Buying Designer Goods In Dubai: Are They Cheaper In The UAE?

Is Design­er Cheap­er In Dubai? Tak­ing a vaca­tion is some­thing we look for­ward to all year long. It means enjoy­ing all kinds of sights and activ­i­ties you don’t find or do at home. Whether you’re trav­el­ling to a loca­tion not far from home base, or you’re fly­ing across an ocean to vis­it a place you’ve nev­er been to before, hol­i­days are what make work­ing hard worth­while. Plan­ning a trip is almost as much fun as tak­ing it. Almost. One of the high­lights of any vaca­tion is going shop­ping. Indulging in a lit­tle retail ther­a­py while you’re away is one of the most enjoy­able aspects of any trip. While shop­ping is fun, get­ting deals on the items you buy is a bonus that every trav­eller rel­ish­es. Fond mem­o­ries are made when you head out for a vis­it to a jew­ellery store or a design­er bou­tique, buy­ing some­thing that will remind you of your trip for years to come. If Dubai, in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE), is on the cal­en­dar for your next hol­i­day, you may be won­der­ing whether you will find your­self scoop­ing up scads of deals on design­er cloth­ing and oth­er things. Of course, there are lots of shop­ping venues in Dubai – for exam­ple, it has the world’s largest shop­ping mall. But are you hop­ing to find dis­count­ed prices on design­er goods in Dubai? The answer is: it depends. There are plen­ty of places to shop in Dubai, of course. But whether the prices will seem like bar­gains depends large­ly on where you’re trav­el­ling from. Most lux­u­ry goods cost about the same in Dubai as they do in the Unit­ed States, so if you’re vis­it­ing from New York City, you may find you’re pay­ing about the same as you did back home. If your home base is a coun­try in Europe or the U.K., you won’t find lux­u­ry goods cheap­er in Dubai – prices are the same or even slight­ly higher. How­ev­er, if you are trav­el­ling from Chi­na or a coun­try in South­east Asia, such as Viet Nam or Thai­land, you’ll find bet­ter prices for lux­u­ry goods in Dubai than you do at home. You may also find more choice and vari­ety, as Dubai is famous for its vast shop­ping des­ti­na­tions for lux­u­ry cloth­ing and oth­er wares. Dubai is, quite sim­ply, a shop­per’s paradise. The cur­ren­cy of Dubai is the UAE Dirham, one of the world’s most sta­ble cur­ren­cies. We thought a com­par­i­son to the Amer­i­can dol­lar might be help­ful, so we checked: at the time of this writ­ing, $1,000.00 in Amer­i­can dol­lars equalled 3,672.20 in UAE Dirham. Of course all cur­ren­cies fluc­tu­ate slight­ly depend­ing on a vari­ety of eco­nom­ic fac­tors, but because the UAE Dirham is so sta­ble, it isn’t like­ly to move all that much, up or down, in com­par­i­son to Amer­i­can money. Dubai is famous as a hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion. It isn’t just the shop­ping that’s first class – Dubai has pris­tine beach­es, world-class hotels and mem­o­rable tourist sights that vis­i­tors rave about. There are also plen­ty of stores and bou­tiques where you can buy vir­tu­al­ly any lux­u­ry item you’re long­ing for, as well as gifts and sou­venirs to take back to envi­ous friends and fam­i­ly at home! Before we dish up the details on where to shop for lux­u­ry goods in Dubai, we thought we’d offer you a lit­tle info on tourist des­ti­na­tions to put on your list before you go. After all, Dubai isn’t just heav­en to shop­pers. It’s home to fab­u­lous food, breath­tak­ing vis­tas and lots of activ­i­ties that take you to a whole new lev­el of enjoy­ment and fun.

1- Burj Khalifa

This is a must-see for any vis­i­tor to Dubai. Burj Khal­i­fa is famous for being the world’s tallest sky­scraper, just over half a mile high. (If you’re ner­vous about heights, you might want to admire this archi­tec­tur­al won­der from the first floor!) Built-in 2010, its hours vary depend­ing on the sea­son, so check before you leave. There are tours you can take to the obser­va­tion deck that allow you to skip the line and head straight for the top. Your trav­el agent can even book this for you before you go, or you can ask the concierge at your hotel for details on how to arrange a tour.

2- Rent An ATV and Hit The Sand Dunes Of The Dubai Desert

The kids will love this excur­sion, and no vis­it to Dubai is com­plete with­out a tour of the desert. In fact, maybe Dad can stay with them for the after­noon while you hit the bou­tiques! No mat­ter how you arrange it, this is a fun and laugh-filled way to spend a day explor­ing the nat­ur­al beau­ty of Dubai. There are camel rides, “dune bash­ing” and so much more to do dur­ing this adventure.

