Clipping from Middle East Retail Forum taking from the Images Annual Edition mentioning Michael Leander (speaker) and many retail owners and CEO's of retail businesses in the Middle East

1. 32 www.imagesretailme.comANNUAL 2015
Connecting and sharing to evolve
– a closer look at MRF 2015

2. 33www.imagesretailme.com ANNUAL 2015
Hidesign is predominantly into
brick-and-mortar. It’s all about
the look, feel, touch and smell of
leather. But today, 20% of our sales
come from the online platform,
which saw sales rising 130%
last year. We now endeavour to
translate our online customer base
into offline traffic. We also leverage
social media meaningfully.
– Adel Rashid, CEO, Hidesign
Middle East
“If you wish to understand the
culture and heritage of a region,
you need to interact with its people,
It’s important to open a dialogue,
ask questions and find answers to
your questions.
– Nasif Kayed, managing director,
Sheikh Mohammed Centre for
Cultural Understanding
I
n a connected consumer world, one-
upmanship is a mind-set that could
leave retailers isolated and disoriented
by the rapid changes in consumer
behaviour we are witnessing today. The
smarter option is to share knowledge,
industry best practices and insights
into shopper motivations and paths-to-
purchase. That would empower retailers
to prepare a revised road map to meet the
demands of today’s savvy, well-informed
and ‘always connected’ customers.
Does this imply the path to leadership
in retail is no longer about competing?
Hardly so. Business leadership is still about
competition, about being better than the
rest, but not in the way it used to be. The
simple truth is that a silo approach can’t
work in a connected and complex world in
which no retailer can lay claim to knowing
everything about everything.
‘Connect, Share, Evolve’, the prescient
theme of this year’s Middle East Retail
Forum (MRF), was about breaking silos to
catalyse profitable growth in retail through
knowledge sharing.
“It’s only by sharing of experiences and
insights that we can hope to facilitate the
growth of retail,” observes Amitabh Taneja,
chairman and managing director of the
Images Group.
“It’s why we decided to introduce six
sector-specific conclaves in the MRF
agenda this year, based on feedback we got
from retailers and industry professionals.
That made the discussions and sharing
more wide-ranging and engaging,” he adds.
Around 80 retail industry professionals
spoke about their experiences to more
than 500 delegates over two days on
October 27-28 at the Conrad Hotel in
Dubai.
The occasion also saw the launch of a
limited edition coffee table book, ‘Vision
& Views’, which chronicles the successes
and struggles of 30 retail stalwarts in
the region. The collated stories archive
the history of the retail industry in this
part of the world, providing snapshots of
the evolving times and the growth and
development of trade and commerce since
the 1950s.
Rupkatha Bhowmick summarises
the insightful presentations at these six,
power-packed roundtable discussions that
included the much-awaited Retail Business
Owners and CEOs Conclave, Logistics
Conclave, Technology Conclave, Marketing
Conclave, Retail Design Conclave and
Shopping Mall Conclave
The view from the
top of the pyramid
The Retail Business Owners and CEOs
Conclave had 20 speakers from diverse
areas of retail, ranging from decades-old
family businesses to e-commerce concepts,
from cinemas to technology solutions
providers and from F&B experts to beauty
specialists. They were joined by a marketing
guru, an investment banker and researcher,
and a proponent of cultural integration,
whose presentations are summarised below.
There were some common threads
weaving through the deliberations of
the conclave – how to optimally meet
fast-changing consumer behaviour with
innovative retailing; how to meaningfully
interact with – and ‘outsmart’ – today’s
new-age customers by deploying advanced
technology solutions; and, above all, to
gain useful insights from the successes and
failures of peers.
Retail contributes around 12%
of the region’s GDP, making it
an important component of the
economies of most GCC countries.
– Mahboob Murshed, managing
director, Alpen Capital (ME)
Limited
RETAIL BUSINESS OWNERS AND CEOS CONCLAVE

3. 34 www.imagesretailme.comANNUAL 2015
“However, the region also faces several
challenges,” he is quick to point out.
