Business & Money | Sunday 1 November, 2015 1:20 pm |

A recent report from built asset consultancy, Arcadis, has revealed the UAE’s strong infrastructure and business friendly environment makes the country an attractive market for retailers.

The report ranked the UAE first in the Middle East and eighth globally when it comes to market attractiveness for retailers.

Commenting on the study, Bassam Saleh, Marketing Manager, Al Bawadi Mall, said that the UAE is far above any other retail market in the region, and scoring high globally.

Saleh attributed this success to the fair investment policies that encourage more retail groups to explore collaboration with global brands and expand their presence in the UAE's vast market.

"The expanding UAE communities boost demand for retail services," he said. "For example, Al Ain is growing rapidly, so we have responded with organising a series of entertainment and educational campaigns which have contributed to generating wider demand from all around the UAE and neighbouring areas."

Al Bawadi Mall, which is Al Ain city’s biggest mall, wrapped up summer with 2,921,860 visitors in three months. The summer of 2015 was the best in the mall’s history in terms of visitors, whose numbers rose five per cent. The mall played host to all new type of activities and campaigns, some of which will become annual events. "We even gave the mall a new online look with a user-friendly revamped website, making it easy for visitors to track their preferred events and follow the latest offers across 400 outlets," said Saleh.

The mall had to extend working hours for few retailers to cope with the daily demand. "The ease in accessibility and growing community around Al Bawadi Mall brings more business to retailers in the mall. Buoyed by growing sales in the region, retail conglomerates have reaped hefty profits," added Saleh.

"The retail market in the UAE has become mature enough to compete on the global level. We have brands in Al Bawadi Mall that are targeting nation-wide expansion, spurred by booming tourism and franchisors’ confidence, which naturally help generate higher sales. We anticipate even bigger growth until the end of first quarter of 2016," concluded Saleh.