noon Yellow Friday 2026: The Seller's Playbook

Yellow Friday is the busiest stretch of the year on noon. For about ten days in late November, shoppers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE hunt for deals across every category.

The 2026 dates aren't announced yet. Plan for a sale running from about 19–20 November to the end of the month, with Black Friday on Friday 27 November.

That leaves under four weeks. It's enough time to book deals, get stock into noon's warehouses and line up your ads, if you start now.

Here's the full countdown, a worked stock and pricing example, and what to do when the returns roll in. It's part of our guide to selling on noon.

When is noon Yellow Friday 2026?

Noon hasn't published the 2026 dates yet. Last year's sale ran from 20 to 30 November, and this year should follow the same pattern.

Black Friday is on Friday 27 November this year, not the 28th. That Friday and the weekend after it are the peak days. Cyber Monday on 30 November usually closes the sale.

Noon tends to announce its dates between October and early November, and sellers hear first through Seller Lab and their account managers.

Yellow Friday also sits in a crowded month. 11.11 comes first, and UAE National Day and the Dubai Shopping Festival follow straight after.

Want the year-round view? Our GCC ecommerce calendar has every peak through December 2027.

Why Yellow Friday is worth the effort

Yellow Friday is noon's own name for the Gulf's Black Friday season. Amazon calls the same season White Friday.

Here's why it matters:

• It's the biggest sale of the Gulf's fourth quarter. Electronics, home, fashion and beauty all peak in the same ten days.
• Traffic lifts everyone. Noon promotes the event across its apps and social channels, so even listings without a deal see more visits.
• Deals rank. Deal badges and deal pages put smaller sellers next to the big brands for a week.
• It feeds the rest of the year. The sales and reviews you earn now push your ranking into December and Ramadan.

Noon also has fewer sellers per category than Amazon, so a well-priced deal stands out faster.

Your Yellow Friday countdown

Work backwards from day one. Here's the timeline for a sale starting around 19–20 November.

How to submit Yellow Friday deals

You join Yellow Friday by booking deals in Seller Lab. There's no separate sign-up.

Noon gives you several deal types, and each one trades margin for visibility in a different way.

Deal type	How it works	Best for
Price-drop deal	You lower the price for set dates and get a deal badge	Most sellers; the easy starting point
Mega Deal	A slot on noon's deal landing page, with only 4 slots per page	Hero SKUs with FBN stock and strong reviews
Flash Deal	A deep discount for a short time window	Clearing stock or driving a spike on peak days
Commission-drop deal	Noon lowers its commission on the deal SKU	Thin-margin categories such as electronics
Promo code	A code shoppers apply at checkout	Retargeting your own followers and email list
Virtual bundle	Two or more SKUs sold together at one price	Raising order value without cutting a hero price

The rules that trip sellers up most are simple. A Mega Deal price must sit below your current offer and above your minimum price. FBP (Fulfilled by Partner) items need special approval, and most Mega Deals favour FBN stock.

1

Pick 3–10 hero SKUs

Choose products with good reviews, healthy stock and room in the margin. These carry your event.

2

Set your floor price

Work out the lowest price that still makes money after noon's fees, then set it as your minimum price in Seller Lab.

3

Choose the deal type

Price-drop deals for most SKUs, a Mega Deal application for your best one or two, a bundle to lift order value.

4

Schedule the dates

Deals can be booked up to 30 days ahead. Up to 25 schedules fit in one bulk upload.

5

Check approval

Confirm each deal is approved, then check the live price and badge on the first morning.

Noon also posts its own Yellow Friday deadlines in Seller Lab each year. Treat those as the hard dates, and book earlier wherever you can.

Pricing your deals without losing money

A deal only helps if it still makes money. So start from your fees, not from the discount you'd like to show.

On noon, the referral fee is charged on the VAT-inclusive price. Saudi prices include 15% VAT, which you pass on to ZATCA.

For example, take a home product that normally sells for SAR 115 on noon Saudi. It's a standard parcel under 1 kg, and it costs you SAR 40 landed. The fees below use noon's September 2026 rate card.

The deal is about 23% off, but profit per unit drops by more than half.

So does it pay? This plan uses a 3x sales lift during the event, to 30 units a day. Daily profit then rises from about SAR 333 to SAR 431, before ads.

The same maths gives you a floor. This product breaks even at about SAR 69.30, so set its minimum price in Seller Lab at SAR 70.

Run your own SKUs through the calculator below. Try your normal price first, then your deal price.

The full rate card is in our noon seller fees guide.

FBN stock: cut-offs and how much to send

Stock decides how much of Yellow Friday you actually get. Deal pages and ads both favour FBN (Fulfilled by noon) listings, which carry the noon Express badge.

When does FBN check-in close?