“Over 80% of the workforce in retail
are expatriates, so the industry faces
high attrition, visa constraints and strict
regulation of unskilled workers.”
“Moreover, the rapid growth of home-
grown concepts is intensifying competition
and fragmenting the market. Competition
is also leading to major international
brands vying for space in prime catchment
areas, given the lack of high quality retail
space in the market,” Mahboob continues.
“Even in the fast-expanding online retail
sector, growth lags behind developed
countries because the infrastructure to
boost growth is inadequate, while delivery
nodes and inventory remain under-
developed. Also, there’s still a persisting
lack of trust in online shopping among
customers, one reason being counterfeit
products, which is why most of them opt
for cash-on-delivery,” he elaborates.
Other concerns include high average
retail rentals – 54% increase in primary
although Saudi Arabia will remain the
largest market in 2018, contributing 47%
of total retail sales, the UAE’s share being
25%,” he continues.
The factors boosting the regional retail sector
include:
■ High spending power, with the affluent
population expected to grow by over 30% by 2023
■ Among the highest GDP per capita globally
■ Young and aware population – 58% aged
between 15-and-44 years – highly brand conscious
and open to new ideas and tastes
■ Major tourist destination, particularly countries
like the UAE that is at the forefront of retailing.
Tourist numbers set to grow at 7.7% CAGR to 45.7
million by 2018, driven by religious tourism in
Saudi Arabia and retail tourism in the UAE, which
attracts over 35 million visitors a year to The Dubai
Mall/Mall of the Emirates and events like the Dubai
Shopping Festival, Gitex and Cityscape.
“The UAE is the most developed retail
market in the GCC region, with Dubai
accounting for 65% of the country’s retail
sales. The emirate has the second largest
number of global brands after London,
some of these brands not being available
even in the US and Europe,” Mahboob adds.
From one to 52 stores, from two
to over 650 employees and from
a small cookie concept to an
integrated food company – we’ve
experienced all this by developing
a competitive edge that’s critical
in this day and age where
everything is available, compelling
retailers to carve a differentiating
factor for themselves.
– Essa Behbehani, founder, Chewy
Goowy
The customer is king – that’s no
exaggeration. We must look after
our customers and offer them
a delightful experience. That’s
what will keep them coming
back to us. We engage our guests
through social media in a way
that makes them feel special.
– Debbie Stanford Kristiansen,
CEO, Novo Cinemas
Retail is shaping up
well in the GCC
It has, undeniably, been an exciting time
for retail in the GCC. Qatar was ranked
fourth among 30 key developing countries
in AT Kearney’s annual Global Retail
Development Index (GRDI) for 2015. The
index, which reflects a country’s potential
as a retail investment destination for
international retailers looking to expand
globally, has the UAE ranking seventh, with
other GCC countries like Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and Oman also figuring in the global
top 30, despite market saturation (in the
UAE), increased country risk (in Jordan)
and GDP slowdown from falling oil prices
(in Kuwait).
“Retail contributes around 12% of the
region’s GDP, making it an important
component of the economies of most
GCC countries,” avers Mahboob Murshed,
managing director, Alpen Capital (ME)
Limited. “This sector has been growing
strongly and is expected to clock 7% CAGR
through to 2018 to touch $285 billion.”
“Qatar is the most promising market
with 10% CAGR over the next five years,
Retailers must speak to consumers
in their preferred language. For
example, in the Middle East
Lush’s advertisements are more
digital compared to the US or the
UK where we largely communicate
through the print medium.
– Anita Baker, business director,
Lush MENA

4. 35www.imagesretailme.com ANNUAL 2015
malls in Dubai and around 40% in
secondary malls since 2013, the steep fall
in oil prices that is impacting economies
still dependent of the hydrocarbon sector
and political turbulence in the region.
“However, despite these challenges, the
outlook for retail in the GCC still looks
bright,” Mehboob believes.
