Dubai’s Community Malls Are a Missed Opportunity for Fashion

With over 650 retail outlets, an indoor rollercoaster and 18-screen cineplex, it’s easy to mistake Dubai Hills Mall for one of the city’s iconic mega malls. Opened in 2022, it offers the scale and experience shoppers expect elsewhere but its location helps well-heeled locals avoid the congestion and crowds of tourists at larger properties like Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates.

“Dubai Hills Mall’s convenient location serves several established neighbourhoods in Mohammed bin Rashid City and the catchment areas of Arabian Ranches and other lifestyle communities,” said Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, in a statement from Emaar Malls, the unit that owns and operates some of Dubai’s most prominent shopping destinations including Dubai Mall and Dubai Marina Mall.

Community malls, a long-standing retail concept, are a staple in many markets around the world, including Dubai. Older districts of the city, like Bur Dubai, Deira, and Al Qusais have always been home to smaller, community-focused shopping areas serving local residents. However, these were often built into multi-story buildings with narrow walkways, featuring diminutive and cramped stores with limited natural light.

In recent years, the design of community malls has evolved significantly across the GCC region (Gulf Cooperation Council countries comprising the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman) as the urban landscape changes and consumers demand greater convenience. Emphasising spaciousness, natural light and lifestyle amenities, this new guard of community malls — often part of mixed-use developments — aims to deliver superior, localised shopping experiences.

In Dubai, wealthy residents must still travel across the city for top-tier brands like Chanel, Hermès and Brioni but, for wardrobe staples and a spot of in-store retail therapy alongside food and entertainment offerings, they can now avoid some of the frustrating elements of the mega malls offering ultra-luxury labels.

“Before the opening of Dubai Hills Mall, a lot of us had to brave the crowds and traffic at Mall of the Emirates or Dubai Mall for shopping and leisure,” said Samantha Francis-Baker, a resident of Dubai Hills Estate and founder of creative agency Aces of Space Studios. “A quick mall trip was just not possible unless you went super early or late at night. Dubai Hills Mall offers a more convenient, accessible shopping experience with a well-curated mix of brands, without the chaos.”

Though larger than many of its community mall peers, Dubai Hills Mall features a retail mix of brands including Zara, Nike, Michael Kors, Dior Beauty, Babyshop, Sephora and The Giving Movement. Its curation speaks to shoppers looking for a more premium family-centric shopping experience while shielding them from the glare of some of the flashier features that tend to attract the masses.

But Dubai Hills Mall is an outlier among community malls as most have few global fashion and beauty brands in their tenant mix.

“People often forget that in the UAE, we live an indoor, air-conditioned lifestyle due to the heat,” explained Rania Masri El-Khatib, founder of Dubai-based consultancy RMK Collective. “Unlike in Europe or North America, where local shops are easily accessible, in the UAE, our community malls fulfil those very same needs. For instance, if you live in Kensington [in London], you wouldn’t go to Notting Hill just to buy flowers. Similarly, here, we shop within our immediate surroundings.”

The need for well-executed community retail is on the rise as Dubai’s population is set to double in the coming years, growing from 3.6 million today to 7.8 million by 2040. Propelled by Dubai 2040, the urban masterplan introduced by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2022, this growth is causing a pronounced decentralisation as vast spans of desert are transformed into upscale residential developments complete with local schools, hospitals and businesses. Investment has poured into these neighbourhoods, creating new places for residents to live, work, and play.

To keep pace with its projected population growth, real estate brokerage Knight Frank estimates that Dubai will need around 70,000 new homes annually, yet only about 22,000 homes are expected to be delivered each year over the next five years. This shortage in housing, along with rising property prices, is pushing residents further out from traditional urban centres. As they move, so too does the focus of retail investment.

Redefining community retail

“There’s always been some confusion about what constitutes a community mall,” noted Myf Bagnold, chief marketing officer at Cenomi Group (previously Fawaz Albdulaziz Alhokair Group), which comprises Cenomi Centres, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading mall operators and Cenomi Retail, the group’s joint venture and owned retail unit.

“Historically, we’ve defined them by size, ranging between 10,000 and 37,000 square metres in GLA (gross leasable area). However, community malls are now more about their location in residential and mixed-use areas, where they serve as vital anchors for local communities. They become part of the neighbourhood fabric, impacting the broader residential environment.”

Traditionally built around supermarkets and other service-focused retail establishments, community retail in the UAE has largely been limited to offering residents a quick and easy way to run everyday errands, with the lack of global fashion and beauty brands being pronounced in many cases.

“I think it’s a missed opportunity,” said Bagnold, who feels that smaller retail hubs can offer some international fashion brands the chance to gain an intimate understanding of the local customer, forging deeper connections. “These [community-serving] malls should cater to fashion and beauty needs, but the product and service mix really needs to be tailored to the community [to be successful].”

A quick scan of the UAE’s retail landscape reveals four tiers of community-serving retail centres when categorised by size. The smallest of these is the strip mall-type outlet that is typically found within suburban-style residential developments. Examples in Dubai include Emaar’s Ranches Souk in Arabian Ranches 1, Majid Al Futtaim’s Distrikt in the Tilal Al Ghaf, and Damac Mall in Damac Hills. These can have a GLA of up to 10,000 square metres and tend to feature a convenience-led retail mix that includes groceries, laundry, fitness, children’s play areas, salons, pharmacies, medical clinics and a selection of homegrown retail outlets. Some might include one or two local and regional fashion and accessories stores.

