Dubai is home to some of the best deals and offers anyone could ever imagine from a city. With five 'Super Sales' that offer discounts up to 90 per cent and 150 days of festive promotions a year, the city has a very robust promotion ecosystem through 'The Dubai Retail Calendar'.
The offers are combined with spend and win promotions for a success formula designed to offer value for money to shoppers. Annually, the mall sector alone brings out multi-million dirhams worth of winnings against affordable purchases at their outlets. Thousands of winners receive cash, cars and jewellery shopping vouchers and free gifts from that the simple act of shopping.
Add some dining too
Dining has now become another area that rewards diners with holidays, staycations, and free memberships. The phased reopening of the retail sector during the COVID-19 phase helped steady a return of growth since June last year. A lot of credit goes to this success formula under the retail calendar.
Dubai’s raffles are world-renowned. Mandated by the Dubai Economy, there are several spend-and-win promotions funded with industry partnerships. The offers are real and shoppers get to buy world renowned brands at cheaper prices in Dubai. The evolution of such offerings goes beyond traditional sale seasons.
Dubai has its own mega sale seasons in winter and summer through Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) and Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS). As per retailers, DSF acts as an extra month in their calendar as the sales during DSF usually contribute 20-25 per cent of their annual sales depending on the sector they belong to.
Speeding towards omnichannel
As one of the highest per capita concentration of malls, retail outlets and souks, it is no wonder Dubai is unique. In the jewellery sector, Dubai’s trade has one of the highest concentration of buyers from all sources like India, China, Turkey, and Italy, thus making it one of the most competitive places for prices and choices. The jewellers buy their collections in bulk thus making it feasible for them to offer deep discounts. DSS 2021 is bundled with 130 jewellery outlets offering discounts of up to 75 per cent on diamond collections.
This format works for other categories such as fashion, home, tech and lifestyle, where the retailers pass on the savings to customers. The tech gadget category is a prime example of seamless fulfillment opportunities for customers in an omnichannel format. With the percentage of domestic shoppers increasing, these deals help clear out old stocks even as the supply chain is still reeling under COVID-19's intervention
Active emergence of online shopping platforms has added a layer of multi-channel shoppers. In the emerging 'showroom concept', retailers provide offers both in-store and online, where the focus is making sure that customer experience is maximized. Plus, Dubai brings value-for-money to its population through government platforms - and wonder why this is indeed the time to shop, save and win...