Established in 2016, BloomingWear is a retail lingerie brand of Nama Arabia Apparels Co. Ltd., a flourishing business by the Al Nahdi family, known for more than 40 years in the field of wholesale in Saudi Arabia for their successful investments across a broad spectrum of industries, ranging from personal care to fashion, food, and beverage, among others.
Inspired by the visionary Mrs. Huda Al Nahdi, BloomingWear was born to cater to the daily needs of Arab women. The brand is keen on offering its clients the confidence and comfort they crave through its wide range of high-quality lingerie, undergarments, homeware, sportswear, faith wear, maternity wear, bridal necessities, and beauty accessories. Top Saudi-based designers meticulously craft all these products using the highest quality fabrics.
The brand caters to women of all ages and life stages, including single and married, brides-to-be, expectant mothers, and young girls transitioning into the beautiful world of womanhood. BloomingWear is also the go-to lingerie store for all ladies and gentlemen looking for gifts for all occasions.
The lingerie brand has grown exponentially in just seven years since its inception, expanding from only four stores in its first year to more than 35 stores nationwide. This can be attributed to the brand’s focus on customer satisfaction and ensuring every woman feels comfortable, happy, and elegantly sexy.
The Steadfast Leader
With over two decades of experience in operational strategies and customer-centric marketing, May Mahjat Kanounji serves as the CEO of BloomingWear. May’s exceptional skills in making crucial decisions, overcoming business challenges, and transforming brands earned her recognition as one of Forbes’ top 50 impactful marketing and communications executives in 2020.
May joined the retail industry after meeting the Retail Guru George Davies, the visionary behind several incredibly successful household brands, including NEXT, George at Asda, Per Una at Marks and Spencer, and FG4 in the Middle East. He helped May understand that listening to all comments and feedback from employees and customers is a cornerstone for success.
“Working with him opened my eyes to the dynamic aspect of this industry, to the importance of change and its impact on customers. Working in retail is filled with excitement and opens countless opportunities to keep up with changing consumer behavior, new trends as well as cultural and economic developments. This is especially true in a country like Saudi Arabia, which has witnessed massive changes with the upcoming vision 2030,”- she explains.
As a CEO with a marketing background, May offers a unique perspective to BloomingWear. She understands marketers’ inherent advantages in providing long-term and future-focused strategies. She strongly emphasizes the customer, recognizing their central role in the brand’s journey. Leveraging her deep market knowledge, May strives to create exceptional experiences for BloomingWear’s clientele.
Effective communication is a key part of May’s leadership style. She believes fostering strong relationships between departments and externally with clients and suppliers is essential for the organization’s success. May’s marketing background also enables her to promote social responsibility and inclusion within the workplace, thus helping BloomingWear remain a responsible and inclusive brand.
“Diversity and inclusion have always been at the heart of our Company’s strategy. We firmly believe workforce-diverse teams produce diverse ideas, so we tend to recruit both Saudi and ex-pats of mixed origins. We allow for flexibility in attendance and working hours. We respect gender diversity and address inequalities through transparent dialogue. We listen to all voices during meetings and ensure our employees feel respected, safe, and secure at the workplace. This also creates a sense of belonging, so Blooming feels like one big family,”- states May.
Bringing Change
One of the primary differentiators of BloomingWear lies in its commitment to providing Arab women with precisely what they need and desire. Unlike several other retail brands in Saudi Arabia that primarily caters to non-Arab women, BloomingWear understands the importance of tailoring its designs to suit the needs of its clients.
To ensure its designs align with customers’ needs BloomingWear employs local designers in its head office. BloomingWear’s designers also actively engage with customers and conduct regular market visits to stay on top of the evolving world of fashion.
Tackling Challenges
One of the critical challenges the industry faces is its high turnover rate, and the brand constantly works on various strategies to increase employee retention. This is undeniably one of the most critical challenges encountered by any business, as, by the time May and her team trains and passes knowledge to employees, they quit opting for non-retail positions that may be less demanding.
On the other hand, as in different regions of the world, inflation took a toll on BloomingWear, with customers becoming increasingly price sensitive and cutting back on their spending. Hence, the brand is also paying special attention to its pricing strategy.
Finally, BloomingWear also faces challenges concerning data, where it strives to collect data from different channels (offline, online, loyalty) to provide a more unified personalized shopping experience for its customers.
Looking at the Future
Under May’s Leadership, BloomingWear plans to expand internationally to markets at proximity, offer a better product assortment to continue catering to the changing needs of its customers, and become the top shopping destination for comfortable elegance for women.
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