How Dubai wove its
multicultural fabric
“If you wish to understand the culture
and heritage of a region, you need to
interact with its people,” says Nasif
Kayed, managing director of the
Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural
Understanding (SMCCU). “It’s important
to open a dialogue, ask questions and find
answers to your questions,” he says.
Kayed recalls what life was like in the
Middle East before oil was discovered.
“The Middle East is where civilisation
began, as vibrant then as it is today,” he
observes. “We may have nation states
today, with borders, flags, national
anthems, passports and visas. These are
all new things. What binds us together
is our origins – we all belong to the
Mesopotamian civilisation. We came to the
Gulf from places like Babylon or Baghdad,
Retail is a profitable yet
challenging industry. So one has
to make the right decisions at the
right time and continue evolving.
– Furqan Athar, managing
director, Spret Retail
At SAP, we work with over 12,500
retailers globally. Every region
is different so we have to keep in
mind the cultural nuances and
needs of each region while devising
game-changing technologies.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution
in retail today. Technology is set to
change how retail is conducted.
– Hannes Liebe, co-MD & COO,
SAP MENA
We strongly believe in
multichannel marketing but there’s
a lot of noise. What businesses will
have to do is create microsites and
micro-experiences for specific user-
sets, allowing them to discover
what they’re looking for, fostering
meaningful retailer-consumer
interaction.
– Ian Ohan, founder & CEO,
Freedom Pizza
Nasif Kayed

5. 36 www.imagesretailme.comANNUAL 2015
around the old Al Fahidi district as it is
for them to include a visit to The Dubai
Mall in their itinerary. That’s what we do
at SMCCU. We seek to create synergies,
highlighting heritage and traditions
along with exploring new ways of doing
business,” Kayed concludes.
Connect with customers so
they can experience brands
In the evolving world of modern retail, the
focus is increasingly shifting to consumers
and the customer experience. Forbes
Insights predicts that by 2020, customer
experience will overtake product and
pricing as the key business differentiator.
“Businesses must first get their
marketing foundation in place,” advises
multi-award winning international
marketer Michael Leander, CEO of The
Michael Leander Company, commenting on
the changing mind-set in the retail world.
He sees a great customer experience as
a process that combines different aspects,
which include:
■ Anticipating customer needs
■ Providing timely service
■ Differentiating and personalising
communication
■ Understanding preferences
■ Managing the permission
Retail is leveraging technology to
personalise and automate the process.
This is already happening, investments
are being made and people are being
trained, but everything’s still in a nascent,
exploratory stage.
“When doing something new, the starting
point is the same for all businesses. It’s
like starting with a blank canvas. What
decides success is what you do on this
canvas and the decisions you make. You
must marry the customer experience and
your communication in filling the canvas to
deliver your brand promise,” he articulates.
“Businesses must look at their brands
and examine how they are being handled.
For many, it’s still not about delivering the
promise in all aspects of the business. It’s
fragmented, more about what’s happening
in store or whether the television
commercial is generating a good response.
While online is growing rapidly in
the region, people still like visiting
shopping malls. That’s quite
interesting. It makes retailing in
this region exciting and challenging.
– Kunal Kapoor, founder and
managing director, The Luxury
Closet
We’ve seen exponential growth in
our business over the last 18 years.
This growth is the direct result
of developing an understanding
of our customers – their likes,
dislikes, buying behaviour – and
evolving our merchandise mix as
well as store design on the basis of
this understanding. This process is
critical for any retail business to
function successfully today.
– Khurshid Vakil, co-founder &
executive director, Marina Home
Interiors
in search of pearls. People from other parts
of the world began coming to us to trade
and exchange goods. The place where we
did business was the Dubai creek. Even
today, it’s one of the busiest ports.”
“Dubai’s visionary ruler His Highness,
the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al
Maktoum, built the Jebel Ali port, which
today ferries 1,352 containers every hour.
Many thought it was lunacy to build such a
massive port in the middle of the desert,”
Kayed continues.
