Amazon has achieved the biggest improvement in positive consumer brand sentiment among UAE retailers, while newly acquired Souq debuts in the country’s top five most positively perceived retail brands for 2017, according to the latest data from YouGov’s daily brand tracker, BrandIndex.
Records for the past two years show positive consumer brand sentiment began to steadily increase for Souq in 2016, when it was also placed as the second highest brand Buzz improver for the year in the YouGov BrandIndex Best Brand Rankings. However, in 2017 its scores soared, particularly just after the acquisition was announced, giving it a debut appearance in fourth place among the top five retailers in the UAE overall in the 2017 Best Brand Rankings.
Amazon also started to win more favor among consumers in 2016, sitting just behind Souq as the third most improved retailer for the year. However, Buzz scores for the giant online retailer also rose significantly last year, placing it just ahead of its acquisition for improvement in the 2017 Rankings.
Since the deal, the UAE’s flagship ecommerce platform has also upped its reputational stakes. To understand a brand’s market reputation, throughout the year, BrandIndex also asks consumers ‘Would you be proud or embarrassed to work for this brand?’. In 2017 Souq increased its Reputation score, particularly in the second half of the year, reaching an all-time high in December when it announced the launch of ‘Amazon Global Store’ bringing over a million global products to the UAE.
In addition to Buzz and Reputation scores rising for the brand, consumers are also more likely to recommend it to others. Particularly in the second half of the year, when asked ‘Would you recommend this brand to a friend, or tell them to avoid it?’, more consumers chose to recommend Souq, securing its highest average Recommend score to date.
