Carrefour has deployed Advertima’s Audience AI across its hypermarkets, with plans for further expansion across its UAE supermarket network in the coming months, further solidifying Majid Al Futtaim’s position as a leader in innovative retail experiences.

Using visual-spatial 3D sensors, Advertima Audience AI helps identify who is shopping in-store, such as families, young professionals, or bargain hunters, and delivers tailored messages to them in real-time through digital screens.

By connecting this in-store data with online audience profiles, Carrefour can now offer brands a consistent and targeted way to reach the same customer across both digital and physical channels, creating a unified omnichannel media buying experience. For example, a customer browsing baby products online might later see a relevant promotion in-store. This partnership allows media buyers to run more effective, measurable campaigns, whether booked directly or programmatically, while helping brands engage with customers in the moment purchase decisions are being made.

This collaboration builds on Carrefour’s ongoing efforts to support homegrown suppliers, producers, farmers, and SMEs. It also is a testament to MoIAT and Majid Al Futtaim Retail’s shared commitment to strengthen the role of national businesses and to drive economic growth and industrial advancement through food security by supporting self-sufficiency and developing more sustainable supply chains.

Supporting National Products

His Excellency confirmed that the MoU signing with Majid Al Futtaim Retail reflects the Ministry’s efforts to strengthen relations with the private sector, provide opportunities for national producers to showcase their products, promote Emirati products, and raise customer awareness of the quality and competitiveness of national products. This promotion also encourages customers, both citizens and residents, to embrace these products and make them their first choice. This supports the growth of national industries and enhances their competitiveness, regionally and internationally.

Boosting Demand

The MoU will oversee collaboration across several strategic areas, with efforts focused on boosting demand and raising customer awareness for high quality, food and non-food products that are proudly made in the UAE. This will be additionally supported by providing “Make it in the Emirates” brands with enhanced visibility and customer education campaigns through social media and customer engagement.

Moreover, as part of its commitment to supplier education, MoIAT will assist in educating suppliers throughout the MoU period, with the requirement that, starting next year, only products featuring the official MIITE stamp on packaging will be eligible for in-store highlights under this initiative.

The agency will be responsible for driving improved online engagement and conversion on social media, ensuring a holistic approach to their creative campaigns across the portfolio of 24 outlets, including City Centre malls and the flagship luxury destination, Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. Memac Ogilvy was awarded the business after an extended and competitive pitch process.

Hadi Ballout, Managing Director, Advertising – UAE, Memac Ogilvy, said, “Coming out of a long-standing business relationship, the Majid Al Futtaim team is looking forward to a fresh start with a new agency, as we further build brand equity through a seamless alignment of all marketing communication collateral.

"During the pitch process, our client was particularly impressed with our strategic and creative approach to City Centre's new brand campaign, which aims to roll out later this year, as well as with the agency’s impressive social media and channel management credentials."

Ghassan Maraqa, CEO MENA, Memac Ogilvy, added, “Majid Al Futtaim is an iconic UAE brand, that in just under 30 years has become the leading shopping mall, communities, retail, and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.  

"We are honored to partner with their shopping malls division, as they continue to innovate and expand, and we look forward to an active relationship, where our dynamic and agile approach will create campaigns to drive revenue and overall business growth."

There was a notable 13% growth in spending across the retail economy for the full year including, leisure and entertainment (29%), fashion (25%), hypermarkets and supermarkets (11%), and general retail (9). This increase was driven by the rise in international visitors to the UAE, which more than doubled to 14 million in 2022, bolstered by major events including FIFA World Cup in neighboring Qatar.

Macroeconomic Trends

The UAE posted its strongest annual GDP growth since 2006, jumping to 7.9%, from 3.9% in 2021. The drivers of this boost were broad-based, across the oil and non-oil sectors. As expected, oil remained the main component due to a rise of around 38% in the average oil price, causing the sector to rebound to 11.4% growth, after contracting by 0.7% the previous year. The non-oil economy demonstrated robust growth at 6.6%, buoyed by government efforts to attract investments and boost the country’s tourism sector.

 Consumer Behaviour Trends

The final quarter of 2022 saw people becoming more cautious with their spending, opting for discounts and deals for essential items, and cutting back on non-essentials such as electronics. The average spend per transaction in hypermarkets and supermarkets was down 3% during the year, however overall spending in the segment was up 11% on the year prior, showing movement towards smaller basket value and more frequent transactions.

