Ramadan Ecommerce Marketing in Saudi Arabia: A Planning Timeline
- Ramadan moves about 11 days earlier each Gregorian year, so plan backwards from the expected start date, confirmed against the Umm Al-Qura calendar.
- Start 8–6 weeks out: offers, stock orders, Ministry of Commerce discount licensing and any checkout fixes.
- Shift content, ad budget and customer service to the post-iftar and late-night hours when shoppers are active.
- Publish Eid delivery cut-offs early, switch to express or digital options after them, and measure each phase against your own baseline.
Ramadan is the most planned-for retail season in Saudi Arabia, and also the easiest one to start too late. The month follows the Hijri calendar, so it arrives roughly 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year each year. Last year's launch date is never this year's. Anchor your plan to the expected start of Ramadan, confirm the dates against the Umm Al-Qura calendar, and then work backwards.
This timeline is written for Saudi online stores. It covers what to prepare, when to spend, and how the rhythm of the month changes when people browse and buy.
The planning timeline at a glance
| When | Main focus |
|---|---|
| 8–6 weeks before | Offer strategy, stock orders, discount licence planning, creative briefs, site audit |
| 4–2 weeks before | Build bundles, produce creative, set up campaigns and audiences, confirm delivery partners |
| The week before | Load test the store, launch warm-up content, finalise the Ramadan posting calendar |
| First ten days | Household and Ramadan essentials, awareness, list growth |
| Middle ten days | Gifting and Eid shopping, peak paid spend, retargeting |
| Last ten days | Eid delivery cut-offs, last-order messaging, express and digital options |
| Eid and after | Greetings, fulfilment, returns, post-Eid follow-up and measurement |
8–6 weeks before Ramadan: decide what you are selling
Offers and discount licensing
Choose your hero products and decide whether you will discount at all. A price reduction is not the only lever: bundles, free gift wrapping, or guaranteed pre-Eid delivery can carry a campaign without cutting margin.
If you do plan discounts, build licensing into the schedule. The Ministry of Commerce runs discount licensing through its discount licences e-service, which is available to online stores as well as physical shops. Its listed conditions include a registered commercial registration, agency or trademark, a list of the discounted products, and prices before and after the reduction. For Ramadan 1447H the Ministry announced a dedicated Ramadan sales season running from 13 Sha'ban to 7 Shawwal, extending past Eid al-Fitr. The season dates, fees and conditions can change each year, so check the current Ministry of Commerce requirements before you publish any "sale" or percentage-off claim.
Stock planning
Supplier lead times are the constraint that kills late plans. Review last Ramadan's sell-through by product, not just total revenue, and note which items sold out and when. Order for the gifting peak in the middle of the month, not only for the first week. Agree a reorder point and a cut-off date after which you will stop promoting items that cannot be restocked in time.
Site audit
Traffic concentrates into short evening windows, so weak pages fail at the worst moment. Audit mobile page speed, checkout steps, payment methods and the stability of any apps or plugins. If the checkout needs rebuilding, this is the last sensible window; e-commerce development work started in the final fortnight rarely ships safely.
4–2 weeks before: build the machinery
- Gift bundles. Group products by occasion and recipient: iftar hosting, suhoor, gifts for parents, Eid outfits, children's Eidiya. Give each bundle its own product page, photography and clear price, rather than asking shoppers to assemble it.
- Creative production. Shoot and edit video and static assets now. Produce variants for the different phases of the month so you are not designing under pressure in the last ten days.
- Campaign setup. Build paid social and search campaigns, audiences and retargeting lists. Prepare Ramadan and Eid search keywords in Arabic and English, including gift-related terms.
- Delivery partners. Confirm with carriers how capacity and timelines change around Eid, and set your own last-order dates per city and per shipping method.
- WhatsApp and email. Clean your lists, confirm opt-in, and write the message sequence: launch, gift guide, delivery deadline reminders, Eid greeting, post-Eid follow-up.
