Middle East Retail Forum - MRF

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We are proud to welcome Fynd as the Frontier AI Partner of the 15th Middle East Retail Forum.Headquartered in Mumbai and...
15/09/2026

We are proud to welcome Fynd as the Frontier AI Partner of the 15th Middle East Retail Forum.

Headquartered in Mumbai and backed by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, Fynd is an AI-native unified commerce platform trusted by 300+ enterprise retailers across 20,000+ stores globally. Brands like Joyalukkas, Hugo Boss, REDTAG, Puma and ASOS run on Fynd. Website, POS, order management, warehouse, logistics, marketplace integration. One modular, scalable stack built to bring together what typically sits in silos: online commerce, in-store operations, and logistics. Built for speed, accuracy, and scale. So retailers can launch faster, operate smarter, and deliver consistent customer experiences across every channel.

The GCC is a priority market in Fynd's global expansion. The team is at MRF 2026 because this is where the region's retail decisions get made.

And the 16th IMAGES RetailME Awards, the , the biggest night of retail in the region, is Powered by Fynd.

Dharmendra Mehta, Managing Director MEA, will be at MRF throughout the day on September 16.
If you are building your commerce infrastructure for the decade ahead, you must have that conversation with him.

We're delighted to welcome Dalma Mall as our Silver Partner at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026.Abu Dhabi is more ...
11/09/2026

We're delighted to welcome Dalma Mall as our Silver Partner at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026.

Abu Dhabi is more than a secondary market โ€” it is a distinct retail ecosystem with its own consumer behaviour, spending patterns and growth trajectory, bringing a perspective that deserves greater focus in the GCC retail conversation.

One of Abu Dhabiโ€™s largest retail destinations, Dalma Mall spans 255,000 sqm of built-up space, with 151,000+ sqm of leasable retail, 450+ stores and kiosks, and 25+ anchor tenants. With occupancy at almost 100%, Dalma Mall demonstrates the strength of its landlord-tenant relationships and its community-focused retail model.

Join us at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026 to explore how Abu Dhabiโ€™s distinct retail dynamics are shaping the next chapter of GCC retail and building the next blueprint.

๐Ÿ“… 16 September 2026
๐Ÿ“ JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
Register Now: https://middleeastretailforum.com

He spent his school holidays at his father's office in Beirut. While other children were at the beach or the mountains, ...
10/09/2026

He spent his school holidays at his father's office in Beirut. While other children were at the beach or the mountains, he was watching a man run his business through a civil war. His father did not stop paying his people when the banks closed. He did not stop honoring commitments when the contracts were technically unenforceable. Every morning he took stock of what was still standing: which suppliers were operating, which customers were reachable, which assumptions from the previous week still held. He held two things at once, every day for fifteen years: he did not pretend the system was working when it was not, and he did not abandon the work because the system was not working.

Alain Bejjani carried that formation into everything he built. He served as Executive Vice Chairman of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon before joining Majid Al Futtaim in 2006, spending the better part of two decades building from within before becoming CEO. He and the team grew it into a $15 billion enterprise spanning 17 countries, leading through the 2008 financial crisis, the 2014 oil downturn, a pandemic that shut every mall they operated, and the disruptions that followed. Through all of it, the same principle held: crisis does not replace direction. It is the condition under which direction becomes the only thing that matters.

What two decades of making direction a discipline, across 17 countries and every kind of pressure the global economy can produce, eventually creates is a point of view worth writing down. His book, NEXT: Leading Through the New Realities, is a framework for what leaders are navigating right now. His own description of his life's work says it plainest: building institutions that hold under pressure.

The theme of Middle East Retail Forum 2026 is Building the Next Blueprint. There may not be a more precisely right person to anchor that conversation.
Alain Bejjani delivers the keynote at MRF 2026. His keynote, NEXT: Leading Through the Retail Realities, brings the same discipline to this room that he has carried across every stage of his career. The retail leaders gathered in Dubai on September 16 will leave with something no panel can offer: the clarity that comes from someone who has made direction a discipline.

40 signed copies of NEXT will be available for attendees on the day.

Weโ€™re thrilled to announce SingleInterface as our Bronze Partner, at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026 in Dubai.For...
10/09/2026

Weโ€™re thrilled to announce SingleInterface as our Bronze Partner, at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026 in Dubai.

For multi-location brands, winning customers is increasingly being influenced by local touchpoints โ€” hence, making every store as digitally prominent as the brand itself, becomes critically important. Thatโ€™s where SingleInterface, with its advanced suite of AI-first capabilities, powers the retail networks of leading brands.

From discovery and reputation, to engagement and growth, SingleInterface connects the entire journey at the local level.

Meet the SingleInterface team as they build the next blueprint for GCC retail.

๐Ÿ“ JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai | September 16, 2026

When a region is navigating uncertainty, customer loyalty becomes more than a growth lever. It becomes an asset. In time...
09/09/2026

When a region is navigating uncertainty, customer loyalty becomes more than a growth lever. It becomes an asset. In times of disruption, businesses have even more reason to strengthen the relationships that keep customers connected to their brands.

