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UAE: H&M bets on physical shops to win over Gen-Z in Middle East as Dubai Mall store re-opens
Caught between premium players and discount challengers, can the fashion retailer's Dubai revamp hit the sweet spot?
If you were stuck in particularly bad traffic in the Downtown area on Thursday evening, blame a certain Swedish retailer for plastering Dubai’s highways with ads inviting the city to celebrate the opening of its new flagship store in Dubai Mall. H&M, the fast fashion retailer that’s not quite Zara, not quite Shein, is on a mission to reclaim its stake as the cool girl’s fashion go-to.
The world’s second-biggest publicly traded fashion retailer, H&M has, of late, floundered between Zara’s more premium positioning (the Spanish rival is currently selling a hot pink surfboard designed by Balenciaga’s Pierpaolo Piccioli for Dh12,999), and the race to the bottom in pricing led by the likes of Shein and Temu (spin a wheel, pay next to nothing).
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Now, the retailer wants to remind you what made it cool in the first place and why its middle ground positioning offers a sartorial sweet spot below some of Zara’s decidedly punchy price-tags for quality significantly higher than the Sheins of the world. A catwalk show — its first in seven years — took place at London Fashion Week last month, designed to reassociate H&M with fashion beyond basics. And a Middle East-resonant campaign starring Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna heralds a strong Holiday collection that lands this weekend.
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Arguably H&M’s biggest asset is its physical store footprint — over 4,000 retail locations worldwide, with around 78 in the GCC, operated by Alshaya Group. Just last week Shein attempted to open physical sites in the capital of fashion, Paris, but the French said “Non”. Thus, if you’re H&M and your stores are your biggest asset, they’d better be good. Hence the marketing around H&M’s two newly revamped UAE flagships opening this month, in Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates. To celebrate, the Burj Khalifa was turned H&M red, the first 300 guests were given mystery boxes containing gift cards worth up to Dh1,000, beauty gift bags valued at Dh600, the chance to customise limited edition pieces, and experience new interactive fitting rooms and self-checkout. The Dubai Mall opening also introduced buzzy beauty brands including By Mina Al Sheikhly, Noha Nabil Beauty, BELLA, GLOSSY and NYX, catnip to the Gen-Z customer H&M needs to win over.
Globally, around 250 H&M stores are undergoing a total rebuild, making them more boutique-like, with open space rather than the jam-packed rails and dingy lighting that dates so many retail dinosaurs. Because despite the growth of ecommerce, it turns out that customers do still love to shop in person, as evidenced by days of queues at value chain Primark’s recent opening in Kuwait. Once fondly referred to as ‘Primarni’ by the fashion press, an illusion to the Irish retailer’s Armani-like fashion influence at rock bottom prices, Primark is opening three stores in the UAE next year, also operated by Alshaya Group.
All that’s missing now in the retail revolution is a strong, fashion-credible homegrown player to challenge the market. H&M’s Swedish, Zara is from Spain, Primark is Irish. Where’s the UAE equivalent? The Giving Movement is certainly a challenger, but I’d argue it leans to lifestyle rather than fashion. Speaking to Vogue Business last week, Dubai-based influencer and fashion entrepreneur Karen Wazen, announcing the expansion of her accessories retail concept across Egypt, said, “For years, we [consumers in the Middle East] were infatuated with anything from the West. That’s changing now. You see it in fashion, food and beverage, beauty — it’s our time.” But until a Middle Eastern contender challenges the world’s fast fashion players, H&M has a shiny new store, and we’re all invited.
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