- Saudi Arabia has 35.3 million residents (GASTAT, end-2024). Almost all of them are online.
- Cash is now the exception. 85% of retail payments were electronic in 2025 (SAMA), and mada inside Apple Pay is the default.
- Saudi ecommerce was worth USD 11–28 billion in 2025, depending on what you count. It's growing 10–15% a year.
- Most sellers test on Amazon.sa or noon first. Then they add a Salla, Zid or Shopify store.
- Ramadan 2027 should start around 8 February. Order stock from the factory 10–12 weeks ahead.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest ecommerce market in the Gulf, and right now it's one of the fastest-moving.
Saudis placed over 124 million orders through delivery apps in the last quarter of 2025. That's up 60% in a single year.
The shoppers are young, live on their phones and pay with mada or Apple Pay, not cash. Picture your product in a Riyadh flat two days after someone taps "buy".
You'll see why the timing is good, who's already winning and the launch path that works for most brands.
Why sell in Saudi Arabia?
Because the demand is big, digital and still far from saturated. Six reasons stand out:
- The Gulf's biggest market. Saudi ecommerce was worth USD 11–28 billion in 2025, depending on what you count. It's growing about 10–15% a year.
- Lots of room left. Online is still only about 10% of retail sales, according to trade.gov. Most of the growth is still ahead.
- Young, mobile-first shoppers. Internet use is 99.6%, and most Saudis are under 35. They use about 53 GB of data a month, roughly three times the global average.
- Digital payments are the norm. mada, the national debit network, sits behind about 30 million cards. Online, it usually shows up inside Apple Pay.
- Demand is concentrated. Riyadh, the Makkah region and the Eastern Province handle about 82% of delivery orders. One good warehouse covers most of the country.
- Marketplaces are paying you to join. Amazon.sa and others are running new-seller incentives in 2026. See what's on offer below.
How does it stack up against the UAE? Pick a metric to compare the two head to head:
GCC at a glance: six markets compared
Rank the Gulf states on one metric, or put two head to head.
Choose two countries
Tap a third country to swap out the first pick.
Population
34.7Mahead11.4MSource: DataReportal Digital 2026 (UN data), Oct 2025
Internet penetration
99%99%Source: DataReportal Digital 2026 (capped at 99%), Oct 2025
E-commerce market
$11.37Bahead$8.13BSource: ECDB 2025, physical-goods B2C only
VAT rate
15%5%Source: Kintsugi / VATupdate / Fiscal Requirements, Oct 2026
Currency & peg
SAR
Saudi riyal, pegged at 3.75 per US$
AED
UAE dirham, pegged at 3.6725 per US$
Source: Central banks / currency references (SAMA, Wikipedia)
Main local payment rail
mada
National debit scheme; STC Pay wallet also expected
Apple Pay + cards
Apple Pay leads mobile checkout; Jaywan national card (2024) is still emerging
Source: KNET, BENEFIT, QCB, CBO, Checkout.com, 2024–25
Mobile share of web traffic
68.27%ahead60.04%Source: StatCounter, Sep 2026
Top social platform
YouTube · 79%
Snapchat (73%) plus TikTok are the core paid channels; X 43%
Facebook · 85%
Instagram (71%) leads lifestyle commerce; Snapchat 45%
Source: DataReportal Digital 2026 ad reach (% of pop., excl. TikTok), late 2025
Figures from published sources as of Oct 2026 (sources shown per metric). E-commerce uses ECDB's physical-goods basis, which understates markets with big food-delivery spend. Confirm before making decisions.
My short answer, unpacked in UAE vs Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia for scale, the UAE for a softer start.
Who's already winning in Saudi Arabia?
Plenty of foreign and homegrown brands. SHEIN is one of the most-visited fashion sites in the Kingdom.
Anker's Middle East sales reached USD 110 million in 2022. That was up 36% in a year, on premium cables and cameras.
Xiaomi is the region's second-biggest smartphone brand. On the local side, agencies report about 80% of successful Saudi stores run on Salla or Zid.
The pattern is the same each time: Arabic-first listings, local payment methods and fast delivery. The roadmap below gets you all three.
What sells best online in Saudi Arabia?
Electronics and fashion lead by revenue. That's where Amazon, noon and the big retailers fight hardest.
Independent stores tell a different story. On Salla, the biggest Saudi store builder, cosmetics and personal care was the top category in 2023, with about a fifth of sales.
So if you're a smaller brand, start with beauty, fragrance and modest fashion. My shortlist is in the best products to sell in Saudi Arabia.
How to start selling in Saudi Arabia
This is the order that works for most brands entering the Kingdom. Each step links to its own guide, and none of them is hard once you know it's coming.
- 1
Test demand on a marketplace
List a focused range on Amazon.sa or noon. Foreign sellers can start without a Saudi company, and real sales data beats any market report.
- 2
Get the right licence
For your own Saudi store, you'll need a CR (commercial registration), the basic business licence. You can usually get one online the same day through the Saudi Business Center. No CR yet? Saudi Business Center e-commerce authentication, which replaced Maroof, covers you. See Saudi business registration.
- 3
Register for VAT if you sell from abroad
Non-resident sellers register for Saudi VAT from their first sale to consumers. It's a one-time online setup. See VAT for non-resident sellers.
- 4
Set up a Saudi checkout
Offer mada, Apple Pay, Visa/Mastercard and a BNPL option like Tabby or Tamara. Keep COD on for first orders. See the Saudi payments guide.
