Leading eyewear retailer eyewa opened its fiftieth store in the GCC – and its tenth in the UAE at Mall of the Emirates, Dubai.

With the opening of its new flagship store in Mall of the Emirates Dubai, eyewa has achieved over 300% growth in its retail footprint in the last 12 months alone.

Over the last two years, eyewa has grown from no offline presence to 50 stores, becoming the fastest-growing retailer in the MENA region and the fastest-growing eyewear retailer globally.

Having entered the physical retail space less than two years ago with the opening of its first store in Mall of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia in December 2020, the home-grown startup delivered on a high-speed expansion plan, fast-tracking its physical store presence across the region.

This successful expansion is driven by the company’s focus on delivering a unique value proposition of on-trend and fashionable eyewear at affordable pricing, leveraging seven house brands built locally specifically for the needs of the GCC customers.

Being a digitally native company, which first started as an eyewear e-commerce retailer, eyewa saw early on that customers move freely across channels and was right in committing to an omnichannel strategy. 

With the customer's needs at its heart, it focuses on making their experience across all touchpoints as delightful as possible. Users begin their journey either on the eyewa app or social media, to then undergo an eye examination in-store or make a purchase online or offline. This strategy has enabled eyewa to rapidly expand its bricks and mortar network, reaching more customers across the region.

To date, eyewa invested more than USD 30m in this cross-platform approach, which has allowed for greater convenience for its customers. The brand now boasts a significant physical market presence, with 50 retail stores operating in four countries, across 30 cities.

Abdullah Alrugaib, Co-founder and Managing Director of eyewa in KSA, added: “We are thrilled to have achieved such swift growth in the retail space in such a small period of time. We owe this success to our team's dedication and hard work on the ground. Having proven our model, we are now working on expanding our omni-platform offering further in the coming months in more countries in our region”

Building on this momentum, the company will expand further: first, in its home markets of Saudi Arabia and UAE, with the aim of doubling its reach in 2023 and bringing the total number of physical stores to 100, but also by moving into other markets in the GCC and in the MENA region.