Dubai Ranks As World’s Second Biggest Retail Destination – Report

Dubai retained its position as the second most important international retail destination globally for the third consecutive year – according to a report.

The emirate came closely behind London, which also retained its number one position, according to the 2014 edition of the annual How Global is the Business of Retail report released by real estate consultancy firm CBRE.

London and Dubai are significantly ahead of New York, Moscow and Shanghai, the other locations which make up the top five.

CBRE’s annual survey analyses the operational networks of 334 leading international retailers across 189 cities and 61 countries. The report’s findings were revealed by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.

“Dubai saw 19 new retail entrants during 2013, and with a number of major malls under development and some of the existing ones undergoing a face lift, the emirate is anticipated to garner further interest from international retailers looking to enter the region,” said Nick Maclean, managing director, CBRE Middle East.

This year’s report also looked at the world’s “Hot Markets” giving an overview of the cities that retailers targeted in 2013. According to the report, Abu Dhabi ranked fourth amongst the hottest retail markets attracting 42 new brands in 2013. Paris took the lead position, attracting significantly more new retailers than any other city with a total of 50 new retailers.

Retailers focused on more mature markets in 2013 with 18 of the top target cities considered mature markets compared with only 14 in the previous year, states the report.

Up to 83 per cent of the surveyed cities saw at least one new entrant in 2013 compared with 81 per cent the previous; with the top target markets seeing a 28 per cent rise in new entrants.

The report also found that the overall footprint of global retailers at country level increased by 1.7 per cent and over 51 per cent are now present in all three major global regions, Americas, Europe Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific, a slight increase on the previous year.

The number of new entrants at city level was up by 26 per cent year-on-year, with an increasing number of retailers crossing borders to grow their businesses.