- 5
Localise your listings
Arabic RTL product pages, VAT-inclusive SAR prices and Arabic customer service on WhatsApp. See Saudi product pages.
- 6
Pick fulfilment
Ship cross-border to test. Once it sells, stock a 3PL, FBA or FBN warehouse in Riyadh for next-day delivery. See Saudi fulfilment.
- 7
Launch around the calendar
Snapchat and TikTok for reach, Google for intent, micro-influencers for trust. Time your launch to Ramadan, National Day or White Friday.
Want the full walkthrough? Read how to sell online in Saudi Arabia.
Marketplace, own store or cross-border?
Most sellers end up using more than one of these routes:
Best for: testing demand fast, and sellers without a Saudi entity.
- Amazon.sa and noon are the two big general marketplaces. Temu, Shein and AliExpress also rank in the top six retail sites by traffic.
- FBA or FBN stores your stock in the Kingdom. The marketplace handles shipping, returns and payments, including mada.
- Trade-off: commissions, price competition and limited customer data.
On a small cross-border order, the extras are easy to plan for:
| Simplified SAR 300 order (incl. shipping) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Customs duty (under SAR 1,000) | SAR 0 |
| VAT at 15% | SAR 45 |
| Declaration fee | SAR 15 |
| Extra cost on top | SAR 60 |
That's a 20% bump on a small order, and duty kicks in above SAR 1,000. So build it into the price and split large orders.
When to launch: key Saudi seasons
Ramadan moves about 11 days earlier each year. So right now, the first quarter is the busiest of the year.
- 11 Nov 202611.11 Singles' Day
Now a standard marketplace deal window. Amazon's 2026 deal deadline was 6 Nov.
- c. 19–30 Nov 2026White Friday / Yellow Friday
The biggest Q4 event, built around Black Friday on 27 Nov.
- 12 Dec 202612.12
A smaller repeat of 11.11, mostly on marketplaces.
- c. 8 Feb – 8 Mar 2027Ramadan 1448
The most important season. 76% of shoppers wait for Ramadan deals, so launch offers the week before.
- 22 Feb 2027Saudi Founding Day
Falls inside Ramadan. Heritage creative, kept modest.
- c. 9 Mar 2027Eid al-Fitr
Gifting peak beforehand: fragrance is the #1 Eid gift (50%).
- c. 16 May 2027Eid al-Adha
About 4 days of holiday. Plan delivery cut-offs.
- Late Jul – early Sep 2027Back to school
Stationery, laptops, uniforms, bags and shoes.
- 23 Sep 2027Saudi National Day (97th)
The biggest Saudi-specific promo after White Friday. Green creative.
- c. 18–29 Nov 2027White Friday 2027
Black Friday falls on 26 Nov 2027.
Islamic dates follow the Umm al-Qura calendar and can shift by a day with the moon sighting. Keep every date in the GCC ecommerce calendar.
Incentives on offer right now
Amazon.sa is actively recruiting sellers in 2026. Here's what new sellers can claim:
- Lower fees. Sellers based in and fulfilling from Saudi Arabia get 30% off referral fees for 60 days. It covers up to SAR 150,000 in sales, for accounts launched 1 July to 31 December 2026.
- Free ad credit. SAR 370 in ad credit, plus up to SAR 3,500 in Sponsored Products credit within 90 days of listing.
- Brand cashback. Up to 5% back on your first SAR 3.5 million of branded sales, if you join Brand Registry within 6 months.
- Free storage. FBA New Selection stores your first 30 units free for up to 90 days.
- Help for Chinese sellers. New cross-border sellers get FBA inbound cashback of up to SAR 3,754 per ASIN until 30 December 2026.
The full terms are in Amazon new-seller incentives. Enrol before your first listing so you don't miss the window.
Start with these Saudi guides
The full step-by-step launch guide: channels, entity, payments, fulfilment and compliance.
Gateways, mada, Arabic themes and the real cost without Shopify Payments.
Eight categories ranked on real demand data, plus what to avoid.
Shipping, customs, SABER and marketplaces for Chinese factories and brands.
Every key number in one place, sourced and dated.
Who wins Saudi retail traffic: Amazon, Temu, Shein, noon and more.
In this section
Frequently asked questions
On Amazon.sa or noon, most sellers are approved in one to three weeks if their documents are clean. A Salla or Zid store can go live in a few days. Saudi gateway approval for mada adds roughly one to two weeks.
Sources & further reading
- Saudi population reaches 35.3 million in 2024 (GASTAT) — Argaam / General Authority for Statistics
- Saudi Internet Report 2025 — Communications, Space & Technology Commission
- E-Payments Account for 85% of Total Retail Payments in 2025 — Saudi Central Bank (SAMA)
- E-commerce registrations rise 9% to exceed 43K in Q4 2025 — Mubasher / Ministry of Commerce
- eCommerce market in Saudi Arabia — ECDB
- Payment Methods in Saudi Arabia (Worldpay data) — Antom
- E-stores customers: customs rules for individuals — Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA)
- Saudi Arabia Country Commercial Guide: eCommerce — U.S. International Trade Administration
This guide is for general information only and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules and fees change — always confirm with the official source or a licensed advisor.
Maya is MiddleEastEcom's lead guide and editor. She researches GCC marketplaces, payments and regulations and turns them into practical playbooks for sellers.
Meet Maya