The extended 2.5-day weekend also influenced the increase in consumer spending, with weekend retail sales increasing by 11.3% versus the previous year. This translated to additional spending of approximately AED 5.5 billion according to Majid Al Futtaim Point of Sales (POS) data.

Consumer Sentiment

Inflation was a reality in 2022 ending the year at 5.2%, however, it was still significantly less than elsewhere in the world. Consumer optimism remained high though, despite inflation. In Majid Al Futtaim’s Happiness Lab survey, approximately 90% of respondents viewed the UAE’s current economic situation positively. The Majid Al Futtaim POS data indicated that this optimism is evidenced by a peak in absolute consumer spending in the fourth quarter of 2022, which accounted for 29% of all retail economic activity during the year.

Burgeoning Digital Economy

Analysis suggests that the UAE has the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce market, with sales forecast to reach USD 9.2 billion by 2026. Spending in this area peaked in Q4 2022 and grew by 20% for the full year compared to 2021, with three-quarters of consumers saying that digital payment methods are the preferred option, according to Majid Al Futtaim POS data. Fintech solutions such as buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) gained pace, with 45% of consumers using BNPL financing in the past year, up from 21% a year earlier. A majority of online spending by residents was in the hypermarket and supermarket sector, which witnessed spending growth of 40% during the year.

UAE Property Market

The real estate sector witnessed a record-breaking year, with property sales at a 12-year high in terms of volume and value. Transactions jumped 60% in comparison with 2021, with sales values climbing by 76% to AED 265 billion in 2022. The market hit its peak in Q4 at 27,000 transactions, up from 16,000 a year earlier.

Consumer behavior is evolving and rapidly changing. To keep up with rising demands, retailers across the globe need to level up their marketing and response strategy. One-way retailers can do this is by offering a compelling omnichannel experience to their consumers.

While the idea of building a seamless experience through integrated channels that deliver to these ever-evolving consumer expectations has been around for years now, the strategy behind such an experience is what brings a crucial challenge for retailers across. Omnichannel is now a requirement for survival.

Earlier this month, Mall of the Emirates launched an all-new ‘Digital Concierge’ service as part of the mall’s vision to design an omnichannel experience. The service allows consumers to shop overall brands and luxury designers in the mall, entirely via WhatsApp – in the comfort of their homes.

Communicate sat down with Majid Al Futtaim’s Michelle Walsh who is the Senior Director for Marketing Communications for shopping malls to discuss the retail giant’s vision for omnichannel.

Left to right: Michelle Walsh, Senior Director for Marketing Communications for Majid-Al-Futtaim, Shopping Malls, and Fuad Sharaf at Majid Al Futtaim Properties – Managing Director, Shopping Malls, UAE

The purpose

Before retailers expand their brand with an omnichannel strategy, they need to identify their drivers of value and purpose. Walsh explains how Majid Al Futtaim do the same by collecting feedback from its consumers. “In this part of the world, shopping malls are very relevant. Through research, we’ve found how a regular visitor to our malls likes to plan their visit in advance. Our digital experience offering is as important as curating a seamless offline experience.”

A deep understanding of the consumer opens the floor for retail giants such as Majid-Al-Futtaim to determine the most effective cross-channel experience allowing them to unlock benefits from multiple channels. Earlier this year, the

The process

“With these insights, for instance, we introduced the feature that allows customers to pre-book parking spots. Also, our loyalty program – Share allows consumers to make purchases, exchanges and returns digitally. So, these are the kind of insights we gather and services we introduce to ease the consumer’s visit to our malls,” Walsh further explained.

The digital concierge employs a team of shoppers in the mall who will carry out the shopping for the consumers getting in touch with them online. “If the consumer is not in the mall, the quickest way to get a response out to him/her is through WhatsApp. While we have many other options to communicate with the shopper, we opted for a conversational commerce approach,” she adds.

The result

According to a recent study, retailers need to investigate consumer behavioral patterns across various essential issues such as – personalization or customization of the omnichannel retail mix, classification and detailed profiling of shoppers according to the intensity of using omnichannel practices, and even the store selection criteria. That’s where the idea of the concierge service comes from.

