Exporting Goods to the UAE – little-known headwinds
It has been a few weeks since many of my near and dear ones have been pestering me to start something afresh. Now that I have reached the stage finally to comfortably “work at home”, they feel that I would do justice to my experience, understanding, and knowledge by sharing with others what I gathered by virtue of 20+ years of professional engagements in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Yielding to their demands, this is an initiative from my end to compile ‘niche-based’ information for appropriate dissemination. The idea behind this is to identify not-so-common traits related to doing business with UAE-based companies and discussing ways and means to navigate for successful manoeuvring of new-to-market entrants to the UAE retail sector.
While some of the information that I will be sharing might be already known or are available online and through other sources, but most of them will be based on personal experiences, through one-on-one interactions, and by simply being in the marketplace.
This will be a series of seven topics covering the following:
- Doing business in the UAE – The Do’s and Don’ts
- UAE Food sector overview – How to make the most of it
- UAE’s Beauty and Cosmetics sector – Indicative trending traits
- Common follies by international suppliers – How to avoid these
- Identifying commonality in diversity – What are some of these promotional tools for the demographically diverse population such as in the UAE
- Establishing brand awareness – How to create brand loyalty
- UAE as a gateway to the GCC and North African region – How to benefit from it
My intention is to post these at regular intervals, leaving intermittent time gaps for any feedback, comments, or review. If interested, keep following my posts as I take a deep dive into the complexities of doing business in the UAE because of its 200+ nationalities, demographically diverse consumer base, and being a country that imports goods from across the world.