Minimalist is a Dubai based online watch retailer, that specializes in Arabic numeral dials. What we love most about them is the Arabic niche they are targeting. Niche is a great place to be because there is less competition, easier to target customers, and higher margin opportunity. Minimalist.ae is a case study on how to execute well in a niche market.
Arabic Numerals Dial
As stated above, the niche is great. A quick google search shows there are 433 million Arab speaking people in the world. That’s about 6% of the world’s population in their addressable market. For a niche product, that’s quite a large market.
Being niche means it’s easier for Minimalist.ae to find customers. Since these are Arabic numeral dials, they can target their social media spend to those who live in Arabic speaking countries, or can speak Arabic, Persian or Urdu, for example. It also allows them to reach out to Arabic speaking influencers because their followers will obviously also mostly be Arabic speakers, and since there are not many brands creating products like this, they stand out and are easier to market.
Niche products like this, with the right branding, makes their watch customers feel like this brand is for them. That these products were made specially for them. A quick look at their Instagram page also reinforces this, as they post many images of Arab cities and landmarks, like old Saudi buildings, Dubai skylines, Turkish landmarks, etc. All this plays up the story that these products were made for their target market.
Their Instagram Photos
Head over to their instagram to see how it’s done. Their posts not only show beautiful high quality photos of their products, but they’re almost all in culturally appropriate settings. For example, women wearing abayas, men wearing thobes and ghutrahs, taken in dessert settings. It all reinforces that this brand is made for Arabs, by Arabs.
Their Location
Having spent much of my upbringing in the Middle East, living between Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and frequently traveling between Bahrain and Qatar as well I’ve gotten to know the culture. As beautiful as it is, and as welcoming the people are, I would never characterize it as an entrepreneurial place. Entrepreneurship wasn’t something attainable for most people. So now all these years later (I’ve been living in Toronto, Canada for the past 15 years) seeing such a store use our Shop Phone app, and doing very well, I love it.
Not to mention their location helps them sell to their audience, which is also local. They play up their Middle Eastern roots, which we can all learn from. The lesson is before you can go global, take care of your local. Build your local audience before expanding globally.
You can visit the Minimalist.ae website here: www.minimalist.ae
Minimalist.ae uses our Shop Phone app for Shopify to help them recover abandoned checkouts, and welcome new and VIP customers: Shop Phone Shopify App