POSITIVE SIGNS: Business confidence is slowly returning to Middle East retailers, if wholesale transaction volumes are any indication.
They increased 18 percent like-for-like in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, according to Joor, a wholesale management platform.
“The renewed momentum exhibited in [the second quarter] appears to reflect anticipated demand from domestic customers and increased confidence in the recovery of the tourism sector in the region,” Joor said Monday.
Its monthly breakdown of retailer transactions indicates a 5 percent like-for-like drop in March in the wake of the Iran conflict, which erupted in February. By contrast, they were up 42 percent in February.
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“Transaction volume returned to growth in April, May and June 2026, when compared to previous years, but is yet to fully recover to the pace of growth experienced prior to the conflict,” Joor cautioned.
Still, the data serves as a “positive indicator of the region’s future retail performance, given that stores are placing orders for goods to be delivered in the forthcoming months.”
Aishti, Ounass, Beymen, Rubayiat, Level Shoes, Al Tayer Group, Harvey Nichols Dubai and Galeries Lafayette Doha are among the 1,000 or so retailers in the Middle East that processed orders on Joor in the first half of this year.
The Middle East’s share of gross merchandise volume it processed expanded to 4.4 percent from January to June, versus 3.1 percent in the the first half of 2023.
According to Bernstein analysts, the Middle East accounts for roughly 6 percent of global luxury sales, and was the fastest-growing geography in fiscal 2025, expanding 6 percent to 8 percent organically against a sector that was essentially flat.
