Business & Money | Thursday 16 April, 2015 7:28 am |

Saudi Arabia is among the top 20 best and prosperous retail sectors in the world. It is in this context that the annual InRetail Summit Saudi Arabia was a success. It concluded its events amid optimism of a better partnership between the retail sector and the government aimed at supporting the national economy.
The summit witnessed a fruitful series of deliberations, discussions and exchange of ideas and visions around the eight major challenges that the retail sector is facing in Saudi Arabia. The sector prosperity is proportionally growing with the population growth and the increasing purchasing power of the Saudi consumer.
A cross-section of top businessmen and top executives expressed their optimism about the success of the summit and hoped that its conclusions would have a positive impact on the retail trade and its development.

Over the two days, April 13 and 14, the summit provided a platform for the leading businessmen, traders, shopping malls owners and solution providers to explore the emerging directions, new strategies and the growth of the consumer base.
Mohiuddin Yahya Hakami, deputy secretary general of business sectors of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, lauded the success of the summit’s agenda and expressed his gratitude to every party contributing to that success.
Hakami said: “The retail sector in Saudi Arabia is moving forward in strengthening its position as the biggest and the fastest-growing in the Middle East region. As indicated by the AT Kearney’s Global Retail Development Index 2014 (GRDI), Saudi Arabia is among the top 20 countries for retail investment. The Saudi retail sector is exceptionally promising and possesses many untouched growth and expansion opportunities.

Mohammad Alawi, CEO of Red Sea Markets Company (Red Sea Mall — the knowledge partner) and president of the Second InRetail Summit, said: “On the discussion table, we have put every case, issue and topic that matter to all the businessmen and retailers in Saudi Arabia for deliberation, especially those related to the government legislations and the partnerships between the public and the private sectors.”
He said: “We explored all means by which the demands and the requirements of the diverse and wide Saudi consumer’s base can be satisfied, either through classic stores and markets or through shopping malls across the Kingdom.”
Alawi added: “We are very confident that the resolutions and recommendations yielded out of this successful summit will affirm and support the retail sector and the economic diversity, and thus moving with the development of our beloved country forward.”
Arslan Ashraf, managing director for Nielsen Arabian Peninsula, led a panel discussion on grocery retail in which he said: “Saudi market sales are growing by 3.5 times its population, which is 1.5 times the GDP growth. In order to maintain this momentum, grocery retailers need to adapt to the changing consumer behavior.”
During the panel discussion, Arslan focused on various key topics such as usage of technology and smart phones in retail, importance of loyalty programs and impact of nationalization to grocery retail.

Speaking about the event, Arslan added: “This summit gave an excellent opportunity for different stakeholders of the retail industry, such as retailers, investors, IT companies and marketing specialists to get together and understand the prospects of growth and opportunity of the retail market in Saudi Arabia.”
Mortaz Hajaj, co-founder/executive director of Chess Tag, said this is the second InRetail Summit held in Jeddah for the first time. The first InRetail Summit was held in Dubai.
This summit focused on challenges facing the retail industry in Saudi Arabia.

He said: “Digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter become important tools for customers in the retail industry and focus on what are the best practices to keep customers updated all the time.”
He added: Saudi Arabia is the 16th most visited country in the world. Last year 17 million visited Saudi Arabia, which makes it the most attractive market in retail.”
Hajaz said there is a huge growth in e-commerce transactions in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the top Internet users and active in social media. “Retail industry should explore these channels and engaged with them,” he added.
Paul Winsor, director market development, retail and services, EMEA region at Qlik, said: “We are a market leader in data discovery solutions and providing platforms for retailers to understand how the industry is developing.”

Giordano General Manager Ahmedullah said: “This kind of summit is good particularly when there are technology developments happening all the time. New trend hitting the retailer is from the traditional retailing in the mall to technological way. It is called Omni channel.”
Talking about the InRetail Summit, Ahmedullah said: “This kind of summit provides a platform to interact retailers with solution providers.”
Savant Data System, a major retail solutions and services provider, also participated at the InRetail Summit focusing on empowering business with progressive technology solutions.

Vic Bageria, CEO/CVO of Savant, Dubai, who was with Asif Hussain Mahadik, regional manager-KSA, Savant, at the summit said: “We first established ourselves in Riyadh and then came to Jeddah to see retail industry executives. We want to focus in Saudi Arabia as we see huge potential in the retail industry. Earlier, we were doing business in Saudi Arabia from Dubai but now sitting in the Kingdom and looking for opportunities.”