The second tier of community malls is best described as the mid-sized segment, comprised of shopping centres spanning 10,000 to almost 50,000 square metres GLA, which are located within residential hubs. These tend to integrate a leisure aspect, offering a wider range of dining options, entertainment and shopping options that serve surrounding communities.

Springs Souk in Emaar’s upscale Emirates Living master development in Dubai which includes the exclusive Emirates Hills community is one example. Another is Abu-Dhabi based developer Aldar Properties’ Al Hamra Mall in Ras Al Khaimah, located in a catchment adjacent to Al Marjan Island, the chosen locale for Wynn Resort Ras Al Khaimah, where the UAE’s first casino is set to launch in 2027. Despite their strategic locations with access to an affluent local consumer base, their potential remains largely under-utilised by international fashion brands, with footwear labels Crocs and Skechers being the only ones with stores at Al Hamra Mall.

The third tier of community malls comprises of full-scale shopping malls, with GLAs of 50,000 to 150,000 square metres, that are designed to serve entire districts. Examples include Aldar Properties’ Al Jimi Mall, a key shopping hub in the city of Al Ain, currently undergoing an expansion, Majid Al Futtaim’s City Centre Sharjah, a preferred social and shopping destination in the emirate of Sharjah, and Al Futtaim’s Dubai Festival Plaza in Jebel Ali, which maintains a consistent footfall year-round because of an Ikea flagship, one of only two in the emirate of Dubai.

Despite their scale and popularity, most of these malls comprise primarily of local brand tenants with only a handful of global names making the cut like Levi’s, Aldo, Foot Locker and Monsoon.

Spanning beyond 150,000 square metres GLA, the final tier of community-serving malls overlaps with the ‘mega mall’ classification. Examples here are limited to Majid al Futtaim’s City Centre Mirdif in Dubai’s residential Mirdif neighbourhood and the Dubai Hills Mall. This category is the only one where global fashion brands have a prominent presence, although it is primarily limited to the high-street, athleisure and fast fashion categories.

Fashion’s Missed Opportunity

It’s little surprise that ultra-high-traffic retail destinations like Majid Al Futtaim’s Mall of the Emirates and Emaar’s Dubai Mall — the latter attracting 105 million visitors last year — have become a focal point for global fashion and luxury brands looking to establish their presence in the UAE to tap locals and tourists alike. Everyone is vying for space in these leviathans, from luxury brands to department stores like Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdales and Galeries Lafayette as well as high street and fast fashion giants. But with rents that can be ‘astronomical,’ according to retail industry insiders, is the return-on-investment worth it?

For brand awareness and recognition, larger venues offer unmatched exposure, a sense of safety and security in terms of experience and positioning, and a vetted blueprint for success. However, when it comes to engagement and conversion, some community malls — despite their limited footfall and higher perceived risks — can offer a more value-driven proposition.

“Community malls are a really interesting category of mall, certainly in terms of cache and positioning,” said Bagnold. “They [are not] considered [by global brands] as much as bigger, flagship malls are and yet they play an incredibly important role as a key anchor in local communities.”

For brands looking to invest in physical retail beyond the mega malls, the metrics for success need to be broadened, suggests Bagnold. “Looking only at footfall to assess feasibility can be an oversight.” Instead, she recommends undertaking a more detailed assessment of the local catchment area.

“The conversion rate of very big malls is quite low because a lot of people are just browsing recreationally,” said El-Khatib. “In contrast, the conversion rate in community malls tends to be much higher because people there typically come to you with the intention of buying something that they need. So, if you can offer a really personalised, customised experience, you can, as a brand, experience much higher conversion rates [than in a mega mall].”

With more and more suburban community developments underway, and the imminent shift of the city’s population away from the centre, Dubai’s leading real estate developers such as Emaar, Majid Al Futtaim, Aldar, Nakheel, Meraas and Damac are using community shopping experiences to entice investors and residents alike. But many global brands – particularly those based in Europe and North America – remain cautious about community malls despite the opportunity they present in terms of experimenting with new formats, concepts and innovations without the need for heavy capital investment.

“Having a Bloomingdales at Dubai Mall is great, but you have to compete with so many brands who already have their flagship stores there,” pointed out El-Khatib. “Why not open a Bloomingdales concept store in the heart of a residential community, where they have the means, but are limited in options?”

El-Khatib references Chalhoub Group’s luxury footwear department store Level Shoes which opened its first location outside of the company’s Dubai Mall flagship last year at the Atlantis The Royal hotel in the Palm Jumeirah district. A hybrid personal shopping retail concept, the boutique offers a curated selection of footwear and accessories in-store, and access to the retailer’s entire product line, with express delivery.

“Multi-brand stores are usually more in touch with customers on a local level. They can go granular on their offering [because of how well they know the market and the customer] whereas global brands have most of their strategies coming from their global headquarters, making them less agile,” said El-Khatib. “This can be a huge competitive advantage for [multi-brand] and local brand [competitors] who have boots on the ground.”