Eyewa’s ascent has been rapid. Founded in 2018, the eyewear company opened its first physical space in December 2020 and now has 130 stores, spanning five countries across the GCC – with eyes on further expansion.

The company began as “an e-commerce platform selling third-party brands,” says Anass Boumediene, co-founder and CEO. “We did that for three years, understood the market, understood customers, and then we use all this information to build our own brands.”

It is at once a story of impressive business savvy, and of the pivotal role of advanced, agile supply chain infrastructure in building an international business.

Gateway to a booming region

“We’re at the center of a booming region,” says Boumediene. “We have a younger demographic, a growing middle class, tech savvy and the highest penetration of smartphones in the world.”

Those qualities make Dubai a prime market for experimentation. But while global eyewear brands were selling in the region, they weren’t tailoring their product, leaving a gap for Eyewa to fill – a pattern Boumediene says is repeating across various subsectors.

“Within four hours flight time, you have access to about 500 million consumers.”

— Anass Boumediene, Co-founder and CEO of Eyewa

And Dubai offers an ideal gateway into and beyond the region. First, because it is strategically located. “Within four hours flight time, you have access to about 500 million consumers,” says Boumediene.

Second, because it is easy to set up here. Boumediene relates how Eyewa began as two people in a co-working space at in5 – a state-backed incubator in the Dubai Internet City free zone. “They made it very easy for us to get the license and get access to world-class working space. And then they offer a lot of training to help us in our journey of building a new company from scratch.”

Third, because the emirate is primed for cross-border trade. The local currency – the dirham – is pegged to the dollar, and UK common law is used in free zones, both offering stability and familiarity to global investors.

This soft infrastructure is crucial for a fledgling international business. Just as important is Dubai’s hard infrastructure.

Gold-standard logistics

“We produce our lenses here in Dubai, but the frames are usually made in Italy or China,” explains Boumediene. Every pair depends on the ability to easily import into the emirate, before shipping the final product to Eyewa’s stores or customers across the GCC.

Crucially in a time of global volatility, Dubai offers a rare stability. “When you operate a company that relies on international trade, you want to be using logistics hubs that are safe and reliable,” says Boumediene. “And Dubai is the best globally when it comes to reliability and safety.”

And the emirate continues to invest in logistics, especially in digitalization, which Boumediene credits for enabling businesses to “plug and play the different components we need.”

For example, “we don’t need to build our delivery service to deliver to customers, we just plug and play with the different partners,” making it easy to scale operations “without having to be master of the different elements.”

“Dubai is the best globally when it comes to reliability and safety.”

— Anass Boumediene, Co-founder and CEO of Eyewa

This innovation-friendly approach is continuing with AI. Boumediene says Eyewa’s integration of AI into its supply chain and inventory management is aided by the government’s embrace of the technology, which makes it easy to incorporate innovations into the private sector – particularly from a regulatory standpoint.

The government is also smoothing the path to international trade with its swelling number of bilateral trade agreements such as with India, Israel, Indonesia and Turkey.

“It makes it really easy for entrepreneurs that are in logistics and trade to reach out and partner with these different markets,” says Boumediene.

These connections are further strengthened by Dubai’s host of flagship events like the Retail Summit Dubai.

The world’s meeting place

The Retail Summit Dubai is an annual conference that gathers global retailers for discussions and networking. One in three attendees are C-suite. Speakers include leaders from retail luminaries like Apparel Group, eBay, Hasbro, Shopify – and Eyewa.

Boumediene says the event is invaluable for exchanging ideas, “You work in your own universe. But here at the Retail Summit, we have the opportunity to meet with other operators to exchange notes.”

It is also an opportunity for global retailers to learn about the opportunities available in Dubai, and across the region.

But it also leverages the emirate’s globally central position to create a meeting point. Boumediene says these events make it, “easier for operators from Asia, from Europe, from Africa, from the US to meet with each other, to collaborate, and to start co-creating.”

“When you bring everybody together under the same roof, this is where the magic happens.”