“The emirate has since seen several
other such developments, particularly
in retail, that didn’t seem to make much
sense at the time they were undertaken.
Examples include The Dubai Mall and Mall
of the Emirates, which today are among
the world’s busiest and most iconic retail
destinations,” he adds.
The big question now, says Kayed, is how
retail can recognise and respect disparate
cultures while seeking to establish cross-
cultural links between people.
“Dubai is a melting pot of cultures.
It’s important for retailers to understand
cultural nuances if they wish to deliver a
memorable shopping experience to their
customers. At the same time, it’s important
to preserve Dubai’s cultural heritage, which
defines its people. So it’s equally necessary
for residents and tourists to take a walk
Experiential retail is definitely
gaining significance. But
online, too, is growing rapidly.
– Jeremy Johnston, CEO,
Zuhoor Al Reef

6. 37www.imagesretailme.com ANNUAL 2015
Customer experience is crucial
in retail. It’s what we offer our
customers at NStyle International.
More than 50,000 women visit our
stores across the Middle East and
North America every month. We
try to provide them a fulfilling
shopping experience for the money
they spend with us. Retailing
today is all about the customer
experience – Lama Bazzari, serial
entrepreneur & philanthropist,
founder, NStyle International
The e-commerce industry is
booming. It’s estimated at $2
billion and is expected to close at
$3 billion this year. But in this
part of the world, with almost
98-99% mobile penetration,
mobile commerce is seeing even
better prospects than e-commerce.
– Mona Ataya, founder & CEO,
Mumzworld.com
It’s exciting the way retail is
changing. It’s all about experience
today, in a day and age when
almost everything is available
online or at a neighbourhood store.
So we’ve to give these new-age
consumers compelling reasons to
visit us multiple times every week
and spend their time and money
with us – even though we don’t sell
anything that they need. But we
deal in about 360,000 products that
they want. That’s why we empower
our staff to serve every customer in
a fulfilling manner, offering them
a delightful experience and giving
them reasons to come back.
– Nisreen Shocair, president,
Virgin Megastore Middle East
Brands must be built in entirely new ways.
Brand values must be experienced, not just
communicated,” Leander comments.
He would like to see businesses
internalise such a holistic approach to
meet evolving consumer expectations.
But managing the communication to
convey the message is neither simple nor
straightforward. “People have a lower
attention span than a goldfish, which
can focus for about nine seconds. A
human being’s attention span is just about
8.2 seconds. That makes for a serious
communication problem!” cautions Leander.
“With the abundance of choices buyers
have today, retailers will have to engage
with them continuously to evoke a desired
behaviour. But they would first have toMichael Leander

7. 38 www.imagesretailme.comANNUAL 2015
Reinventing is crucial in retail.
That’s what we’ve done. It’s
been over a year since we
changed the retail mix, look
and feel of our stores. And we’ve
seen very positive changes.
– Shivam Sharma, CEO, Sana
It’s very important to constantly
add newness in retail.
Businesses will have to think of
new ways of doing business.
– Sarah Jones, founder, Mini
Exchange
Textile retailing is a very old
business. Our goal is to evolve our
business by harnessing technology.
– Raju Shroff, managing director,
Regal Group
zero in on the right consumer segment and
identify its needs before targeting their
communication,” explains Leander.
Much of this communication will be
digital – though magazines and newspapers
will still play a part – if we go by a Gartner
study indicating that by 2020, customers
will manage 85% of their relationships
without talking to a human!
“Going digital means handling data.
Retailers today speak about big data. But
big data works only when the small data is
in place. So connecting with consumers is
always important – be it in-store, online, or,
increasingly, mobility. Businesses will have
to speak to customers in their language,
addressing the problems, concerns and
aspirations of each one personally and
individually, not as a collective segment,”
Leander cautions.
Technology is an enabler to
capture and analyse data
It would be stating the obvious to say
technology is one of the biggest catalysts
of modern retail.
