Ramadan: UAE retailers offer fixed prices on more products 

UAE retailers have confirmed their commitment to fixed-price strategies through Ramadan on food and non-food staples.

This move is hoped to alleviate consumers’ concern about excessive spending at the height of Ramadan.

To this end, major country retailers have decided to expand the scope of ‘fixed-price’ promotions during the next few weeks. 

Director of marketing at LuLu Group, V. Nandakumar, said: “This Ramadan, we have 200 products where prices will remain the same.

“In the past, we typically kept constant pricing on about 100 products as part of the Ramadan campaign.

“We made the change to 200 because we noticed slight shifts in consumer spending even on daily/weekly essentials, especially food purchases. We have dealt with inflationary price increases in the best way possible by keeping prices constant on most food items.

“Having fixed costs on 200 products this Ramadan does mean we had to cut our margins. But with inflation and price increases weighing on shoppers’ minds, this had to be done,” said Mr Nandakumar.

The problem of rising costs 

Many other chains are also determined to tackle rising costs. For example, discounts remain the most popular option, while there are banks offering cashback opportunities on grocery spending done via credit cards.

Nevertheless, surging costs persist as an insurmountable obstacle for businesses. 

Last week, the UAE authorities allowed retailers to temporarily hike prices on eggs and other poultry products after fielding requests from local producers on the steep increase in costs at their operations

As it has been clarified by the authorities, this hike is nothing more than a temporary measure.

Food price inflation has been a burning issue for the UAE and Gulf consumers at large during the last three years.

Ramadan campaigns 

Ramadan-related promotions, especially from the supermarket and online marketplaces, have been underway for a few days now. 

According to the group director at Dubai-based Al Maya Group, Kamal Vachani, the early start always helps with the bulk buys made before the actual start of Ramadan:

“We strategised in-store offerings with three major promotion cycles.

“The pre-Ramadan bulk purchases and deals, and then once Ramadan starts, the emphasis naturally shifts to repeat purchases, with offers on top-up buying.

“Then the promotions focus on the ‘deep offerings’ towards buying vital products and the best possible deals on Eid purchases. Retailers have to prioritize how they run their Ramadan promotions, with the first stage focusing on the heavy bulk buying of essentials by shoppers,” said Mr Vachani. 

 

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