How apparel actually sells from the UAE
The calendar is religious and retail at the same time
An apparel brand operating from Dubai, Sharjah or Abu Dhabi plans around a calendar that includes Ramadan, Eid, the winter retail season and the school return. Those windows concentrate demand, and buyers place their orders well in advance of them. A brand that discovers in the last fortnight that one channel is short has no realistic way to recover, because the production and shipping time simply is not there.
One buyer often serves several markets
A significant share of wholesale here is bought to be sold on elsewhere, whether in the wider Gulf, in Africa or in the CIS markets. Those buyers ask about packing, labelling and documentation as part of the first conversation, and they compare suppliers on how competently those questions are answered. Losing those details in a chat thread is a straightforward way to lose the order.