The growing volume of local independent stores defines the future of the retail industry especially with the striking advantages available for these stores nowadays. UAE retailers can now easily appear on customers’ social media pages and reach out through direct messages by simply being online.
All these specs did not exist a few years ago for local retailers, which changes a lot in their success journey.
Listed below are the 4 most important trends for UAE retailers in 2024.
Expanding customer base through online transactions
It is often easy for UAE retailers to communicate with customers in their neighborhoods or cities, however, creating an online store allows them to expand their customer base beyond neighboring areas and target an audience beyond the area they exist in.
Today, 43% of UAE consumers adopt Click-and-Mortar™ shopping strategies, 4 percentage points more than the global average of 39%. (Source: 2024 Global Digital Shopping Index: UAE Edition)
Blending the online and local shopping experiences
Many consumers still prefer to shop inside an actual store for the chance to check the product personally before buying it and leaving the house of course. Local retailers are now more aware of the importance of digitizing products and being online, however, they know it is not a substitute for personal interactions at shops; it just compliments the shopping experience.
Thus, local retailers can now blend these experiences by allowing customers to check the product in-store but buy it later on the site or help customers find what they’re looking for on the shelf faster than they saw it online before.
Same-day delivery or delivery is an advantage for local retailers
According to Contimod, Online shoppers using same-day delivery increased by 50% from 2020 to 2021., yet not all retailers offer same-day delivery.
On the other hand, delayed shipping and supply problems are very common issues for large brands, therefore local retailers have an opportunity to compete by offering a same-day delivery service.
The fact is, local retailers are closer to customers and can set up systems to deliver products to customers faster, which in turn leads to increased sales as people are more encouraged to put items in their baskets knowing they will get them soon enough.
Social media and e-commerce go hand in hand, giving local retailers a competitive advantage
Local retailers enjoy a more realistic understanding of their communities, so they can communicate better with local customers than global competitors. By being present and marketing on social media when their customers are active and linking their marketing initiatives to local events for greater interaction.
Social media sites realized their importance in driving sales, especially to local retailers so they developed themselves to allow them to advertise without the need to allocate big budgets to set up their accounts and stores.
At Paymennt we are aware of the importance of social media in completing transactions, similarly, we know how crucial it is to speed up the transaction process, for that, we worked to provide a secure link payment service sent through social media. Retailers can send payment links to their customers through Facebook or Instagram messages, whereas the client opens the link and pays with his credit card without having to download any application. Learn More about how payment links work through our full guide
For more details about Paymennt reach out to us.