Walsh explains, “we are giving multiple access points to our consumers from across multiple brands. A consumer might be looking for purchases from Zara and Chanel at the same time, that’s what the concierge allows users to do while accessing various options – whether that maybe ordering, returning, trying it out before making a buy, etc.”

It’s crucial that retailers are notifying their consumers with relevant updates. “We’re putting time and effort into curating consumer profiles so that we know more about them and are communicating accordingly. Moreover, we’re providing them a personalized experience which keeps the consumer dedicated to finding out more about us,” explains Walsh.

With Black Friday hitting the headlines, we asked Walsh how retailers can stand out and use omnichannel to their leverage, “What we try to do is give people the option to plan to come to the mall. Since Black Friday will be a busy weekend, we allow the shopper to reserve car parking. Moreover, all the discounts available on the ground, in the mall will be available online. The digital concierge experience will open the floor for shoppers who want to shop online. Black Friday is a celebration of shopping, and making it as convenient as possible for people to access the deals and offers is a goal all retailers should strive to achieve.”

Retailers need to determine where important interactions intersect, this can help start building out functionalities in line with the channels of customer choice, making sure information flows freely across those channels to enable a personalized omnichannel experience.

The first phase of this program attracted around 200 SME entries from across the Middle East. 14 winners have been announced, from 23 shortlists across three categories – home-grown, health & beauty, and, prop-tech.

Communicate spoke to Joe Abi Akl, Chief Corporate Development Officer at Majid Al Futtaim Holding, who has been leading strategy and operations for this program. Abi Akl discusses the vision behind the initiative, and its effect on the region’s start-up and SME ecosystem.

The Objective

The Launchpad provides SMEs across the MENA region with culturally appropriate, innovative, and sustainable solutions, thus opening doors to new capabilities in the form of construction, digital development, and consumer experiences.

With that stated, the question remains, “How does Majid Al Futtaim benefit from this?” Abi Akl explains, “The entrepreneurial ecosystem has always been a priority for us. Our malls have actively been working with home-grown and local suppliers. This has always been a part of our DNA; except this time, we’re doing it through this program.”

“In UAE and even the KSA, there is a lot of work being done by the public sector and governments to promote entrepreneurship, to support SMEs. The authorities are already doing everything to help them set up in the terms of legal logistics, financing, and more importantly, access to customers. What is remaining, in my opinion, is how a start-up based in the UAE can get easy access to the market in Saudi Arabia or Egypt. Majid Al Futtaim operates across the region with 600 million customers. Since it's a very fragmented region, and we still don't have full flexibility on the mobility of people and goods, through this program we aim to leverage the start-up ecosystem while allowing them to launch in multiple locations in collaboration with us while also expanding our retail database at the same time,” he adds.

The Mission

Abi Akl further elaborates on what the winners and the shortlisted SMEs in the first phase of the program are promised, “What these enterprises are going to get in return of placing their trust in us, is a lot more than an investment to scale up. We will support them across the value chain, which particularly will differ from one category to another. Then we're going to offer them access to our existing footprint – community spaces and malls. We’re also going to support them in better understanding their customers through effective consumer data tools. Finally, we allow them to market with us, integrate them into our loyalty program if they wish to do that” he says.

The Launchpad accelerator program is developed in partnership with AstroLabs, a technology ecosystem builder in the MENA region. 

Roland Daher, CEO of AstroLabs commented on their active contribution to the program, "The Launchpad Program is a milestone in our journey of accelerating innovation for industry leaders in MENA and growth through strategic expansion into new markets, customer segments, and channels by plugging future-forward companies into Majid Al Futtaim’s value chain. Startups and SMEs have a lot to offer, and while eager to work with large players like Majid Al Futtaim, may not have access or are not fully equipped to operate at that level. On the other hand, large enterprise players understand the need for continuous innovation in staying ahead of the market curb, which makes building an open ecosystem of top-breed startups and SMEs crucial for their current and long-term growth strategies. A key factor to the success of this initiative was the involvement and commitment of Majid Al Futtaim's senior leadership and business unit heads, working closely with the AstroLabs team to identify market opportunities these emerging businesses will be solving for. We engaged our extensive local & global innovation network to source the top offerings in their respective verticals and drive potential synergies that will be at the forefront of Majid Al Futtaim’s long-term business and economic growth."

