Dubai has transformed, so has retail

Six decades ago Dubai was unlike what it looks now. Leave aside the dazzling lights and the air-conditioned houses, cars and even bus stations; there was no electricity, no drinking water, no telephone and no proper road. Life literally revolved around the creek – Ram Buxani, president, ITL-Cosmos Group

From a sellers’ to a buyers’ market

Back in those days, Dubai was a seller’s market. Buyers didn’t have much choice. If a trader sold watches or cameras and a customer came to buy, the seller often wouldn’t even explain how the product functioned – because he probably didn’t know himself. Yet the buyer would buy. So you can imagine how lucrative business was for the sellers.

Compare this with how retail looks today. The market has become highly competitive. If your store executive doesn’t answer a customer’s query, the buyer leaves, never to return. Today, consumers are so aware. Some of them are even more informed about the product they want to purchase than the retailers themselves.

So Dubai has transitioned from a sellers’ to a buyers’ market.

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