With technology becoming ubiquitous and a generation that values convenience and instant gratification, the need for retailers to adapt and innovate has never been greater in today’s competitive market.

Fast Company Middle East’s Next Big Things in Retail summit brought together industry leaders, innovators, and experts to explore key themes shaping the sector, including the future of retail, digital commerce, retail technology, payments, and customer experience.

The event was a forum for exchanging insights, featuring engaging panels, fireside chats, debates, and workshops. It attracted participation from prominent regional and global retail leaders, international brands, and customer experience and technology specialists.

Organized in partnership with international consulting firm Oliver Wyman, the summit benefited from the firm’s in-depth expertise in the retail sector’s transformation.

Speakers represented leading companies such as Rabbit Mart, Trendyol Group, Magrabi Retail Group, Dentsu, Cenomi Group, Modern Electronics (MEC) under Al-Faisaliah Group, and The Luxury Closet.

RETAIL DRIVING GROWTH

The summit’s opening panel, “How Can Retail Drive Profitable Growth and Economic Progress?”, explored strategies to enhance profitability through cost management, refining value propositions, and integrating advanced technologies.

The panel, moderated by retail industry expert Dr Martyn Davies, emphasized retail’s critical role in economic development. Joe Abi Akl, Partner, IMEA Head of Retail and Consumer Goods at Oliver Wyman, highlighted the key dynamics fueling the retail sector’s growth. He identified a youthful and well-informed population, national transformation initiatives fostering modernization, and rapidly changing consumer behaviors.

“These changes are progressing faster in this region than anywhere else globally, creating a highly favorable environment for the industry’s continued advancement,” Akl noted.

However, he also addressed the significant challenges impeding the industry’s growth.

“We have a region with a bigger population than the U.S., yet it doesn’t seem to contribute as much to economic development. One key reason is the fragmentation of the region and the lack of economic integration, which makes it difficult for players to build economies of scale as they strive to attract customers or expand from one market to another. Differences in regulations, limited mobility of people, and other barriers exacerbate these challenges,” he explained.

To remain competitive, Abi Akl outlined several priorities for retailers: personalization—citing that over 60% of Saudi consumers expect tailored products and services; local sourcing—with 90% of grocery shoppers preferring local products; differentiation through quality, service, or price; and leveraging AI to boost productivity and enhance customer experiences.

Ahmed Yousry, Co-founder and CEO of Rabbit, elaborated on how AI has transformed his company’s operations.

“AI plays a critical role in customer support, empowering agents and customers to make faster decisions and enhance satisfaction,” he said.

He explained its impact on supply and demand management, noting, “AI helps determine the optimal inventory for each warehouse, ensuring customers find their items quickly. For logistics, it optimizes delivery routes and predicts order volumes within specific areas, enabling better order batching and driving operational efficiency.”

Yousry added that AI also shapes customer interactions as companies experiment with tools like ChatGPT to deliver tailored experiences, such as personalized recommendations. However, he acknowledged that this area remains a work in progress as businesses collectively refine the “playbook” for these technologies.

Erdem Inan, CEO of Trendyol Group, shared his perspective on customer engagement in this evolving market. He emphasized the importance of offering a broad range of locally sourced and global brands, with Trendyol providing 10 million SKUs upon entering new markets. “Navigating such an extensive range posed a challenge, which is why we launched an influencer network,” Inan explained.

“We’re now working with 15,000 influencers that help us create trust for the platform and guide customers when navigating the platform. So that’s one way of making better use of traffic because traffic acquisition is one of the biggest costs.”

He detailed how Trendyol optimizes its platform through continuous testing: “At any given time, over 300 tests are run simultaneously, iterating based on customer data. This enables us to predict outcomes for new features, adapt the platform to meet customer needs, and reduce acquisition costs.”

DIGITIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

The panel discussion “Competing in the Digital Marketplace: Building Future-Ready Retail Ecosystems,” moderated by Liji Varghese, Audience Development Lead, Fast Company Middle East, delved into how retailers can harness AI, data, and real-time customer interactions to deliver seamless and immersive experiences.

Binoo Joseph, Chief Digital Officer of Cenomi Group, reflected on the evolution of data collection, drawing from his experience in Shanghai a decade ago. He highlighted how loyalty programs relied on purchase behavior and location data to craft personalized offers.

“At the time, such telemetry was straightforward and widely accepted,” Joseph noted. “Today, the proliferation of data sources—like cameras, Wi-Fi, and online behavior—enables real-time targeting but also introduces stricter regulations such as GDPR, requiring explicit consent.”

While these laws encourage ethical practices, they also increase complexity, especially in Western markets where consumers are wary of unsolicited promotions. Joseph contrasted this with Eastern markets, which have traditionally embraced personalization. He added that in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, data governance laws now clearly define the collection, storage, and use of data.

Kartik Bhatt, Chief Digital Officer of Modern Electronics (MEC) under the Al-Faisaliah Group, addressed the often-overlooked issue of digital and electronic waste.

“The digital space has long operated on the notion of abundance—more platforms, tools, and technology,” Bhatt explained. “But this mindset often leads to fatigue within businesses. As a tech startup owner on three to four different occasions, I’ve learned that evaluating technology through the lens of utilization, time, cost, effort, and total cost of ownership (TCO) reveals the true impact of tech investments.”

He emphasized that this evaluation includes recognizing tech waste, the digital burden placed on staff and consumers, and the strain on processes.

Kunal Kapoor, CEO of The Luxury Closet, highlighted sustainability as a core aspect of his business model, particularly in reducing carbon footprints.

