Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

How Ounass got the Gulf hooked on online luxury

Supplied
Ounass encourages well-heeled Arab women and men to shop online for fashion and accessories

Luxury fashion website Ounass is among the e-tail platforms credited with developing the momentum of online shopping in the Gulf region.

A report by consultancy Bain and Company claims 70 percent of  GCC shoppers are now comfortable with digital retail, having always been better known for their love of malls, operated by the likes of Emaar Malls, owner of the Dubai Mall. 

Ounass, which just marked its fifth anniversary, and rival Farfetch “have outperformed competitors in the luxury e-commerce market”, says Cyrille Fabre, senior partner with Bain Middle East. 

Ounass has benefited from being part of Al Tayer Insignia, the retail division of holding company Al Tayer Group, and the exclusive licensee of Harvey Nichols in the UAE and of Bloomingdale’s in the UAE and Kuwait. 

The company originally launched with 65 brands, growing to more than 1,200 brands today, ranging from beauty to jewellery to international luxury brands such as Balenciaga, Gucci and Fendi and homegrown fashion labels such as Dima Ayad and Sandra Mansour. 

Watch this face: sales are up. Source: Ounass

Nadine Kanso, creative director of Dubai jewellery brand Bil Arabi, says the site has gained a cult following due to its customer service.

“It can deliver within Dubai in two hours and recently launched a three-hour delivery service in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh,” she said.

Ounass has also built its reputation by working with global brands on special capsule and limited editions. For example, London footwear brand Malone Soulier works on an exclusive with Ounass every season. 

A locally led approach is an Ounass trump card.

“It includes plenty of rich content (available in Arabic) and a detailed understanding of the local calendar”, a company statement said, adding: “it is constantly monitoring the spending habits of Arab buyers.” 

Its jewellery and watch selection is a particular success story. 

Not all experimentation has proven successful. In 2020, Al Tayer Group’s former platform Nisnass closed after two years of operation. 

Nisnass was mobile-focused and targeted Gen Z and millennials with lower price points. 

Face, Person, Human
Ounass online jewellery sales shine

Latest articles

Emirati director Nayla Al Khaja. Her film 'Three' is currently being shown in UAE theatres in Mandarin using Camb.ai's AI translation programme

Dubai startup helps AI-voice cloning take centre stage

A YouTube video released in January of Novak Djokovic shows the tennis star speaking fluent Spanish at a post-match press conference.  While the Serbian champion is renowned for speaking several languages, in this case his voice was created by an artificial intelligence tool developed by a Dubai-based startup, Camb.ai. The original Djokovic footage was taken […]

Alec IPO SeaWorld Abu Dhabi

Alec IPO could start listings rush in construction sector

A listing by Dubai’s Alec Engineering and Contracting could open the gates for more construction-related companies to go public as they take advantage of the country’s buoyant property market, according to a business expert. Alec, which is backed by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, is behind some of the […]

A Saudi woman works inside the first all-female call centre in the kingdom's security sector, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Saudi Arabia unemployment fell in Q4 2023

Unemployment among Saudi Arabian nationals fell to 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, from 8 percent during the same period in 2022, the government said this week, reflecting the growth of the non-oil sector despite an economic contraction.  Unemployment among Saudi males was 4.6 percent, which was up from 4.2 percent the year […]

Saudi finance minister Mohammed al-Jadaan

Saudi FDI inflow up but still far short of target

The net inflow of foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia was just over SAR13 billion ($3.5 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 16 percent on the previous period, government data said this week.  The data, released by the General Authority for Statistics, puts the total net inflow for 2023 at SAR46 billion, which […]