Majid Al Futtaim is focusing on delivering these diverse benefits to the shortlisted enterprises to strengthen their commercial viability across the region. A host of additional benefits provided by Microsoft, complementing Majid Al Futtaim’s range of services ensure SMEs are armed with best-in-class capabilities from both organizations.

The Process

“Within 80 markets, we're 45,000 employees of over 150 nationalities. We have the proper governance, setup, capabilities, and the right partners to pull off something like this. So, the whole idea of the Launchpad, started maybe a year and a half ago. It took us more time to conceptualize it, and gather the internal team for it,” Abi Akl explains.

Ramy Fares, Director of Retail, Travel & Transport for the Middle East and Africa at Microsoft was on the judging panel for the first phase of the program. He tells Communicate how working with start-ups sits at the core foundation of Microsoft. “Our vision is to become the enabler, to enable every organization and individual to achieve more. To live this vision and mission every day, we must work with SMEs continuously, which we do through multiple venues. One is through Microsoft for start-ups – our Microsoft Venture Fund allows us to invest intentionally in start-ups that have smart ideas around some of the emerging technologies solving fundamental problems. The other things that we do are bring start-ups and introduce them to our key enterprise customers, allowing them to accelerate our customers' innovation,” Fares says.

Launchpad is scheduled to take place biannually, with different themes every cycle. Abi Akl expects the number of entries to increase with every cycle. One challenge he believes the team will face in the next steps of this initiative is to resonate with these start-ups in a systematic way without overwhelming them. “SMEs have limited resources and are still in the process of sorting their operations out. Dealing with an organization as vast as ours can be overwhelming. Which is why we’re dedicating a team to support and follow-up with them,” explains Abi Akl.

The growth of SMEs is integral to creating job opportunities in any part of the world. While the MENA region has proved itself proactive in building its start-up ecosystem, there is still a huge gap between the existing corporations and these small and medium enterprises and businesses. With this accelerator program, Majid Al Futtaim is taking the first step forward in bridging that gap.

Following the initial announcement of the program and an open call for submissions in partnership with AstroLabs and Microsoft, Majid Al Futtaim received 196 applications from across the MENAP region and globally. From 23 shortlisted applicants demonstrating ingenuity, originality, and vast commercial potential, the winning start-ups include The Bath Land, The Hair Addict, The Zola Collective, Wallace & Co, Sigma-Fit, Opio, Reform Studio, Little Sol+, Kiliim, Thaely, Boksha, Stake, enVerid Systems and Disrupt-X.

Joe Abi Akl, Chief Corporate Development Officer at Majid Al Futtaim Holding, said, “The Majid Al Futtaim Launchpad initiative is a vital element of our ecosystem, nurturing entrepreneurship and supporting small and medium enterprises in the pursuit of innovation, creativity, and growth. Today’s announcement is a critical step forward in our mission to support small businesses in their journey to create new products and services that could ultimately become our business partners and suppliers in the future. The program will now begin delivering a host of significant benefits, supporting our vision of building a meaningful, efficient, effective, and globally integrated business environment.”

The winners, as well as the shortlisted SMEs, will receive a host of additional benefits provided by Microsoft, complementing Majid Al Futtaim’s range of services, to ensure SMEs are armed with best-in-class capabilities from both organizations with significant ecosystems.

Ramy Fares, Director, Retail & Travel Industry at Microsoft Middle East and Africa who was on the judging panel to shortlist the winners, said, “Nurturing Startups is a crucial part of our work at Microsoft to support the digital economy and accelerate innovation. Through Microsoft for Startups, we are accelerating Startup growth in 140 countries by delivering access to innovative technologies, go-to-market strategies, and Microsoft’s vast ecosystem of partners and customers. We are proud of our partnership with Majid Al Futtaim’s Launchpad and congratulate the change-makers who have won the first Proptech launchpad accelerator program.”

