Al Tayer Group’s retail division, Al Tayer Insignia, has been establishing and operating brands and creating award-winning retail concepts across the Middle East since 1981. Over the next two pages, learn more about the company and its future plans as we speak to Khalid Al Tayer, Managing Director of the business.
After first venturing into retail with their Aati store in 1981, Al Tayer Insignia has grown to become one of the largest luxury retailers in the Middle East, hosting a portfolio of some of the world’s best brands across the fashion, jewellery, home and department store sectors. They are the only Middle East partner offering the breadth of experience and leadership across the three key channels of luxury boutiques, department stores and e-commerce platforms.
“As the leading luxury retailer, we operate directly and with our partners over 180 stores across the GCC and four e-commerce sites,” highlights Khalid Al Tayer, Managing Director of Al Tayer Insignia. “We have physical stores for Harvey Nichols Dubai and operate Bloomingdale’s in Dubai and Kuwait with the online business covering the GCC. We have also developed Ounass, the leading luxury e-commerce platform and largest luxury multi-brand destination whether it be physical or digital in the GCC, surpassing international peers.”
The company has a continuous schedule of renovations and improvements in their department stores to ensure they maintain best-in-class experiences for their customers and maximise the footprint of each store.
They also continue to invest in their omni-channel experience through development, including enhancing the user experience of the Bloomingdale’s App with personalisation and AI, reducing delivery time to two hours for Ounass and Bloomingdale’s and driving repeat purchases for beauty with a dedicated loyalty programme, Bloomingdale’s Beauty.
“We have several exciting renovation projects across our department stores in the pipeline for the coming year, with multiple departments and customer experience areas being redesigned and redeveloped. Most notably, we are opening the first-ever Bloomingdale’s Beauty store concept in Abu Dhabi, which will offer an elevated beauty experience with a focus on store digitisation to deliver a seamless omni-brand experience,” Khalid explains.
Dubai, UAE
Today the department store division is predominantly focused on the UAE and Kuwait. The Middle East and Africa luxury goods market is projected to deliver record growth rate during the next five years, with the UAE and KSA leading the way. Specifically, KSA presents a future growth opportunity for the company with it being the largest economy in the GCC. They recognise the future potential of KSA and the growth opportunity as a true GCC omni-retailer.
Customers are at the heart of everything Al Tayer does and their department stores allow them to observe and listen to their wants and needs through their market-leading personal shopping services and sales teams. Furthermore, their department stores also serve as an incubator for new brands brought to market by their buyers who are on the pulse of the hottest trends. They are continually bringing exclusive brand and product curations to market and amplifying their existing brands via pop-ups and experiences.
“Our goal is always to put the customer at the heart of our brand experiences. Our loyalty program Amber is compelling, given the portfolio and breadth of leading luxury brands we operate and has allowed us to develop a strong understanding of our customer and how to entice and retain them,” comments Khalid. “Our omni-channel approach allows us to speak and service them at any touchpoint, whether it is online or with a clear and defined journey in our physical stores with bespoke and personalised customer service.”
Discussing the topic of social media and the important role it plays in the modern retail world, Khalid explains that while it is a powerful channel to reach customers and influence and affect their purchase behaviour, it must be approached carefully. He goes onto say creating content for their brands that represent their luxury positioning and global outlook while also having relevance and appeal to their customer is key.
While sustainability is at the forefront of many global discussions, in their role as a curator of brands and products it is their job to showcase brands that are leading in this space, brands such as Pangaia, PH5, Stella McCartney, Tata Harper and Aveda and Barbara Sturm. They have recently initiated annual campaigns that speak to sustainability and feature styling dedicated to eco-positive brands. Finally, they are also seeing many brands innovating and shifting towards a sustainable mind-set, in alignment with customer expectations.
Considering the main drivers behind the ongoing success of the business, Khalid explains that Al Tayer Insignia has always focused on being a trusted partner to their brands by authentically representing them in the Middle East to their customers as they would in their home markets.
“Evolving and innovating is part of who we are and a key driver within our businesses. We are continuously looking to evolve our omni-customer proposition from our brands and product curation, customer journey and experiences. Our next innovation will be relaunching Amber, our loyalty programme to ensure we continue to surpass the expectations of our customers and remain their preferred shopping destinations across the region.”
The mission of the business is to be the omni-retailer, partner and employer of choice in the Middle East and their vision is to be a winning team that delivers expert services to their partners and exceptional experiences to their customers. These values are an integral part of everything they do and are woven into their DNA.
To conclude the interview we ask Khalid what lies ahead and what is the greatest challenge facing the company.
“Digital evolution continues to be the greatest challenge and opportunity for retailers. The next-generation of customers has evolved faster than any other as digital natives. Generation Z interacts with brands very differently from many of us in leadership roles and their expectations are more complex. We are well placed to take on this challenge as understanding our customer has always been a priority at Al Tayer Insignia. We take the time to understand new audiences through research, employing diverse talent and taking the time to engage with the younger generation whether it is influencers, agencies, employees or family members to really understand their motivation.”
“A great project that lies ahead is the gathering of the global retail community in Dubai, as we organise with our friends from IGDS, the IGDS World Department Store Summit on 11-12 October 2023, for which RLI is a partner. We have built a very strong programme on the topic of ‘Investing for the Future’, that will challenge and inspire the audience. It is the first time that the event is being organised in the Middle East and we are very honoured to welcome leaders of department stores from all continents to Dubai,” Khalid concludes.
