One of the UAE's biggest and most well-established retailers has dismissed shopping online as a "boring affair" and good only for buying fishing tackle.
Mohi-Din BinHendi, the president of BinHendi Enterprises, which is the partner for 75 brands in the UAE, says online shopping will never be a big market for the "jet set" of luxury shoppers.
"You do not interact with anybody, but only a screen and your fingertips. In malls you walk around, mingle with people and feel the products," Mr BinHendi said at the InRetail Summit yesterday in Dubai.
BinHendi Enterprises is a partner or franchisee for a number of fashion brands including Hugo Boss and Miss Sixty. It has a watch and jewellery portfolio, a food and beverage arm and an exchange and remittances business.
"Shopping for luxury goods, clothes and jewellery, I do not think it will ever happen that online will take away this pleasure for shoppers. Online shopping will never replace what we have today … Online is good for buying my fishing tackle," Mr BinHendi said.
However, many executives disagree with Mr BinHendi's assessment and believe online shopping will rapidly become popular in the region.
"Every retailer needs to think about online," said Nisreen Shocair, the president of Virgin Middle East and North Africa. "I do not think it is an option; it is a matter of when."
Virgin continues to expand its network of physical stores but also plans to launch an online digital music download platform before the end of the year.
Price and convenience will be the two factors driving shoppers online as consumers increasingly value time saved, Ms Shocair said.
"If there are some brands that have not given [retailers] the option to go online, then this is the next conversation to be had," she said.
JPMorgan forecasts global e-commerce revenue to grow dramatically this year to US$680 billion (Dh2.49 trillion), up 18.9 per cent compared with last year.
E-commerce has been slow to take off in the Middle East, where just 6 per cent of internet users regularly shop online, according to a recent survey by the Dubai market research company Real Opinions.
Simon Marshall, the chief executive of Fawaz Alhokair, a Saudi retail chain with more than 1,000 stores around the Middle East, forecasts online sales to make up 20 to 25 per cent of total sales within five years.
"Online is a massive opportunity. It's significant for us," he said.
Fawaz Alhokair holds about 50 per cent of the mass market retail segment in Saudi Arabia, with brands such as Marks & Spencer, Gap and Zara.
"Saudi Arabia has one of the highest internet-usage-per-person [ratios] in the region," said Mr Marshall. "Shopping is still one of the major experiences."