Marketplaces close peak-season check-in early, usually 3–6 weeks before the event. Noon posts its exact Yellow Friday cut-off in Seller Lab.

Count backwards from there:

• Stock already in the Gulf? Book your ASN (advance shipping notice) now and deliver it to the warehouse noon names.
• Stock still in China? Sea freight takes about a month port to port, plus clearance. Air freight reaches a Gulf warehouse in about two weeks, clearance included.
• Selling in both countries? Saudi and UAE FBN stock are separate pools. Each needs its own inbound.

Inbound mistakes cost days you don't have. Our noon fulfilment guide covers labelling and ASN prep step by step.

How much stock should you send?

Plan four blocks of demand: the days before the sale, the sale itself, a safety buffer, and the week after.

Let's keep the same SAR 115 product. It sells 10 units a day. The plan has two inputs: a 3x sales lift during the event, and a 20% safety buffer on event units.

Is that much stock expensive to hold? Not really. Each packed unit takes about 0.2 cubic feet.

Noon's Saudi storage rate is SAR 2.75 per cubic foot. At that rate, all 676 units cost about SAR 395 a month to store. A three-day stockout at peak would cost you around SAR 1,290 in lost profit, plus the ranking you'd have earned.

Ads during the event

Ads and deals work as a pair. The deal makes the click convert; the ad makes sure shoppers see the deal.

Noon ads runs a first-price auction, so you pay exactly what you bid. Agencies suggest 3–5x your normal daily budget for sale events.

A few habits keep spend under control:

• Start two to three weeks early. Ramp budgets up gradually so campaigns have data before the peak.
• Raise the budget before the bid. In a first-price auction, a higher bid raises the cost of every click. More budget keeps ads running all day.
• Bid up only on proven keywords. Use what converted on 11.11. Leave untested keywords at normal bids.
• Cover the evening. Gulf shoppers buy late, often 8–11pm in Saudi Arabia. Don't let budgets run out by the afternoon.
• Pause ads on low stock. An ad for a SKU that's about to sell out wastes money and annoys shoppers.
• Wind down within 48 hours. Bring bids back to normal after the sale, or you'll pay peak prices for browsers.

Our noon ads guide has the auction rules, CPC ranges and a break-even ACoS example.

Event week checklist

Peak week is about speed. Check these every day while the sale runs.

After the sale: returns and leftover stock

The sale ends on 30 November, but your Yellow Friday work doesn't.

Noon shoppers get about 15 days from delivery to return eligible items. That means returns from late-November orders keep arriving until mid-December.

Here's how to handle the tail:

• FBN returns. Noon collects, inspects and grades each return within about 7 business days. Saleable units go back into your stock.
• Seller Protection Fund. Branded goods damaged or lost by noon's logistics are paid at full value. Generic goods aren't covered.
• FBP returns. Contact the customer within 48 hours, and dispute a wrong return within 7 days of receiving it.
• Return fees. Seller-caused returns cost the lesser of SAR/AED 15 or 20% of the referral fee. Accurate photos and sizes keep these low.
• Statements. Returns come off your weekly Wednesday statement. Raise any dispute within 15 days.

Leftover stock isn't a problem either. Storage is cheap, and long-term fees only start after a year.

Point it at the next peaks instead. UAE National Day and DSF run into January, and Ramadan 2027 starts around 8 February. Our noon returns guide covers grading and disputes in detail.

Notes for Saudi sellers

• Discount licence for your own store. If you also run a Saudi online store, a sale campaign there needs a Ministry of Commerce discount licence (SAR 300 per store). Each discount must be at least 10% off the prior price.
• No Friday pickups. FBP collections don't run on Fridays in Saudi Arabia, and Black Friday is a Friday. Pack ahead on Thursday.
• School break. Saudi schools take their autumn break from 20 to 28 November. Families are home and shopping through the first week.

The licence rules are in our Saudi consumer protection guide.

Notes for UAE sellers

• No Sunday pickups. FBP collections pause on Sundays in the UAE. Plan packing around the weekend after Black Friday.
• Keep the momentum. UAE National Day on 2 December and DSF from 4 December give you two more reasons to keep deals running.
• Reach Saudi from the UAE. The Global Store programme lists your UAE stock in Saudi Arabia without a Saudi company. Set it up after the sale, ready for Ramadan.

Notes for Chinese sellers

• Air is the only safe route now. With the sale four weeks away, sea freight from China won't clear and check in on time.
• Using noon Global Shipping? You drop orders at noon's Shenzhen hub and set a USD transfer price. Noon sets the shelf price, so agree your deal level with your account manager.
• Watch the clock. Gulf peaks fall late in the evening, which is the middle of the night in China. Set budgets and stock alerts before you log off.

The full route is in our noon Global Shipping guide.