But, says Mark Thomson, director
of retail & hospitality EMEA, Zebra
Technologies, retailers shouldn’t devote too
much of their time and energy in devising a
technology strategy. “What they should be
doing is developing customer, business and
operations-oriented strategies. Technology
should be seen as an enabler that helps
them gather data. What really matters is
collating, analysing and putting that data to
good use, enabling them to make the right
decisions at the right time,” he emphasises.
How can this data be used by retailers
to manage their relationship with their
customers and staff, and how can it
help streamline the relationship and
communication between staff and
Mark Thomson

8. 39www.imagesretailme.com ANNUAL 2015
We call our loyal customers ‘fans’
and our stores ‘theatres’, making
them feel at ease when they
visit us. That’s how we’re able
to connect with them and make
them our brand ambassadors.
– Thomas Lundgren, founder &
CEO, THE One
Today it has become critical
to leverage all channels within
retail – offline, online, mobile and
social media – to connect with
the hyper-connected consumer.
– Ziad Matta, founder & CEO,
Boutique 1 Group
We’re changing course. That’s
important in a dynamic field like
retail. From being an e-commerce
only company, we’re transforming
into a marketplace based on a
predictive model that deploys
artificial intelligence.
– Ulugbek Yuldashev, founder and
managing director, Awok.com
customers, both online and in-store?
“If retailers have a clearer picture
of their stock, know what customers
search for online or look for in stores,
and also know what they take into the
fitting room, they are better equipped to
plan a satisfying and fulfilling customer
experience. All this can be done by
leveraging technologies like RFID and
Wi-Fi,” Thomson elaborates.
“But,” he reiterates emphatically, “it’s not
about the technology. It’s about connecting
with the consumer.”
“Retailers can equip their staff with the
required information and tools to engage
with in-store shoppers in newer ways.
For example, visualise a situation where a
customer is interested in buying a handbag
but not immediately. The retailer should
give her the option to add the item to her
favourites online, even though she’s in the
physical store. Engaging with her in this
way will ensure the customer is retained
and not lost,” Thomson points out.
“It’s also important to understand where
your customers are, what they’re doing,
even what they’re thinking of doing.
The technology to do this is available.
Retailers like Amazon and Google have
invested in such predictive technology,
which is basically a set of tools to analyse
patterns in data so that past behaviour
can be used to forecast likely future
behaviour. The set could include loyalty
cards, beacons and wireless devices that
help track a shopper coming to the store,
the aisles she visits, the items that attract
her attention and how long she spends in
different sections,” he continues.
“Checkout, too, must happen in the
manner consumers like it today – quick
and convenient,” Thomson adds.
He cites the example of CVS in the UK,
which has tripled its investment in digital
technology since 2013 and plans to double
that amount moving forward. “The group
has the largest retail deployment to date of
beacon technology. It delivers personalised
alerts for prescriptions and personalised
discounts on other items to members
of its ExtraCare loyalty programme the
moment they enter a CVS store. For added
convenience, the loyalty card can now
be embedded in the mobile CVS app,”
Thomson explains.
Another concern of retailers is to
increase productivity and lower costs. That
means engaging with and empowering
their staff.
“Store staff must be better informed
and connected. There are various ways of
doing this – through mobile phones, mobile
computer or voice patches that enable
front-end staff to interact with back-end
processes like the warehouse. These tools
also ensure effective communication
between the staff and customers, which is
crucial because a frustrated or dissatisfied
customer is almost inevitably a lost
customer,” Thomson elaborates.
He points out that tools such as RFID,
video analytics and Wi-Fi also make
tracking operations more visible and agile.
“Consider the supply chain. It’s possible
to pinpoint a product in-store or in the
warehouse or even in transit. By keeping
stock of inventory, it’s possible to move a
product from where it is available to where
it is needed. That’s not all. Omnichannel
retail means reaching a product to the
customer wherever she is. It could be her
home, office or the nearest point between
home and work. Which means the supply
chain needs to be agile and visible,”
Thomson concludes. ■