Buyer Interview

1st July, 2025

Hi, I am Mohammed, I work with Apparel Groups & sixstreet.com. I lead the Private Label Fragrance and Cosmetics Division for sixstreet.com.

What certifications or standards do products need to meet to gain listings with major retail groups — and how can platforms like the Organic & Natural Expo help brands prepare for those benchmarks?

So for any brands coming in the Middle East, there are a couple of very important certifications which is required, and since the region and different regions of the GCC there are different certifications. So, I always advise new companies coming into the region to for example, in Saudi Arabia they should have the SASO and the SAFED certification. They also need to have the ECOCERT and the COSMOC certification.

For UAE, I would say the most important step is to register on Montaji, which is the Dubai municipality and also the ECOCERT certification. Now, anybody who is planning to come into this market needs to have it, A Halal certification or any sustainable/ clean certification is positive for establishing a brand’s presence.

Just one word of caution that sometimes the certification takes between 3 to 6 months. So, anybody coming into this market should plan well in advance when they are launching a new product or they are coming with a new range of products to get the certifications before they come into the market.

The beauty sector today goes far beyond cosmetics, covering skincare, facecare, and even natural fragrances. How do suppliers you work with stay aligned with fast-changing trends and consumer expectations, and how can a show like this help them stay ahead?

So, in my opinion, the biggest advantage a supplier can have coming to this region to make a great impression is the kind of technological advancement they have in terms of product development.

In the Age of AI and Augmented Reality, a lot of new products are being developed based on these models. At the same time, we also see Dubai and the UAE in general is at a crossroads of the international world, the customers are very well aligned with the international trends in fashion. We have a lot of GCC and international influencers talking about new products coming in the market.

So, it is a very fashion-conscious market. These days, one of the biggest trend in the market is to have a clean and organic and sustainable product. So, if somebody is coming with a new line, a new product and the product is clean and at the same time organic or sustainable, that makes an added advantage for us to onboard the brand.

The biggest change of what I have seen is that people are going for clean beauty. So, that is a big change and derma cosmetics is again a big thing which is happening in this region. So, skin care, yeah of course, is a huge shift in skin care and clean skin care at the same of derma cosmetics has come up on a long way.

Also, we have seen as I was telling, men’s grooming has come up in a long way. And that does not include only iaftershave or some balm. It has come in terms of, you know, the whole gamut of skin care and cosmetics also.

So, and there is a lot of, products coming with argan oil, with local products like camel milk is a big thing nowadays. Dates products like date milk & date seeds is doing a lot of things in the market, In the market. Also, what I have seen is that the new generation is very conscious about a clean product & organic product.

Halal is of course, the region being predominantly a Muslim population, has been a big way. But at the same time, other people are also taking into halal because there are a lot of benefits they have seen into because again when it comes to the products there is a lot of organic ingredients.

So I would say, in total, skin care is the biggest segment which is growing at a very fast pace. The Korean cosmetics have made a big, big impression in this region in terms of their glass skin, the feels very clean. So they have been using a lot of natural ingredients, a lot of them use natural roots, fruits, berries which have been used in the cosmetic industry.

So I would say there is nothing in terms of the region not abreast or not in times with the international market. They are doing exactly what I would say in any fashion capital of the world. We have, Apparel has a huge footprint because, you know, here in the Middle East and at the same time in India with all the huge numbers of stores.

We work with a lot of, lot of partners. Like for example, we work extensively with an Indian company which is Forest Essentials, which is very Ayurvedic and clean and organic products. At the same time, we work with the Amsterdam based company Rituals, which is a global powerhouse in terms of home, home diffusers and candles, which are organic & chemical free.

And in terms of cosmetics and skin care, we work with a lot of Korean cosmetics. We have on boarded, I think in last two years, almost around 30-35 Korean cosmetics, which is exclusively available on our e-commerce site also. We are also in discussion with lot of companies from Italy and France, which are more into colour cosmetics because that is the trend in this region.

In this region, what we have seen is generally people go, going for a Korean brand if it is a skin care product, but if it is a colour cosmetics or makeup, they go for a French and an Italian brand. I would say this is the most important segment of the retail in a channel these days, and especially with 6th Street coming with their game changer of an X-hour delivery where a customer gets their product within 60 mins of placing the order! This is better than even going to a mall and shopping for it yourself, in that same time your product has reached your home.

With e-commerce booming in the GCC region how important is it for products to be listed there to build customer ease and trust?

That has been a game changer. At the same time, with the huge SKUs available on the application of 6th Street, we are working with close to 1,200 brands almost 150,000 SKUs available and there is a whole team working on getting the biggest and the best brands and at the same time, what is fashionable, what is good and at the same time, what is sustainable, what is clean, what is organic. So I would say e-commerce would dominate the market in the coming days.

I have always been telling omni-channels always will be going to states, not that, you know, omni-channels, brick and mortar will not stay. But more and more people are, I would say, dipping their toes and they are shifting to an e-commerce platform, especially for example, if you are trying to go to a party and you do not have something and you immediately order and at the same time you know very sure that you will receive this in 60 minutes flat. I mean, who would not want to do it?

I mean, it actually helps in all the hassles of going to a mall and buying something.

For international organic and clean-label beauty brands trying to enter the GCC market, what role does participating in the Organic & Natural Products Expo play in building trust, visibility, and retail partnerships?

So the Organic and Natural Expo, which has been now happening in Dubai since a number of years and I have been a regular visitor, both as a speaker and a visitor in this exhibition, they are actually providing a fantastic platform for exhibitors and at the same time for business owners, people who want to enter this market, people, exhibitors and brands who want to understand about the licencing procedure in the region, how they can make their footprints in the region and at the same time during the show they do a lot of talks and workshops and they call leading personalities from the industry where you can actually get a lot of add on value to your company, before you come into this region.

I would say it is a must visit for anybody who is into organic and clean beauty and cosmetics. So one is the workshops and talks which are happening during this exhibition. The second thing is that you need to actually interact and meet a lot of people at one, under one roof who are from the industry.

At the same time a lot of companies like us, we try to go to these exhibitions and see what innovation and new products are available now and it creates a lot of networking also, which I would say is a must in today’s world. So I would definitely tell all my colleagues, all my friends from the industry to visit this exhibition.

I think this year it is from the 17th to the 19th of November and they should put it in their calendar as a must visit for this year.

I would say the region is changing at a very fast pace. More and more as I have been telling, clean, organic, halal, vegan products are coming in the market. It is still a niche segment.

Now more and more companies need to pitch in with new and innovative products and bring it to for everybody’s reach. Once that happens we see a massive change in terms of the buying pattern of the customer and also we do a lot good for the environment and have a lesser carbon footprint. So we are doing good for the future generation also.

Thank you.