RIYADH: Short-term retail concepts are gathering pace across Saudi Arabia’s consumer market, with over 1.5 million small and medium enterprises operating in the Kingdom.
It is forecast they will increase their contribution to the country’s gross domestic product from 20 percent to 35 percent by the end of this decade.
The pop-up scene and experiential retail market, which is present in the food and beverages sector and has extended to the fashion and accessory space, has an estimated value of $1.2 billion across the GCC, according to Ken Research.
As this niche sector of retail booms, Ken Research points to Saudi Arabia as one of the top three key markets driving growth.
While pop-ups have long been used internationally as a social media marketing concept, their growing presence in the Kingdom can be traced back to a larger shift in the retail ecosystem as a whole.
