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The road to recovery

The month July has sent out strong signals of recovery with the return towards normalcy in most sectors, including tourism, in the coming months.

“This is a crucial period for all retail businesses – especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), start-ups and entrepreneurs – to regain confidence. I am happy that we are on the path to recovery,” says Mohammad A. Baker, deputy chairman and CEO of Gulf Marketing Group (GMG), in this month’s Retail Thoughts.

“The return to normalcy will depend on when footfall will return to a certain acceptable level, which will possibly be towards the end of the first quarter of 2021,” says Mark Tesseyman, CEO, LIWA Trading Enterprises. “However, there could be a recovery in the region towards the fourth quarter of 2020,” he adds.

“What normal meant in the pre-COVID days is quite different now,” says Ashish Panjabi, COO of electronic retail brand Jacky’s Retail LLC & Jacky’s Business Solutions LLC. “Adapting to the new normal will require recalibration. The whole economics between revenue and cost need a relook.”

Delivering a rewarding shopping experience, creating opportunities in a challenging business environment and sustaining the brick-and-mortar model are some of the burning issues confronting the retail industry currently.

Khurshid Vakil, co-founder, Marina Home Interiors, shares his views in this edition’s My Page. “Like all other business categories, furniture and homeware industry also had its fair share of setback since the global pandemic started. However, we are observing a gradual but consistent trend of increased footfall into our showrooms since the markets opened,” he states.

At a time when the retail industry is at the cusp of massive change, the need for digital transformation has accelerated. The luxury beauty brand Faces has already been on this journey for a while. “We had rigorously prepared for Ramadan, and that’s when the stores closed temporarily. We launched three more online stores in Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt within four weeks,” says Nick Vinckier, head of growth for Faces.

At a time when several gyms have had no choice but shut down, UAE-based fitness brand GymNation is not only sustaining operations but also pursuing growth. What’s more, GymNation invested AED1.5 million to launch a new concept called Blitz within its Al Quoz facility. It has also absorbed members from other fitness concepts that did not survive the pandemic.

Look out for our next edition for more insights and converging trends.