Denis Opudo
Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry will host the fourth Retail Leaders Circle MENA annual summit schedule at Four Seasons Resort. The event will take place on 27-28th March at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. The theme for this year is entitled “Re-imagining Retail in the Middle East: Innovation and Disruption”. The largest industry leaders including Chalhoub Group as well as Microsoft will participate in the summit. Besides industry leaders, more than 360 perspectives geared toward solving both international and regional retail challenges will take part. There will be also about 250 industry stakeholders in this year summit with the goal of streamlining resent consumer trends. This will help the industry players to gain market insights, competitive behavior and meeting consumer expectations. The reason for this initiative is due counteracts change of consumer behavior triggered by modern technology.
According to a survey by the Accenture, most of the MENA customers nowadays prefer the use of mobile shopping. The average numbers of mobile users were 62% which is higher than the global rate which stands at 40% now. Additionally, MENA residents this year will purchase most of their commodities via Smartphone. The survey indicated adoption rate of 39 percent which greater than 27 percent worldwide.
The head of travel, retail, and hospitality, Microsoft Middle East & Africa, Ramy Fares noted that retailers face serious problems. They are nowadays considering going digital transformation in a bid to enhance solutions to problems associated with the massive market change. He added that digital platforms such as social media, cloud, AI, visual analytics and cognitive intelligence can help in customers’ retention. Industrial players also expect to benefit from Microsoft platforms and strategies in order to transform this current shopping pattern in the marketplaces.
President and CEO of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, H.E. Hamad Buamim explained that retailers need to adopt new technology. He emphasized that change in consumer behavior, as well as modern technologies, are the key opportunities among the innovative retailers. The summit provides insight into this challenge based on the worldwide retail market.
The event has incorporated several sessions to discuss this matter.They include Venture Capital and Investing, industry perspective, factors to consider when competing in the e-commerce among others. Additional speakers Sanjay Manchanda, Rajesh Garg, Khaled Talhouni will be source give the way forward in the retail sector. The Chairman of Retail Leaders Circle MENA, Panos Linardos, encouraged retailers to make good use of modem technology. He pointed out that innovation is the only arsenal for meeting dynamic market environments powered by low-cost access internet.
