A few weeks a year bring a big share of online sales. During Ramadan, White Friday on Amazon or Yellow Friday on Noon, shoppers come ready to buy, and the brands that prepared early take most of the sales.
The brands that wait lose out in quiet ways: stock that arrives at the warehouse too late, deals that miss the submission date, ads that run out of budget on the busiest day. This guide gives you a timeline so none of that happens.
The main seasons in the region
| Season | When | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Ramadan | Moves about 11 days earlier each year | Shopping peaks late at night. Food, kitchen, home, fashion and gifts sell strongly. |
| Eid al-Fitr | Right after Ramadan | Gifts, clothes and family shopping in the last days of Ramadan. |
| Eid al-Adha | About 70 days after Eid al-Fitr | Kitchen, home and family shopping before the Eid. |
| Back to school | August–September | Bags, stationery, electronics, lunch boxes and bottles. |
| Saudi National Day | 23 September | Big sales on Saudi marketplaces. |
| 11.11 | 11 November | A growing one-day sale on both marketplaces. |
| White Friday / Yellow Friday | Late November | The biggest sale of the year: White Friday on Amazon, Yellow Friday on Noon. Often runs for a week or more. |
| UAE National Day | 2 December | Big sales on UAE marketplaces. |
Amazon also runs Prime Day in some countries in the region. Exact dates change every year, so check each marketplace’s event calendar and your seller account messages.
8 weeks before: plan
- Pick your hero products. Choose a small number of products to push hardest: best sellers with good reviews, healthy margin and enough stock. Don’t try to promote everything.
- Set your goals. Expected sales per product, and the profit you need to make the event worth it.
- Plan your stock. Sales can be several times a normal week. Look at last year’s numbers if you have them, and order early. Stock that runs out halfway through the event is the most expensive mistake on this list.
- Check warehouse deadlines. If you use FBA or FBN, Amazon and Noon set dates by which stock must arrive before big events. Warehouses get busy, so plan to arrive well before those dates.
6 weeks before: submit your deals
- Find the deal deadlines. Amazon and Noon open deal submissions for big events weeks in advance, and spaces can be limited.
- Choose the right deal type. Lightning or flash deals for a short burst, longer deals for steady sales, and coupons for smaller discounts that still stand out.
- Price honestly. Marketplaces check your recent selling price. Raising your price before the event to show a bigger discount usually gets the deal rejected, and shoppers notice too.
- Do the math. Work out your profit at the deal price after fees and ads. A deal that sells a lot at a loss isn’t a win.
4 weeks before: get your pages ready
- Review your hero product pages. Titles, images, bullet points and Arabic content all in good shape. (See our guide Product pages that sell.)
- Add seasonal touches where they help. A gift angle for Eid, or a "back to school" image for school products, can lift sales.
- Update your brand store on Amazon, if you have one, with an event page for your hero products.
- Answer open questions and check reviews, so nothing on the page puts shoppers off.
2 weeks before: prepare your ads
- Build interest early. Start or raise ads on hero products before the event. Shoppers research and add to their basket ahead of time.
- Plan bigger budgets. Clicks cost more during big events because everyone is advertising. Budgets that run out by noon on the busiest day lose the best hours.
- Protect your brand name. Make sure your brand campaign is running, so competitors don’t take shoppers searching for you.
- Know your limits. Set the highest cost per sale you’ll accept for each product, based on your margin. (See our guide Marketplace ads for profit, not just sales.)
The week before: final checks
- Stock has arrived and is live in the warehouse
- Deals are approved and scheduled
- Prices match the deal plan on every marketplace, and against your other channels
- Ads budgets and bids are set
- Someone is responsible for checking the account every day of the event
During the event: check every day
- Stock: which products are selling faster than planned, and can you move stock between channels?
- Buy Box: are you still winning it, or has another seller come in cheaper?
- Ads: raise budgets on campaigns that are selling at a profit, and cut those that aren’t.
- Problems: deals that didn’t start, pages that went down, or orders stuck.
Act the same day. A problem fixed on day five of a seven-day event has already cost you most of the sales.
After the event: learn and keep going
- Review the results: sales, profit, ad spend and stock left, for each product, against your goals.
- Restock best sellers quickly. Ranking gained during the event fades if you run out afterwards.
- Keep some ads running. Many products sell better for weeks after a big event because they rank higher. Don’t switch everything off on the last day.
- Write down what you learned, so next year’s plan starts from real numbers.
Mistakes we see often
- Starting too late. Deal deadlines and warehouse dates come weeks before the event.
- Running out of stock halfway through the event.
- Promoting too many products, so budget and attention are spread too thin.
- Discounts with no math. High sales and no profit.
- Raising prices before the sale to fake a bigger discount.
- Nobody watching the account during the event.
Your checklist
- Know the dates of the seasons that matter for your products
- Choose your hero products 8 weeks before
- Order stock early and meet warehouse deadlines
- Submit deals before the deadline, priced honestly and profitably
- Get hero product pages ready 4 weeks before
- Raise ads and budgets 2 weeks before, with clear limits
- Check stock, Buy Box, ads and problems every day of the event
- Review results, restock and keep ads running after the event