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Doha Festival City has been leading a global and regional retail conversation with a strong sense of cultural confidence, the kind that can only be nurtured from roots firmly placed in local heritage, steadfast in holding local identity and values close while successfully integrating themselves into the global and regional retail landscape.
Shaping a nation’s retail experience is no easy feat. DFC does what any successful team player’s practice is rooted in: they lead with an eagerness to listen. Channeling their care for Qatar’s cosmopolitan mix of Nationals, Asian expats, and Arab expats into tangible progress. This is further explored in the first-of-its-kind Festival Edits: Qatar’s Retail Trends Report 2025. Festival Edits 2025 successfully converts proprietary data collected from Ipsos, the Doha Festival City 2025 Consumer Survey, and insights from leading voices such as Sheikh Khalifa Al-Thani (Intajat); Ahmed Al Meghessib (Qatar Esports Federation, Ukiyo) and Michael Collins (Harvey Nichols Doha), among others working toward evolving DFC’S retail scene into experimental community hubs where
designers, students, influencers, and consumers can come together under one shared roof.
Dining and luxury shopping experiences, fashion runways, esports arenas, and indoor snow parks transform into multipurpose hubs for connection, leisure, and style all while remaining firmly attuned to global influences and anchored in local cultural resonance. Around half of DFC’s visitors are under 35, with Millennials and Gen Z dominating the shopper profile. A cosmopolitan mix of 44% Asian expats, 39% Arab expats, and 17% Qatari nationals shapes the daily rhythm of Qatar’s leading retail hub. Gen Z consumers coexist alongside older consumers in communal dining, fashion, and beauty spaces. You will find families sharing meals; youth gathered in cafés — some hunched over books, others deep in conversation, personalised beverages carefully held. Beauty and fragrance rank among the top reasons for visiting. Shopping remains the primary reason (46%), followed by dining (40%) and leisure/entertainment such as cinema, fitness, and events (30%). Among younger shoppers, particularly Gen Z, 40% of Qatari females prioritise makeup, 25% fragrance, and 20% skincare as their top beauty spend. Gen Z steers the wheel of progress through their growing interest in the categories of streetwear, beauty, modest fashion, and jewellery. DFC nurtures this interest by curating events that inspire and
creating experiences that offer a cultural arena where discovery and community can coexist alongside consumption.
“Malls have become venues for connection and curation as much as commerce, “said Mohamed
ElSharkawy, Associate Director – Malls Leasing, Doha Festival City. “Festival Edits captures the spirit of
this transformation, offering a credible, data-backed perspective on what defines style, innovation, and
community in Qatar today – from perfume and makeup lovers to streetwear enthusiasts and esports
audiences.”
This sentiment is echoed in DFC’s visitors infleunce in shaping culture in real time. From pairing luxury fragrances with sneakers, skincare rituals with streetwear aesthetics, and modest fashion with edgy silhouettes — they are steering the retail landscape toward a movement that blends Qatari tradition with reimagined global trends. The fashion landscape is shaped by an ongoing dialogue between global trends and local culture. Soft-power tailoring goes hand in hand with modest sportswear. Oud, bukhoor and premium artisinal perfumery ranks high alongside beauty, streetwear, and jewellery labelled as the most exciting categories. Twenty-two percent of Gen Z Qatari females prefer a modest-meets-contemporary fashion blend; 34% of shoppers dominate the streetwear category; premium perfumery is led by 32% of Qatari males; and classic modest fashion holds 28%.
Emotional drivers such as ambience, personalisation, and events are ranked above convenience by 50% of shoppers when choosing a mall. Doha Festival City leads this evolution, making it Qatar’s most emotionally resonant mall, not only as a retail destination but also as a cultural hub that provides a platform where creativity thrives within a future-ready ecosystem shaped through a distinctly local lens.
Retail across the Gulf is entering a new era, one shaped by AI, immersive media, and the growing coexistence of physical and digital experiences. Doha Festival City is already at the forefront of this shift, undergoing rapid technological transformation. AI in GCC retail is projected to surge from $5 billion in 2023 to $31 billion by 2028, with 97% of retailers increasing their investment. Large-scale digital screens, programmatic advertising, and data-led personalisation powered by partners such as Elan Media and Blue Rhine Industries are transforming how consumers move through spaces and connect with brands. Smart infrastructure, predictive analytics, and immersive installations are reshaping the mall journey from a traditional, transactional experience into a dynamic, communal environment.
Loyalty, too, is being redefined. Al-Futtaim Blue Rewards and the newly launched Blue AI have evolved loyalty from a simple points system into a personalised lifestyle ecosystem delivering curated recommendations, exclusive content, and seamless checkout across multiple brands. Looking ahead, AR try-ons, AI-driven styling, and smart fitting rooms will soon become the norm, reducing returns, enriching discovery, and bringing efficiency, entertainment, and emotion together under one shared roof — Doha Festival City.
