Deepak Kumar, Growth and Experience Director, Boutiqaat

One of our biggest differentiators is the customer relationships we’ve built in this market and across the wider GCC. We started as a social e-commerce platform, driving influencer-led commerce at a time when that was a fairly new concept in the region. We built a large network of celebrities and influencers over the years to help amplify our reach and make customers aware of our products, brands, and categories. Over time, we’ve deepened those relationships further through direct channels on our website and app, and by launching new product categories. On top of that, what really sets us apart from other retailers in the region is our content partnerships. We’re a content-first company. Many of the products and brands we offer, which cater to the premium and mid-tier segments, we were the first to introduce to this market, building customer awareness and then offering them at scale by leveraging content across the GCC.

We’re primarily a beauty and lifestyle-focused e-commerce, so one of the ways we decide on new brands is by looking closely at customer trends, how preferences are shifting, and what people are talking about. Our celebrity network also gives us insight into where consumer trends are moving. We use all of that to decide what to offer, while also watching what’s trending beyond the GCC. K-beauty is a good example: it was a trend we noticed early, and we were among the first to bring exclusive K-beauty products into this region. It became popular enough that we recently launched Koreatown, which now has both a digital and retail presence across the region. Looking at consumer insights and data on where customer trends are heading is what helps us decide what new to offer on an ongoing basis.

What makes shoppers in this region different is really the level of digital penetration. People here are very mobile-savvy, with a strong presence on social platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. That means brands and retailers like us need to reach them through a wide range of content to improve discovery of our products and offerings and build visibility. The digital nativity of consumers here, especially through mobile, makes this market both distinct and, in some ways, more easily accessible than others I can speak to.

One mistake I wouldn’t attribute specifically to Boutiqaat, but that many brands and companies in this region make, is assuming the entire GCC is a single market. There are cultural similarities across countries like Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, but there are also real differences. Entering or expanding across the GCC means accounting for cultural nuances and differing customer expectations. What works in Saudi Arabia doesn’t necessarily work in Kuwait, and what works in Kuwait doesn’t necessarily work in the UAE. Even social media preferences vary: consumers in Kuwait may lean more toward TikTok, while in Saudi Arabia Snapchat is more popular. The UAE has a large diaspora population with high disposable income and a strong presence across multiple platforms. Deciding where to spend marketing dollars to reach the right consumer at the right time with the right product is an ongoing exercise in experimentation, not an assumption that what worked in one market will work everywhere. It took us some time to learn this, and we may have made some early missteps, but we recognized it quickly and localized our strategy for every market we operate in and every market we plan to enter.

For us, the next big focus is strengthening our presence in this region, deepening the customer relationships we’ve built, and improving overall customer discovery. The line between online and physical retail is increasingly blurred; they’re no longer separate channels but play different roles for the same consumer across discovery, experience, assortment, and convenience. In short, we want to strengthen our customer and brand relationships, bring in the products our customers already want, and introduce new products they may not be aware of yet but would like. We’re also using AI and personalization to improve discoverability and reach consumers with the right product at the right time. That’s something we’ll be prioritizing over the coming months and into the next one to two years.