Sumit Kumar has spent more than 28 years building those relationships.

As President of the Middle East, Africa & India at Capillary Technologies, Sumit leads the companyโ€™s sales organisation across the region, driving enterprise adoption of its loyalty platform and expanding client partnerships across key markets.

His career has taken him through leadership roles at Marks & Spencer, Bata, Landmark Group, Al-Futtaim and The Clermont Group. Across these businesses, he has worked across enterprise sales and customer success, building partnerships across diverse industries and consistently delivering revenue growth.

He has also served as a Director and Board Member at Hoan My Medical Corporation, Vietnamโ€™s largest private healthcare group.

At MRF 2026, Sumit takes the stage for a keynote on โ€œFrom AI That Answers to Acts: Retailโ€™s Next Shiftโ€, exploring how AI is moving beyond insights and recommendations to turning intelligence into action, and how aiRA, Capillaryโ€™s agentic AI, is reshaping customer engagement across the Middle East.

This is what Building the Next Blueprint looks like when technology and customer relationships have to move together.

Middle East Retail Forum | September 16, 2026 | JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
Be in the room. Meet Sumit Kumar. Join the conversation.

The sneaker used to be a shoe. The eyewear frame used to be a prescription. The sports jacket used to be for the gym.Non...
09/09/2026

The sneaker used to be a shoe. The eyewear frame used to be a prescription. The sports jacket used to be for the gym.

None of those sentences are still true.

Something fundamental has shifted in how consumers relate to what they wear, move in, and choose to be seen in. The lifestyle category is no longer built on trend cycles. It is being rebuilt on something harder to manufacture and harder to copy: cultural resonance, personal conviction, and the question of what holds value over time.

The operators inside it are navigating something new. Shorter trend windows sitting alongside products that have never had more cultural staying power. Rising costs against a consumer buying more deliberately, and expecting more from every single purchase.

Between them, they represent 500+ stores across 10+ markets and six of the region's most actively evolving retail categories. Six leaders across sportswear, footwear, eyewear, value fashion, and lifestyle accessories come together for . They built the categories the GCC consumer chooses from, competes in, and identifies with. They are meeting now, at the moment when those categories are being structurally rebuilt.

Where the growth is. What the next consumer values. How you build in this space so the product earns a place in the consumer's identity, not just their wardrobe.

These are the conversations that build the next blueprint.

Mahmoud Elfeky, VP-Retail, Lenskart
Imad El Ghazal, President โ€“ Sports at GMG
Reshma Shetty, Regional Director, VP โ€“ MEA, ECCO
Satyajit Mittal, Founder, Aretto
Siddharth Dixit, Vice President, Apparel Group
Moderator: Dinesh Shahani, President โ€“ Footwear Business, Shoemart & Shoexpress (Landmark Group)

Be in the room.

๐Ÿ“… 16 September 2026
๐Ÿ“ JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
Register Now: https://middleeastretailforum.com

We're delighted to welcome as our Customer Loyalty Partner at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026.Loyalty is moving ...
09/09/2026

We're delighted to welcome as our Customer Loyalty Partner at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026.

Loyalty is moving beyond points, tiers and discounts. Today's customers expect personalised experiences, meaningful rewards and brands that understand them beyond the transaction.

Capillary brings together loyalty management, customer engagement, consumer data, analytics, rewards and gamification through an AI-powered platform. Its agentic AI platform, aiRA, adds an intelligent action layer that turns customer data and insights into smarter, more autonomous engagement. With a presence across 46+ countries, 415+ brands and more than 1.9 billion loyalty members, Capillary combines technology with loyalty strategy and expertise to help retailers build and evolve programmes around deeper customer understanding.

Join us at the 15th Middle East Retail Forum 2026 to explore how AI, customer data and intelligent loyalty strategies are helping retailers build the next blueprint for lasting customer relationships.

๐Ÿ“… 16 September 2026
๐Ÿ“ JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
Register Now: https://middleeastretailforum.com

When a retail group the size of Landmark commits to digital, it is a systems rebuild at enterprise scale. Twenty-two bra...
08/09/2026

When a retail group the size of Landmark commits to digital, it is a systems rebuild at enterprise scale. Twenty-two brands. Seventeen countries. Millions of loyalty members with different expectations, different purchase behaviours, and different definitions of what a good digital experience looks like.

Amit Maheshwari runs that operation.

He leads e-commerce at Landmark Group, building the digital infrastructure behind centrepointstores.com and the group's broader digital capability. Landmark operates 2,200+ stores across 17 countries, generates $7 billion+ annually, and now runs 20% of its total sales through digital channels, growing at 20%+ year-on-year. Before taking on this scale of complexity, Amit built his e-commerce instincts in India, at Snapdeal, during the years when platforms were still figuring out what high-growth digital commerce actually requires.

He also sits on the IMAGES RetailME Tech & Innovation Advisory: A collective of retail leaders and technology practitioners who shape the technology agenda across the Knowledge Platforms of IMAGES RetailME. Their mandate is to ensure the industry's conversations about innovation are grounded in the reality of building it into live retail businesses. Amit helps design those conversations.

