COVID-19 impact: Patrick Chalhoub says ‘human touch boosts UAE’s luxury shopping sector’

COVID-19 impact: Patrick Chalhoub says ‘human touch boosts UAE’s luxury shopping sector’

Dubai: The human touch“¦ or the return of the human touch. After a year living by social distancing and as more shoppers head for the safety of online marketplaces, Patrick Chalhoub does not believe that there is little space left for interactions as we knew it. Or as the President of the Chalhoub Group says, the "human touch". "All those weeks and months of isolation within homes have changed consumers," said Chalhoub, whose name and the family business that he heads have been a byword for luxury retail in the Middle East since 1955. "The first thing that's changed is our customers have become much more inclined to look for things“¦ more meaningful things. They are looking for experiences - and that's what we can offer. "Now, whether we offer that experience through our physical store or portal is immaterial. We just have to have provide that product or service and make it the best experience for the customer when she or he makes that transaction." For a group where selling the concept of beauty makes up 49 per cent of "what we do", knowing what the shopper well is part of the package. For the fashionable and the well-off