Jumbo Electronics looks away from high street in the capital and towards malls

Jumbo Electronics is closing high street stores to open up in malls across Abu Dhabi.

Jumbo Electronics is scaling back its high street retail presence in Abu Dhabi and instead looking to open up in malls across the capital.
Of its four stores, Jumbo has already closed outlets in the Tourist Club area and on Airport Road. It is in the process of finding suitable locations in the malls.
"Apart from the existing store in Marina Mall, we plan to open our second mall store in Dalma Mall before the end of this month," said Nadeem Khanzadah, the head of retail at Jumbo. "We are also actively looking at further stores in some of the other key malls in Abu Dhabi so that we have a wide-spread footprint of ideally six stores in the city covering all major catchment areas."
By the end of this year, the number of electronics outlets due to open are expected to increase by 4 per cent, according to Euromonitor International, the London-based market intelligence firm.
"This will be a result of leading electronics players in the market widening their distribution by ensuring their presence is available in top shopping malls," said Fatemah Sherif, an analyst at Euromonitor.
According to Jumbo, for the industry in general TV remains a huge volume category, while wearables, although small by comparison, will experience high growth. Overall TV volumes are expected to decline.
The retailer expects the bulk of its sales to come from smartphones, tablets and wearables.
"TV will struggle to make up for last year's first eight months of sales [after] the India duty came into affect," said Mr Khanzadah.
Jacky's Electronics, which has been operating in Dubai for the past 20 years, will be opening its first Abu Dhabi store in Khalidiyah Mall next moth. The company's chief operating officer Ashish Panjabi said that until now, the capital's retail prospects were not enough to lure the company.
"The culture in the country encourages shopping in malls due to hot weather conditions, main brand presence, convenient forms of parking and ease of shopping purposes, with many stores located in one place.
"Hence, multinational companies or leading regional brands with wide distribution and strong brand presence need to continue being in malls to target higher footfalls, especially with the growing number of malls expected to open soon," said Ms Fatemah.
Euromonitor expects Abu Dhabi to experience "significant growth" in the next two to three years as more malls open up.
Bigger players and companies targeting mid to high income earners are likely to move further into malls over the next few years, leaving smaller retailers and those targeting lower income earners to take up the spaces on the high street.
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