The Muslim consumer market is still considered a largely untapped market, despite more brands beginning to target this sector.
The muslim lifestyle sector continues to grow, and with it come huge opportunities for businesses.
And UK enterprises are keen to get involved in this largely untapped commercial market.
As our Correspondent Natalie Powell reports.
IN: The Muslim lifestyle sector
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The Muslim lifestyle sector is estimated to be worth around 1.3 trillion pounds, or 1.8 trillion dollars, globally.
With forecasts over the next five years expecting major growth in this market.
The UK has recently hosted its first Business to Business event on this subject and Britain is seen as a key marketplace for muslim consumers, as shelling Jan-mohammed, the Vice President of marketing agency Ogilvy Noor explains
Shelina Janmohammed, Vice President of marketing agency Ogilvy Noor, its aim is to work with brands to help them reach out to muslim audiences
"The UK has a young and dynamic muslim population about 2.8 million muslims live in the UK and they are disproportionately young and they're really looking for brands to really respond to their needs as muslims on the high street."
Global brands are beginning to wake up to the opportunities presented by this sector of consumers, which for some time has been largely ignored.
And it's the fashion industry that's beginning to catch on quickly. Modest Fashion is seen as a key interest area for muslim consumers.
Altaf Alim, is the Commercial Director of UK modest fashion brand Aab
In just the last year, Aab which started as an online retailer, has opened not one but two stores and now ships to over 100 different countries.
"From the very beginning there was a need for this market… within the last 18 months things have mushroomed… The launch of our first store we had 5000 people on launch day."
So business is booming, and Altaf Alim believes this is just the beginning.
"It's a very young market, it's a growing market… the muslim consumer has a set of values that they have to adhere to which traditionally hasn't been met by the UK high street or traditional brands, so where AAb has been able to come in is to marry up the trend that we see on the main catwalks around the world with a contemporary setting and bring that to the muslim consumer."
With 1.6 million muslims world-wide, it raises questions as to why this market has been relatively unexplored.
Sheila Janmohammed believes it's largely because the market breaks the norms of traditional business structures:
"Business-wise we've often talked about reaching out to different territories so a lot of business are structured around geography and what we say about muslim consumers is that this is actually a global segment that can be found in all sorts of locations around the world na so a simple business structure might actually be how they… "
Last year 7000 visitors attended a Muslim Lifestyle Expo in the UK, and businesses are beginning to see the huge opportunities to be had in this market.
But Shelia Janmohammed argues there's still plenty of potential ahead.
"The idea that there is a muslim consumer is still quite new and the muslim futurists that we talk about it, young muslim who believe that faith and fashion,,fatih and modernity go hand in hand has really come to the fore in the last five years and that is where business are starting to sit up and pay notice and say, hang on there is a new consumer segment, it's growing,it's young, it's brand conscious, it's savvy, we need to be talking to them right now."
While some corporate brands may still be missing this opportunity, with the potential buying power of 1.6 billion muslims globally, it's likely that this market will continue to expand over the next few years.
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