Saudi National Day Campaign Planning for Ecommerce Brands

2026-08-02 · 1523 words · Updated 2026-09-19 · Eclipse Advertising Agency

Saudi National Day falls on 23 September every year. Customers actively look for offers, and every competitor in your category is buying the same audiences. A bigger discount alone does not guarantee a better result. It pays to sort out licensing, stock and delivery early, build a page that loads under pressure, and write creative that feels like a celebration rather than a clearance sale. This guide gives you a plan you can reuse each year.

Start with the rules, not the creative

Two sets of rules shape every National Day campaign, and both are enforced for online stores as well as physical shops.

National symbols are off-limits for commercial use

The Saudi Flag Law prohibits using the national flag as a trademark or for commercial advertising. The Ministry of Commerce has also confirmed that individuals and businesses may not use the flag, the state emblem (the two swords and palm), or images and names of the leadership and officials in commercial dealings, including printed material, goods, promotional leaflets and gifts. The ministry states this applies at all times, National Day included, and that it monitors online stores.

In practice that means no flag in ad creative, product mock-ups, packaging inserts or banners, no emblem-style lock-ups, and no leadership photos or quotes attached to your offer. Build the national-day feel from what you are allowed to use: a green-led palette, Sadu-inspired patterns, Saudi landscapes and architecture, your own customers and team, and Arabic typography of your own copy. The General Entertainment Authority publishes an official identity and slogan each year; before adapting it, read the usage terms that come with that year's release rather than assuming it is free for commercial ads.

Discounts need a licence before you announce them

The Ministry of Commerce lists nine controls for discounts in shops and online stores. The ones that affect your campaign build directly:

• Obtain the discount licence before announcing the offer.
• Display the licence so customers can verify it by scanning its barcode. That display is the ministry requirement; our recommendation for an online store is to show it on the campaign landing page rather than bury it in the footer.
• Show the price before and after the discount, and state the discount range clearly (from X% to Y%).
• Offer genuine discounts only, with no price manipulation such as inflating the "was" price in the weeks before.
• Disclose your exchange and return policy for the offer period and honour manufacturer warranties.
• Do not force customers into a promotional bundle to buy an item.

Licences are issued online through the ministry's sales platform; eligibility, required documents and fees are on the sales licensing service page. The ministry sometimes announces exceptional seasons: in 2026, for example, it opened a "Sales 2026" season from 1 August to 31 October that does not count against a business's annual discount days. Such windows change year to year, so check the current Ministry of Commerce requirements when you plan, and match the licence type to your actual mechanic (discount, promotional offer or bundle).

Design an offer you can actually fulfil

Decide the offer in the planning window, not the week of. Useful structures for ecommerce:

• A curated National Day collection with a clear discount, instead of a sitewide cut that erodes margin on items that sell anyway.
• Tiered spend thresholds (spend more, save more) to lift basket size without discounting single items deeply.
• Free or faster delivery above a threshold, which often matters more to shoppers than a few extra percent off.
• A limited edition or gift with purchase that carries the celebration theme without using protected symbols.

Calculate contribution margin after the discount, payment fees, delivery cost and expected returns. If a product only works at full price, keep it out.

Inventory and delivery cut-offs

Use your own sales data from last year's National Day and recent campaigns to forecast demand per SKU, then reserve stock for the campaign. Confirm courier capacity and pickup schedules with each carrier, because the public holiday affects operations. Publish a clear "order by" date for delivery before or on 23 September, per region if your delivery times differ, and repeat it on product pages, in checkout and in your messages. Set rules for what happens when a hero SKU sells out: hide it, swap it in ads, or offer a back-in-stock alert.

Landing page, speed and checkout

Send campaign traffic to one dedicated landing page per offer, Arabic-first with a proper right-to-left layout and an English version if your audience needs it. Include the offer terms, the licence, the delivery cut-off, filters by category and price, and live stock status. Compress images, remove heavy scripts you do not need for the campaign, and test the page on mid-range phones over mobile data. Run a full test order with every payment method you offer, including mada and any buy-now-pay-later provider, and confirm your hosting and payment gateway can handle a traffic spike. If your platform struggles under load, fix it well before the season; our ecommerce development page covers what that work involves.

Creative and Arabic copy

National Day creative works when it speaks about belonging and pride first and the offer second. Write the Arabic copy natively rather than translating an English headline; decide whether the brand voice suits a warm Saudi dialect or clear Modern Standard Arabic, and keep it consistent. Avoid religious phrases in throwaway placements, and avoid over-used slogans that make your ad look like every other one in the feed. Produce vertical video, stories and static formats in the sizes each platform needs, and prepare a set of message variations so you can rotate creative when fatigue sets in during the peak days.

Planning timeline

Paid media, email and WhatsApp

Expect ad auctions to get more competitive around the date, so do the audience work early. Spend the weeks before on content that builds engaged audiences, then use the campaign days to retarget them and your customer lists. On search, add National Day and offer terms in Arabic and English to your existing category campaigns, and keep brand campaigns funded so competitors do not take your own name. Email and WhatsApp should only go to customers who opted in; WhatsApp Business template messages need approval, so submit them early. Keep frequency sensible: a launch message, a reminder, and a last-chance message before the delivery cut-off is usually enough.

Measure what the campaign really did

Judge the campaign on margin, not just revenue. Compare against a normal baseline period, not only the week before, when shoppers may have been waiting for the offer. Track new versus returning customers, average order value, contribution margin after discount and delivery, stockouts, return rate and customer-service volume. Write a one-page review with what to repeat and what to change, and store it where next year's team will find it.

If you want support with the campaign, Eclipse Advertising Agency offers digital marketing in Saudi Arabia, including paid ads and social media management. Contact us to discuss next year's National Day plan.

Sources: laws.boe.gov.sa · mc.gov.sa · mc.gov.sa · sales.mc.gov.sa · mc.gov.sa · mc.gov.sa