3- Head To The Dubai Fountain Downtown and Watch The Show

This stun­ning dis­play of chore­o­graphed lights and music is a must-see in Dubai. It’s a fam­i­ly-friend­ly out­ing that lets you enjoy sev­er­al hours togeth­er with­out rac­ing around. This foun­tain’s shows were designed by the same folks who designed the shows at the Bel­la­gio Hotel foun­tain in Las Vegas, which gives you a good idea of the visu­al treat you’re in for. And the Dubai Foun­tain is locat­ed close to the Dubai Mall, which brings us back to our arti­cle’s focus – shop­ping for lux­u­ry goods in Dubai. The Dubai Mall is one of the world’s biggest retail spaces – it is home to more than 1,200 stores, as well as enter­tain­ment venues, restau­rants and oth­er fun spots, includ­ing an ice rink. If you can’t find some­thing to buy at the Dubai Mall, it prob­a­bly has­n’t been invent­ed yet! In 2022, the Dubai Mall won the Trav­ellers’ Choice Award, which is giv­en out to hotels, attrac­tions and restau­rants by Trip Advi­sor, a well-known web­site that allows peo­ple to rate and review the des­ti­na­tions they vis­it. The award is giv­en to those places that earn “con­sis­tent­ly great reviews from trav­ellers and are ranked with­in the top 10 per­cent of prop­er­ties.” The Dubai Mall is often rat­ed five stars out of five from vis­i­tors from across the globe, because of the incred­i­ble array of stores and oth­er venues and ser­vices it offers. Here are some of the fash­ion hous­es and oth­er lux­u­ry brands that have stores in the Dubai Mall:

• Calvin Klein
• Bal­an­ci­a­ga
• Alexan­der McQueen
• Tiffany & Co
• Omega
• Carti­er
• Louis Vuit­ton
• Elie Saab
• Carti­er
• Chris­t­ian Louboutin

Those are only a few of the names among the more than 1,200 stores and out­lets you’ll find at the Dubai Mall. Vis­i­tors report that the mall is a new retail expe­ri­ence alto­geth­er; it’s unlike any shop­ping des­ti­na­tion they’ve vis­it­ed before. But in Dubai, there are more places to shop besides the mall. And the ones we note below just might be the right place to find some great deals.

- The Dubai Shopping Festival

This event is held between Decem­ber and Feb­ru­ary every year, so if you’re hop­ing to score great retail deals, be sure to plan your trip dur­ing those months. Although this pop­u­lar fes­ti­val is held at the Dubai Mall, in a sense it is sep­a­rate from it. About 700 brands par­tic­i­pate, and there are steep dis­counts to be found from most of them – up to 90 per­cent off on cer­tain items. Online reviews of the fes­ti­val say it lives up to its promise of big sales and low prices, so if hunt­ing for bar­gains is your favourite pas­time, book your tick­ets to Dubai dur­ing this event.

- The Dubai Outlet Mall

If sav­ing big is your goal, head to this out­let cen­tre. Vis­i­tors say that design­er goods can often be had at a much low­er price than at the Dubai Mall. Plan to spend a day pok­ing through the approx­i­mate­ly 1,200 brands offer­ing good­ies at low prices.

- Visit The Second-Hand Luxury Stores

We’ve all dreamed of find­ing a Dior dress in a vin­tage shop or a Guc­ci bag for half price off, right? Well, the sec­ond-hand stores in Dubai that deal in lux­u­ry brands and high fash­ion offer a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty to find those kinds of great deals. Check out The Clos­et; Style For Less, and Sec­onds, all of which car­ry gen­tly used design­er duds. You just might find that fab­u­lous deal you’ve been search­ing for.

In Summary

Vis­it­ing Dubai is one of those “buck­et list” adven­tures that most of us dream of. If you’re lucky enough to have a trip planned, or you’re con­sid­er­ing a hol­i­day there or are vis­it­ing fam­i­ly in the UAE, be sure to give your­self a day devot­ed to shop­ping. You may not find prices much low­er than they are at home, depend­ing on where you live, but you’re sure to find shop­ping in Dubai excit­ing and fun. Dubai is a mod­ern, beau­ti­ful city with a lot to offer vis­i­tors who crave a change of pace from their shop­ping rou­tine at home. At the Dubai Mall, you’ll find lux­u­ry goods all in one loca­tion — a con­ve­nient way to indulge your crav­ing for retail ther­a­py all in the same spot. And if you find lux­u­ry goods on sale or you go dur­ing the Dubai Shop­ping Fes­ti­val, when the deals are down­right exhil­a­rat­ing, so much the better!

18 Best Things To Buy In Dubai | Shopping In Dubai