Dubai: With Dubai’s malls and their retailers gearing up for 24-hour weekends during the Eid festivities, how fast they can come up with on-the-spot promotions will influence whether they succeed or not. What it also means is that offering discounts alone will not be enough to pull in shoppers and, more importantly, get them to stay longer at the malls.
This is why instant promotions — which could be offered between 1am to 5am, for instance — and would be an incentive for shoppers to stay on longer are so vital in a 24-hour cycle. Even if shopping activity were to subside in the pre-dawn hours, malls expect the visitors to stay on and patronise the F&B or entertainment options.
More so, as Dubai has specifically geared this promotion to tap inbound visitors from the GCC and elsewhere. “The late night culture of many of the tourists and other nationalities will make the destination of Dubai even more compelling,” said David Macadam, regional director – head of retail at the consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle. “Given the optimism in the general market, the already high occupancy levels enjoyed by the hotels and the coming Eid holidays, the malls’ extended shopping will quickly spread the word for Dubai.”
The US has its version of an all-day shopping spree in the form of “Black Friday”, but Dubai’s case is unique in that 48-hour sales cycles are being created over three separate weekends.
Local authorities have done their part by allowing malls and retailers the freedom to manoeuvre without the need for extensive pre-approval processes. The key incentive is that retailers do not have to pay any charges to run these campaigns.
“Retailers in participating malls are eligible to offer spontaneous promotions during the celebration weekends and this is supported by Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE) by granting them free permission,” said Eisa Adam, director at the Dubai Shopping Malls Group. “This contributes towards creating added excitement during the 24-hour celebratory activity during the night hours. All that a participating retailer needs to do is register the promotion details with DEPE and receive an exempt from an additional fee.”
By cutting down on the pre-approval process, malls and retailers can also rework their promotions if they find they are not getting the desired results or come up with something new.
Retail groups that Gulf News spoke to said they were working on the promotions with the first ones set to run this weekend. However, they declined to go into details. While coming up with promotions that strike a chord with shoppers is one thing, retailers will have their hands full to get in enough personnel across a 48-hour stretch.
“We are planning to operate three shifts during the day and hiring experienced part-timers,” said Vishesh Bhatia, CEO at Jumbo Electronics. “This being the first time for everyone, staffing stores 24x7 is an interesting challenge.”
Here too local authorities have lent a hand by allowing retailers to approach the Ministry of Labour or Tasheel to source temporary work permits. Eligible candidates need to be above 18 years and should have a valid NOC issued by a sponsor.
Given that promotions tend to carry a high cost, can retailers expect a decent return? “The extra staffing and extra costs associated with the extended hours will become part of the marketing costs borne by the retailers,” said Macadam. “Whether the extended hours translate into greater sales and profitability remains to be seen.”
But Dubai, and its retail sector, may not necessarily be looking at the bottomline with this campaign.
