Rise of online trade gets many of Abu Dhabi’s traditional shopkeepers down about sales

At the heart of Abu Dhabi’s traditional commercial district, Hamdan Street, retailers have already suffered from the rise of online shopping with some reporting a decline of 50 to 90 per cent in sales in the last five years.

Shopkeepers attribute this largely to the rise of online trade. Sales at Sports Palace, a sports retailer beside Hamdan Centre, have dropped by half in the last five years, its manager Yousef Khoram said.

“Everything is available online,” said Mr Khoram, 35. “Everything. If it’s a famous brand, you’ll find it online.

It is not going to get better, but I don’t have plans for the future.”

Mr Khoram was helping a customer buy strings for his tennis racket. Almar Arcuna, a 33-year-old chef from the Philippines, said visits to Hamdan Street were unusual for him.

“For me, online is good because there’s no need to pay a taxi to go downtown and I can save money,” said Mr Arcuna.

The only thing Mr Khoram buys online are pet birds, which he finds on Dubizzle.

Outside Sports Palace, teenager Fatima Abdulrahman showed off the runners she had bought after seeing them on Instagram. Ms Abdulrahman and her friend Alanood Ahmed welcomed the idea of a platform that would make online shopping easier.

“It’s important when we don’t live in the big city, we live in Mohammed bin Zayed City,” said Ms Abdulrahman, 19. Although the pair prefer shopping on social media, they still travel to the city to buy formal dresses for weddings and other celebrations.

“We have many parties,” said Ms Abdulrahman. “Every week we are meeting our friends for a celebration and if you wear a dress to one wedding, you can’t wear it again.”

This could change with the expansion of local e-commerce online platforms such as Noon, which offers Arabic fashion and accessories such as the thick-leather sandals, perfumes, abayas and jalabiyas traditionally sold in the commercial quarter surrounding Hamdan Centre.

Not all shops are concerned about an online revolution. Many Hamdan Street retailers are one-stop-shops for workers buying gifts before returning home spells in the Gulf. Workers are expected to return with suitcases full of electronics, toys and clothing.

At Salmin Trading Shop, customers spend hundreds on inexpensive shoes, shirts, dresses, blankets and suitcases.

“So many of our customers don’t have credit cards and our prices are good,” said the store’s manager, Saud Salem, 34, whose uncle owns the shop. “They get their salary in cash and they buy in cash.”

One Egyptian customer, Hamdi Hilal, 44, said he had never shopped online and did not intend to start. “Anything looks beautiful in a picture and pictures are different to reality,” said Mr Hilal, testing the wheels of a suitcase. “Once I see it, I’ll buy it.”