jumeirah, said the DSF success can be attributed to the consumer promotions that are anchored on raffle draws and prize redemptions. She noted that sales at Mercato increased 14 per cent during the third week of DSF compared with the first few days of the shopping event.

No regulations

Colin Beaton, founder and managing director of Limelight Creative Services, a boutique retail strategy and design firm, said there are no regulations that limit the kind of promotions and draws that malls can offer.

"So, to a certain degree, the spend and win promotion is simple and easy to execute as it has been used for years. It's also a closed end promotion, ie, the maximum cost to the mall is limited and predetermined to the value of the [prizes] given away, as opposed to an open-ended promotion [like you get Dh10 voucher for every Dh300 you spend] where you cannot predict how much it will cost to redeem all the vouchers," he said.

However, Colin noted that festival organisers or retailers will have no choice but to continue the winning proposition every year because winning a luxury prize is now embedded in the consumer's set of expectations.

Malls in particular have to keep the rewards going in order to maintain parity with the competition.

"It will be very hard to take that away. Once you establish a pattern of consumer behaviour based on a significant free benefit, you must continue to provide it or remove it at your peril. It's a similar story to airlines and frequent-flier programmes, many airlines would like to do away with them, but they fear the negative customer backlash," said Beaton.

"Failing to offer these prizes would be seen as below consumer's base expectations and they may shop somewhere else in order to have the prize opportunities they consider to be mandatory benefit during DSF," he added.