Dubai: How Midnight shopping; 2am deliveries are elevating Ramadan 2025 luxury retail
Traditionally, the chime of midnight signals Cinderella's exit from the ball, one glass slipper abandoned on the palace steps as the fairytale heroine's finery reverts to rags. In Ramadan 2025, the only shoes left on the doorstep will be those delivered by UAE luxury online retailer Ounass. This month, the stroke of midnight is the cut-off point for late night shoppers to hit 'buy' on their online cart, securing their fix of fairytale finery and having it delivered to their door by 2am. 'Ounass After Dark' promises that customers in Dubai who order by 12am during Ramadan will be unwrapping their treasures two hours later; Cinders' Fairy Godmother would approve. Whether Ounass has outfitted its fleet of drivers with horse-drawn carriages, I couldn't speculate, as I am long asleep by then. I like to think they have, though.
This year, Ramadan has fallen in a key period for luxury fashion. The spring/summer collections have just landed in store, filled with the dopamine colours and lighter-weight fabrics that suit this region far more than September's wintry offerings, when we are too mired in humidity to be tempted by the knitwear, coats and boots that Northern Hemisphere-headquartered fashion brands anchor their autumn/winter ranges with. In addition to the influx of climate- and lifestyle-appropriate styles in stores this month, shoppers have the double-whammy of escalating numbers of Ramadan-specific collections created for the Holy Month. Lavish kaftans (I love Dima Ayad and Taller Marmo), chic abayas (Manaal Al Hammadi), and intricate accessories (see Christian Louboutin's ode to the geometry of Islamic art shown here) have been designed to elevate Ramadan nights and Eid mornings across the GCC. Factor in nightly social gatherings and gifting opportunities, and it's no wonder that 34 per cent of respondents in YouGov's Ramadan 2025: Consumer Insights report, which surveyed consumers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, said their spending on clothes and accessories would increase during Ramadan this year. Redseer Strategy Consultants reports a 20 per cent year-on-year hike of enthusiasm in UAE consumer excitement this year, driving Ramadan retail sales to an estimated $10 billion (Dh36 billion). And with fasting schedules limiting time to visit shopping malls, despite most extending opening hours to 1am, online and social commerce are where modern-day Cinderellas discover their dream dresses. At night, without the time constraints of daily tasks or deadlines to meet, the shopping scroll can stretch till sunrise, creating a circadian retail rhythm all its own. Should you be in further need of inspiration, Instagram and TikTok serve an equally endless supply of content around the clock; YouGov's research reveals that 61 per cent of both Saudi Arabia- and UAE-based consumers are 'likely' or 'very likely' to shop for Ramadan on social media platforms.
Social shopping is now well-established. Perhaps the next stage will be more widespread socially conscious shopping, pioneered so effectively in the region by The Giving Movement. I recently bought a dress on an Australian fashion brand's website. At checkout, I was offered the option of choosing where the $1 donation made by the brand for my purchase would go — to an environmental cause, an organisation promoting girls' education, or a women's health group. It's incredibly empowering to offer consumers a say in who benefits from a donation being made on their behalf. By integrating active philanthropy into online purchasing, consumers get to be both Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother, making for a much more modern fairytale.
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