Roland Daher, Chief Executive Officer at AstroLabs, said, The Launchpad Program is a milestone in our journey of accelerating innovation for industry leaders in MENA and growth through strategic expansion into new markets, customer segments, and channels by plugging future-forward companies into Majid Al Futtaim’s value chain. A key factor to the success of this initiative was the involvement and commitment of Majid Al Futtaim's senior leadership and business unit heads, working closely with the AstroLabs team to identify market opportunities these emerging businesses will be solving for. We engaged our extensive local & global innovation network to source the top offerings in their respective verticals and drive potential synergies that will be at the forefront of Majid Al Futtaim’s long-term business and economic growth.’’

Yahya Mohamed Saleh, Co-Founder & CEO, of Boksha, said, “Integrating with Majid Al Futtaim will help Boksha empower talented fashion designers through online and offline channels by leveraging the scale and reputation of a highly reputable, regional company. At the end of the day, we want to take Khaleeji fashion to the global stage. Having been underserved for a long time, we see the massive potential now to empower young designers through this meaningful partnership with Majid Al Futtaim.”

 Rami Tabbara, Co-Founder, Stake, said, "Today's Launchpad event demonstrated this region's huge potential in the prop-tech space. To be a winner is enormous – Majid Al Futtaim is a cornerstone of the economy, and for Stake to become part of its ecosystem is a proud moment and testament to all we have worked for over the past 18 months. As a winner, it allows our team to scale our operations and provides credibility by being associated with the

Majid Al Futtaim brand and supports our mission to be the leading real estate investment platform in the MENA region. Anusha Mahtani, Co-Founder, The Zola Collective, said, “The major impact for our business as a Launchpad winner comes through the integration with Maid Al Futtaim’s diverse ecosystem. Having tried and tested all our products, we are now ready to take our brand into the mainstream. Today’s achievement represents a major step towards accomplishing that goal. By tapping into the Majid Al Futtaim network, we aim to continue building our community and making the right connections to facilitate the growth and expansion of The Zola Collective. Looking at the big picture, just reaching the finals will change the whole course of our business. Every start-up dreams of going international – working with Majid Al Futtaim and its regional footprint makes this dream a reality.”

The first round of Majid Al Futtaim’s Launchpad program focused efforts on supporting core growth areas, including Homegrown Brands to attract start-ups with a unique and fascinating story, focusing on culture and heritage, sustainability, and innovation; Health and Beauty to identify and elevate start-ups with innovative products and tech solutions designed to elevate the customer experience; and Proptech to target start-ups that offer innovative and sustainable solutions to help optimize the efficiency of construction, digitize property development, residential communities and hotels spaces, and enhance the experiences in the shopping mall.

Providing best-in-class mentoring and supporting companies to grow their business quickly while attracting, nurturing, and supporting world-class talent, the Launchpad initiative reaffirms the company’s role in the private sector as a driver of local economies and its long-term ambition to be a partner of choice for pioneering initiatives and investments in the region.

With over 1,500 visitors participating, City Centre Deira surprised one lucky entrant this month, Cris Gudia by flying his mother 4,482 miles from the Philippines to Dubai. The campaign kickstarted in July 2022 and ran its course through the month.

Reuniting a mother with her son after four years apart, City Centre Deira captured the moment in a heartfelt video to show how important connection is, especially after the distance felt by many due to the pandemic. As a mall that celebrates the community – the latest campaign underscores City Centre Deira’s efforts to build more meaningful connections no matter how near or far.

Majid Al Futtaim owns and operates 29 shopping malls and City Centre Deira is one of them. Earlier this year, City Centre malls also launched the "My City Centre neighborhood centres", and five community malls which are in a joint venture with the Government of Sharjah. The Company is the exclusive franchisee for Carrefour in over 30 markets across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, operating a portfolio of more than 400 outlets including City+, the region’s first checkout-free store, and an online store.

The agreement will see Binance and Majid Al Futtaim cooperate on a number of blockchain projects, including listings of NFTs on Binance’s marketplace, the creation of a digital wallet infrastructure to hold virtual assets from multiple platforms, and the integration of Binance Pay – allowing customers to purchase with virtual assets at Majid Al Futtaim’s various destinations in line with appropriate laws and regulations.

Alain Bejjani, CEO at Majid Al Futtaim, said in a statement, “The exponential rate of technology development today is matched only by consumers' voracious appetite for exceptional customer experiences in both the physical and digital world. We are delighted to be partnering with global Web3 leader Binance on the new frontiers of customer engagement and experience, and look forward to working in tandem to evolve the third generation of web technology, develop strong capabilities, and deliver innovation and world-class omnichannel experiences to our customers.”