Tone and respectful creative
Ramadan creative works best when it reflects how people actually live the month: family iftar, generosity, late nights, preparing for Eid. Avoid messaging that trivialises fasting or worship, and keep humour gentle.
Be careful with religious imagery. Minister of Commerce Decision No. 136, published in Umm Al-Qura, prohibits the commercial use of state symbols and emblems and of religious and sectarian symbols and emblems, to prevent them being misused or disrespected, with penalties applied under the municipal violations regulations. The decision does not list specific examples, so if a design uses anything that could be read as a religious symbol, remove it or check with the Ministry of Commerce first. Lanterns, dates, family tables and your product itself carry the season without that risk.
The week before: test and warm up
Run a load test on the store and a full test order on every payment and shipping method. Freeze non-essential site changes. Publish warm-up content such as a gift guide, a "prepare your home for Ramadan" edit, or an early-access list, and have the whole month's posting calendar approved.
During the month: follow the new daily rhythm
During Ramadan, working hours shorten and the evening becomes the main shopping window. Browsing often picks up after iftar and continues late into the night and around suhoor. Plan around this:
- Content scheduling. Publish shortly after iftar and again late at night rather than at your usual daytime slots. Post lighter, reflective content in the hours before iftar.
- Paid media timing. Review hour-of-day performance from your own account data and shift budget towards the evening and late-night hours that convert for you. Check search campaigns daily, as queries move from Ramadan needs to gifts to Eid.
- Customer service. Staff WhatsApp and chat for the late evening, when questions arrive and buyers expect quick answers.
First ten days
Lead with Ramadan essentials, home and hosting products, and awareness. Grow your WhatsApp and email lists so you can reach people later without paying for every contact.
Middle ten days
Gifting and Eid shopping take over. This is usually where paid budget and gift bundles do the heaviest work. Retarget product viewers and cart abandoners, and start publishing Eid delivery deadlines.
Last ten days
Many shoppers are focused on worship and family, and anyone still buying for Eid is racing the clock. Make cut-offs impossible to miss: on the homepage, product pages, cart and in every message. After the last date for standard delivery, switch to express shipping, in-store pickup, gift cards or digital vouchers instead of promising what couriers cannot deliver.
Eid and after: follow up and measure
Send an Eid greeting that is only a greeting. Then handle fulfilment and returns quickly, because post-Eid service shapes whether first-time Ramadan buyers come back. A week or two later, follow up with review requests, restock alerts and offers relevant to what each customer bought.
Measure the season against your own baseline:
- Revenue, orders and average order value by phase of the month
- Conversion rate and site speed during evening peaks
- Paid media cost per order by platform and by hour
- Bundle performance compared with single products
- Stock-outs, late deliveries and returns, with their causes
- New customers acquired and how many buy again after Eid
Write the findings down while they are fresh. They are the starting point for next year's plan, which begins about 11 days earlier.
Planning Ramadan with Eclipse
Eclipse Advertising Agency in Riyadh plans and runs Ramadan campaigns for Saudi online stores, from paid social and search to content and video. See our digital marketing services, or contact us to start your plan with the timeline above.
Frequently asked questions
How early should a Saudi online store start planning for Ramadan?
Start six to eight weeks before the expected first day of Ramadan. That leaves time for supplier lead times, discount licensing, creative production and any checkout work before traffic peaks.
Do online stores need a licence to run Ramadan discounts?
Yes. The Ministry of Commerce issues discount licences to online stores as well as physical shops through its electronic discount licensing service. Check the current conditions and season dates on the Ministry's website before announcing a sale.
When should Ramadan ads and posts run?
Shopping activity during Ramadan tends to move to the evening, after iftar and into the late night. Use your own hour-of-day data to shift posts and ad budget towards the hours that actually convert for your store.
Sources: mc.gov.sa · mc.gov.sa · uqn.gov.sa