“Approximately 70% of a product’s carbon emissions come from the manufacturing stage, with the remaining 30% arising from retail and shipping. By promoting pre-owned products, we eliminate the need for manufacturing, cutting emissions by 70%,” Kapoor said. “Considering the fashion industry accounts for about 9–10% of global emissions, this is a significant step.”

Kapoor also pointed out the staggering waste in the fashion industry, which produces 80 billion items annually, many of which end up in landfills. Encouraging reuse, he said, requires collaborative efforts, including government support. He commended Saudi Arabia for fostering a localized and sustainable fashion supply chain, reducing import dependence.

BRAND LOYALTY AND INFLUENCER MARKETING

The summit featured two engaging fireside chats. The first, with Yasser Taher, CEO of Magrabi Retail Group, addressed the challenges of digitization in retail and its impact on customer experiences.

“In our industry, virtual try-on has not been a hit, to be honest,” Taher admitted. “Consumers tend to quickly decide whether a new technology is something they like and will adopt. We don’t see this trend being highly adopted by consumers.”

Taher emphasized the importance of customer feedback in shaping Magrabi’s services, noting the company’s strong performance in metrics like service levels and NPS scores. “While we already track these, we want to go further. When I talk about customer feedback, I mean gathering customer ideas on how to improve and evolve our offerings, focusing on new services they would genuinely appreciate,” he explained.

On brand loyalty, Taher highlighted that successful programs prioritize exceptional, value-added experiences over traditional rewards and points systems, which he believes are no longer effective differentiators. He highlighted Emirates Skywards as a standout loyalty program, noting the lack of comparable benchmarks within the region’s retail sector.

The second fireside chat featured Amy Roko, entrepreneur and content creator, who explored the critical role of influencer marketing in today’s retail industry.

Roko spoke about the shrinking attention span of audiences. “Audiences have shifted from giving videos four seconds of their time to barely a single second,” she noted. “This means that if I want to create a video, it has to be attractive from the very first second. It has to be attention-grabbing, funny, the music has to hit, and the text must be enticing.”

She stressed the need for constant innovation to remain relevant in a fast-paced environment, where creators must refresh their approach to stay engaging.

Roko also highlighted the importance of cultural understanding in influencer marketing, critiquing multinational brands that bring global strategies to the region without local adaptation.

“This is how we do it in America or Britain,” they often say, according to Roko. “But their products can hold a different meaning in local contexts.”

She shared her experience as a New Balance ambassador to illustrate her point. “The brand’s global ad claimed the shoes were for ‘dads or supermodels,’ but in Saudi Arabia, New Balance is worn by students heading to high school or university. When they approached me, I clarified that the brand’s image here is unique, and campaigns should reflect that. Global brands must localize and embrace the culture they’re marketing to.”

THE POWER OF AI

The summit featured multiple keynote speakers who highlighted the transformative power of AI in retail. Cyril Semaan, Partner in Retail and Consumer Goods at Oliver Wyman, underscored the growing significance of AI in today’s world. 

He noted that approximately 130 billion articles have been published in the region over the past two years, covering topics such as AI, data, governance, product launches, and the ROI of AI-driven initiatives. According to Semaan, this surge reflects not only increased media output but also a rising curiosity among consumers about AI’s potential.

In the retail sector, Semaan emphasized the immense utility of AI in managing and analyzing the overwhelming amount of data—both structured and unstructured—that businesses generate. He explained that consumer data, internal metrics, and platforms such as ERP, CRM, and procurement systems all contribute to a vast information ecosystem.

By combining these diverse datasets, retailers can unlock unique analytical capabilities and develop precise predictions. Semaan identified three key priorities for retailers aiming to thrive in this environment: maximizing cash flow, maintaining a consumer-centric approach, and growing market share. He stressed that starting any transformation process with a business-centric focus ensures alignment with strategic objectives, adding that prioritizing relevant AI use cases among the 100-plus possibilities today can drive significant results.

Alexander Poehl, another Partner in Retail and Consumer at Oliver Wyman, shared findings on growth opportunities in grocery retail. He identified three major trends shaping the sector. The first is the rise of discount retailers, driven by strong consumer interest in low-price, limited-service models. “Notably, 68% of customers expressed interest, and 93% of those familiar with global models are eager for local adoption,” Poehl said.

The second trend is personalization, fueled by Saudi Arabia’s tech-savvy population, which is open to sharing data, enabling tailored experiences—unlike the more reserved Western markets.

The third trend involves local and private-label products, which are seeing significant demand for locally produced goods and private-label offerings. “Looking ahead, these models have a lot of potential,” Poehl explained. “I think we can look at both developed and emerging markets where large discount chains have successfully gained traction. Sometimes, it takes them a while to find the right model.”

Faisal Algain, Head of Growth and Client Engagement at Dentsu KSA, shared insights from his organization’s research on e-commerce. He highlighted two major drivers in the sector: “Convenience, cited by 50% of consumers, and variety, highlighted by 52%.” These findings reveal a growing demand for a broader product range that balances quality with affordability.

Nicolas Nath, an experienced branding and marketing strategist, examined AI’s role in reshaping the branding landscape, particularly through influencer marketing. “In the region, the rise of AI influencers should not be overlooked,” Nath said. “There are several reasons for this. Creating an AI influencer for your brand allows you to have a fully controllable spokesperson who remains loyal and can simultaneously represent your brand in multiple locations at once.”

Gregoire Charpe Civatte, Vice President of Customer Experience & Innovation at Majid Al Futtaim, urged retailers to adapt to the preferences of Gen Z. In his presentation, he emphasized that this generation, raised in a digital world, values platforms like TikTok, prioritizes instant gratification, and blends online shopping with offline experiences.