Changpeng Zhao ‘CZ’, CEO and co-founder of Binance, said, “Majid Al Futtaim is one of the most prestigious businesses in the Middle East and has millions of customers every year. Integrating Web3 technologies will give its customers access to innovative new ways to engage with its brands and provide new ways to pay. Through partnerships like these, we will see the innovative use-cases that come to define the next digital era emerge, and Majid Al Futtaim is positioned to become a trailblazer in bridging the gap between physical and Web3 experiences.”

Binance Pay is a contactless, borderless, and secure user-to-user gateway on the Binance App that allows users and merchants around the world to use crypto without incurring special handling fees for using crypto. Binance NFT is a multichain platform that uses the PoSA (Proof of Staked Authority) network, a consensus agreement protocol that is more eco-friendly and energy-efficient than Bitcoin.

Communicate sat down with the Senior Director of Marketing Communications for Majid-Al-Futtaim Shopping Malls, Michelle Walsh to dive deeper into the campaign’s know-how and its renewed approach to marketing.

What does the ‘Big City Centre Vote’ campaign aim to do?

What makes a brand successful is its ability to listen to its customers. This campaign kicked off with an NPS survey, which asked people to tell us whether they would recommend us to another brand, it's quite a popular feedback loop that a lot of brands use globally. But it doesn't give you real deep insight. And as we know, malls are such a huge part of people's daily lives. In the UAE and the region, we wanted to make sure that we were understanding what's happening in consumers’ minds, and what their expectation is going to be for the future. We’ve taken this meeting room from our offices and moved it into the mall to allow people to have a voice on how they would like to see the evolution of the mall. The campaign itself is called the Big City Centre vote, and it's happening across all city centers, and what's beautiful about it is what we hear in City Centre, Deira is completely different from what we're hearing in City Centre, Mirdif. Each mall has a local audience that has completely different needs and wants from the mall. So, for us to remain relevant to them, we had to listen to them and that’s why we've given them the opportunity to tell us through the vote what they would like to see more of. The intention is we need to go back to them now and tell them that we've heard the ideas and the votes and actually bring them to life.

How are you looking at implementing these requirements that your consumers have voted for?

I have a marketing and operations team in every mall. Now we're starting to divide all of the ideas. So, this is not going to be built into our annual marketing plans, since we're making sure that we know for sure that our activities are going to appeal to customers, but ideas will be implemented quarterly through our autumn, winter campaigns, and even festive campaigns. From now on, we're going to make sure that those campaigns are steeped in customer insights and actually deliver what customers want in the hope that will make them feel like they have a sense of belonging to the mall, and that they've had a part to play, hence, we're calling It'sYour Space. That's kind of our new brand proposition.

What role do the retailers play in this campaign? How is the campaign going to attract fresher local retailers in the market?

There are two components. One being our current retailers and the second, being new retailers looking for a break and opportunity. Malls and retailers have traditionally worked together to bring footfall to the malls and create sales for our tenants. We work with them on a consistent basis to support them. The results of the vote will help us give specific feedback to our retailers. Retailers are asking customers what they'd like to see more already. But this is another way for them to get that insight. So, we're sharing the results with our tenants particularly, you know, the feedback on sustainability.

For instance, from a food and beverage perspective, we'll say, look, people want healthier options, can you make sure that you have that on your menu as well? That’s how it’s going live in many formats with our current retailers and future prospective retailers. This is where looking at what the local entrepreneurs are doing and giving them a chance to come into a mall and see if they can be successful in bricks and mortar environment of the mall.

How is Majid-Al-Futtaim looking at making its malls more sustainable?

We are already working with partners to help us become more sustainable. We’re about to announce next month, the installation of solar panels on our roof.  They will be feeding back into the grid so that we reduce our carbon emissions. We’re also doing our job to help brands and our sister companies like Carrefour to educate people, to also encourage customers to reduce their reliance on plastic bags. Not completely there but we will get there. What we’ve learned from the last year and a half is that it's no longer a question mark as to whether you will do it, it's more a case of when you are going to go plastic free and we're figuring out how to do that now. In the next couple of months, we will have to work with our retailers to do that.