With the Holidays approaching us, a scroll down my social media feed and email threads shows how much retailers are fighting tooth-and-nail to offer their best.
Some highlight great discounts and prize draws, while others offer free delivery online purchases. Holiday season or not, there is no doubt that there is an increasing battle between online websites and physical stores for promotions and special offers.
Online retailers like the UAE's fashion retailers: The Modist, and Ounass offer consumers "time well saved". Customers can find the latest in fashion from ready-to-wear, to accessories, offering same-day delivery to customers in the UAE, saving them time in commuting to physical stores. The return policies are also free and could be conducted any time within a period of a month.
According to the US Census Bureau, online sales are growing at about 10 per cent per year. If this growth rate continues, online retail will account for 50 per cent by 2035.
Online retails are a threat to physical stores, and the way to address this challenge is for physical stores to go online, or have their stores offer experiences so engaging that customers cannot resist but go through ie time well spent. The more customers are rewarded with these experiences, the more time they spend with you, and the more money you will be making.
Dubai’s Level Shoe District, the world’s largest shoe store, located in Dubai Mall, jumped on the online bandwagon and offers express delivery and free return. Abu Dhabi’s department store Tryano, located in Yas Mall, offers a home service, where clients are able to view the items they desire in the comfort of their home.
Many retailers, including banks, car distributors such as the Jeep showroom in Muscat and Borders bookstore in the UK, incorporate cafes to engage their customers and encourage them to spend more time there, where most likely they end up buying something. The Dubai abaya fashion designer Hessa Al Falasi, incorporated a cafe in her showroom on Jumeirah, where her customers can indulge in delicious Italian coffee while overlooking a serene pool in the garden and browsing the latest collection.
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Another approach that physical stores could follow is to take the customers on a journey of the products’ story. When you step into one of Jo Malone’s perfume and scented candle boutiques worldwide, the sales team will walk you through the story behind each perfume, or candle, and you can enjoy a complimentary a hand and arm massage. Other services include a fragrance combining session to discover your scent, and lessons in how to surround your living space with different scents.
Alternatively the whole product or service offering can revolve around an experience. Build-a-Bear Factory is a great example. The journey of customising one’s own teddy bear is engaging and one that can be enjoyed by both adults and children. LEGO also offers the option of playing with the building blocks before purchase. Apple is another example of a brand that allows customers to interact with its many products through its spacious stores, and many sales people available to answer inquiries.
Other stores such as the fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch took the image of their sales staff much further, hiring people who look like models, thus offering a different type of experience for their customers. Until the store changed the policy a couple of years ago, many of the customers who visited Abercrombie & Fitch in London’s Bond Street did so in order to take photos with model-looking male staff who were sometimes bare-chested. Customers were offered the option of a complimentary Polaroid snapshot with the staff members to take home.
While online stores are becoming an increasing competition to physical stores, they will not eliminate them all together, at least not any time soon. However, offering a memorable, or an engaging experience is a strategy that can give an advantage over the somehow “impersonal” online shopping experience. The key is to opt for a sales approach that is time efficient and engaging at the same time.
Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati writer who manages her branding and marketing consultancy in Abu Dhabi.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars
Dubai World Cup Carnival card:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 | 2,410 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Schedule:
Pakistan v Sri Lanka:
28 Sep-2 Oct, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
6-10 Oct, 2nd Test (day-night), Dubai
13 Oct, 1st ODI, Dubai
16 Oct, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
18 Oct, 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi
20 Oct, 4th ODI, Sharjah
23 Oct, 5th ODI, Sharjah
26 Oct, 1st T20I, Abu Dhabi
27 Oct, 2nd T20I, Abu Dhabi
29 Oct, 3rd T20I, Lahore
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THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
