How MENA Consumer Brands Find Customers Abroad
- 01Build an audience before selling. Huda Beauty turned years of beauty content and audience trust into product demand.
- 02Make unfamiliar products easier to buy. Lattafa used online reviews, accessible pricing and international distribution to reach new customers.
- 03Turn a strong identity into global demand. Squatwolf and Okhtein used shared customer interests and regional identity to attract international buyers.
Huda Beauty began selling false lashes after Huda Kattan had spent years publishing beauty advice.
Lattafa reached new fragrance customers through online reviews of perfumes it had the manufacturing experience to produce. Squatwolf built a gymwear business in Dubai and began shipping to customers far beyond the region.
These companies expanded through different categories and price points. But their stories reveal a shared challenge: reaching someone abroad is only the beginning.
The business has to turn that discovery into a product the customer can find, trust and buy again.
Huda Beauty built an audience before launching a product
Kattan started her beauty blog in 2010. By 2013, Huda Beauty was launching its first false lashes through Sephora.
The product grew out of work she was already doing. As a makeup artist, she customised lashes for clients; interest in those designs helped lead to a commercial range. Huda Beauty’s account, Kattan’s Vogue interview
That sequence matters.
The audience already had a way to judge her taste and expertise before being asked to buy something bearing her name. Tutorials could also show what the product did, reducing the explanation needed at the point of purchase.
Retail then added another route to the customer. Online attention and a physical shelf could support each other rather than operate as separate businesses.
Lattafa made an unfamiliar brand easier to try
Perfume presents a different problem: a customer watching a video cannot smell it.
Lattafa’s online appeal has been helped by accessible prices and reviews that give viewers a vocabulary for understanding unfamiliar scents. Creators discuss the bottles, describe the fragrances and compare them with products their audiences may already know.
Reporting on the growth of Middle Eastern fragrance brands has identified Lattafa as a major beneficiary of that online discovery. South China Morning Post’s fragrance reporting
The price can lower the financial risk of trying a perfume without testing it first. The review helps explain what the customer might receive.
But the product still needs to be available after the video ends. Lattafa says its perfumes are sold in more than 120 countries and operates a dedicated North American online store. That is company-reported distribution reach, rather than a measure of market share. Lattafa’s North American website
A shared interest can travel further than a home market
Squatwolf’s starting point was a particular customer: people looking for performance-focused gymwear.
Its founders built the brand in Dubai around that audience. Its development included local gym relationships and a community of fitness professionals, while online selling allowed it to reach customers elsewhere.
A partner case study reports that the brand’s products are worn in more than 100 countries. Squatwolf case study
That suggests a useful distinction for regional brands.
A business can originate in MENA while organising itself around an interest shared internationally. Someone buying gymwear does not have to belong to the founder’s home market to understand the product.
Regional identity can also give a brand something distinctive
Egyptian handbag label Okhtein took a different approach.
Its founders, Aya and Mounaz Abdelraouf, built designs around Egyptian art and craftsmanship. The regional connection became part of what made the product recognisable, rather than something to remove before taking it abroad.
The company’s pipeline material traces that approach from its early workshop to international celebrity exposure. Its current store listing also shows physical distribution in Egypt and Dubai, alongside online retailer Ounass. Founding MENA’s Okhtein material, Okhtein’s store listing
These examples point to different choices. A brand may lead with its cultural origins or with a widely shared customer need. Either way, buyers need a concrete reason to choose the product.
Discovery has to lead somewhere dependable
A viral review, a founder’s following or a celebrity photograph can introduce a brand to a new audience. None resolves the entire purchase.
Customers still encounter delivery times, payment options, product quality and returns. A brand that attracts attention abroad has to make those parts work too.
The strongest connection across these businesses is the relationship between discovery and distribution.
Huda Beauty paired an existing audience with retail. Lattafa combined online interest with international availability. Squatwolf connected a recognisable fitness audience with cross-border selling.
Their origins supplied different stories. Their ability to put a desirable product into customers’ hands gave those stories somewhere to go.
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