At MRF 2026, he joins . The session asks where AI creates genuine, measurable value in enterprise retail: demand forecasting, personalisation across diverse customer bases, the connective intelligence that holds omnichannel together. For Amit, these are live operational problems, running across 22 brands in a region where consumer expectations are high and the infrastructure to meet them is still being built. What he brings to that conversation is a blueprint being constructed in real time.

Middle East Retail Forum | September 16, 2026 | JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
|

Be in the room. Meet Amit. Join the conversation.

Landmark Group is one of the Middle East and India's largest retail, hospitality and leisure conglomerates, operating 2,200+ stores across 22 brands in 17 countries.

Between them, they hold 73+ physical retail locations, operate across 6+ MENA markets, and span six of the region's most...
08/09/2026

Between them, they hold 73+ physical retail locations, operate across 6+ MENA markets, and span six of the region's most active consumer sectors. Heritage lifestyle retail and specialty fashion. Digital marketplace. On-demand delivery. Online luxury jewellery. And the region's largest luxury resale platform. Each a different point of entry into the same consumer's life.

The consumer they are all building for has shifted. More deliberate. More informed. More selective about where loyalty is given, and quicker to withdraw it when a brand stops earning it. In a market where access is no longer a differentiator, the brands that hold consumer relationships are the ones that have made the consumer a participant, not just a recipient.

In the GCC, this shift is accelerating. The region's consumers are among the most digitally fluent in the world, with expectations calibrated by global platforms and a retail landscape that grows more competitive every quarter. The brands compounding here are the ones that stopped measuring reach and started measuring belonging.

At MRF 2026, six leaders who have built consumer equity across physical retail, digital platforms, delivery ecosystems, and luxury resale come together for . What it takes to move from acquisition to belonging. How the co-author model of brand building operates at scale. Where sustained relevance is actually built in a market that rewards the brands willing to mean more to fewer people.

Vivek Rajukumar, CEO, 6th Street
Rashmi Kalwani Pandya, Chairperson, Xpressions (Part of Al Safeer Group)
Shuja Jashanmal, Group CEO, Jashanmal Group
Prashant Talwar, Director of New Verticals, Deliveroo
Anuraag Sinha, Managing Director, Liali Jewellery
Jai Vohra, Chief Operating Officer, The Luxury Closet, Inc.
Moderator: Mohammed M. Dhedhi, Partner, Kearney

Middle East Retail Forum (MRF) | ๐’๐ž๐ฉ๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ 16, 2026 | ๐‰๐– ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ญ๐ญ ๐‡๐จ๐ญ๐ž๐ฅ ๐Œ๐š๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐š, ๐ƒ๐ฎ๐›๐š๐ข
Be in the room.

Register Now: https://lnkd.in/d4XsYBDt

Over two decades, Anshuman Anand has built a specific kind of expertise: taking global and Indian fashion brands into th...
08/09/2026

Over two decades, Anshuman Anand has built a specific kind of expertise: taking global and Indian fashion brands into the GCC and scaling them with the operating discipline the market actually demands.

More than ten of those years were at Apparel Group, where he led sportswear and fashion portfolios across the region. His team developed Athletesco into a multi-brand athleisure format with over 100 stores across the Middle East, and opened more than 50 R&B stores in Saudi Arabia in 18 months, turning a format that had been dormant for over a decade into a growing fashion business in the Kingdom. He then moved to Al Safa Brands as CEO, a boutique multi-brand retail platform in the GCC.

He also watched, through those same years, what happens when brands enter this market without the right infrastructure behind them. The concept works. The category has appetite. The ex*****on detail breaks down, and the brand rarely recovers the ground it loses.

In 2025, he founded Savysta to close that gap. A UAE retail operating company that builds brands and runs stores with clarity, partnership, and a model focused on growth without losing what makes each brand work. The current portfolio includes The Souled Store and Vero Moda in the UAE, with Snitch and Sweet Dreams joining in 2027. The company is on track for 25 stores across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah within its first 24 months.

At MRF 2026, Anshuman joins , the session on how fashion leaders are rethinking growth, relevance, and profitability in one of the region's most competitive retail categories. He brings the view of someone who has spent two decades getting the infrastructure question right, and is now building a company around that answer.

The theme of MRF 2026 is Building the Next Blueprint. Savysta is Anshuman's answer to what that blueprint looks like in practice.

Middle East Retail Forum | September 16, 2026 | JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai

Be in the room. Meet Anshuman Anand. Join the conversation.

Savysta ยท UAE retail operating company ยท Founded 2025 by Anshuman Anand ยท Current portfolio: The Souled Store and Vero Moda UAE ยท Snitch and Sweet Dreams joining in 2027

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Office 701, Publishing Pavillion, Dubai Production City, Dubai, UAE
Dubai

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Monday 10:00 - 18:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 18:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 18:00
Thursday 10:00 - 18:00
Friday 10:00 - 18:00

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