The holy month of Ramadan influences how consumers in the Middle East spend time and money on lifestyle choices and consumer goods. The value of retail sales during the holy month of Ramadan has seen an increase from 48 billion in 2019 to 66 billion in 2023.
For e-commerce sellers active in the region or sellers entering the Middle East, Ramadan is a key retail sales period. By understanding the nuances of the region, consumer habits, and the right infrastructure, sellers can capitalize on the shopping frenzy and convert it into successful sales.
Understanding Consumer Trends During Ramadan
During Ramadan, Muslims, one of the region’s leading demographics, observe a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community bonding. These activities continue for 29 to 30 days and differ from the usual routine. Across the UAE and KSA, shoppers engage in spending patterns and lifestyle changes for sellers to capitalize on and convert.
How Ramadan Activities Influence in Retail Spending
During Ramadan, residents who are practicing Muslims fast, contribute to charitable endeavors, and host family and friends. These activities shape their lifestyle choices and spending patterns.
Ramadan Fasting
Ramadan fasting typically begins from the first light of dawn until the setting of the sun. The fasting starts after a pre-dawn meal. Breaking the fast occurs with dry-fruits and then followed by a fuller meal later in the night.
Shoppers in the Middle East will proactively buy dry fruits, spices, and other condiments that will go into preparing feasts, creating quick pre-dawn meals, and elaborate desserts during gatherings and more.
Gifing and Charity
Those unable to observe fast due to old age or medical conditions are involved in gifting and charitable endeavors. As the period involves friends and family meeting up, the demand for gifts increases. Retailers selling lifestyle and consumer goods will notice a surge in sales during Ramadan.
Hosting Feasts and Get-togethers
During Ramadan, families and friends meet to spend time and break their fasting. Many times, people spruce up the decor to match the festive spirits. Retailers who sell home goods, decor, cleaning, and maintenance products should be ready to cater to the demand that Ramadan brings.
Religious Practices
Religious observance during Ramadan will see consumers spend on Halal-certified products. In addition, consumers will renew their interest in Modest Apparel, prayer essentials, and consumer electronics.
Top E-commerce Categories Attracting Sales During Ramadan 2025
Based on observed practices and shopper trends during Ramadan, here are some of the product categories and products that will see an uptick in demand ahead of Ramadan 2025.
Shelf Stable Food and Beverage:
- Spices
- Cooking ingredients
- Desserts
- Beverages
- Sauces and condiments
- Canned vegetables
Fashion and Prayer Essentials:
- Traditional clothing (e.g., abayas, thobes)
- Festive attire
- Modest fashion
- Prayer mats
- Accessories (e.g., scarves, jewelry)
Home & Decor:
- Home décor items
- Tableware
- Cookware
- Bakeware
- Cleaning supplies
- Home maintenance products
Health & Beauty:
- Haircare
- Skincare products
- Cosmetics
- Perfumes
- Personal care items
Gifts:
- Gift baskets
- Home goods
- Handcrafts
- Wall Decor
- Table decor
Electronics:
- Smartphones
- Tablets
- Laptops
- Home entertainment devices
Other Categories:
- Books
- Religious items
- Toys
- Travel storage
- Experiences
What E-commerce Sellers in the Middle East Should Know Ahead of Ramadan Sale 2025
A YouGov survey dives into how shoppers in the Middle East are preparing for Ramadan.
When it comes to spending, 58% of shoppers in the UAE and 55% across KSA are likely to buy more groceries and daily essentials. While 30% of shoppers from KSA and 37% of shoppers across KSA will spend more on upgrading their homes.
Spending habits will change significantly across gifting, clothing, and accessories. However, spending is likely to remain modest across categories like travel accessories and electronic gadgets.
With increased spending on the cards, the holy month of Ramadan gives e-commerce sellers in the Middle East one of the first peak shopping periods. By understanding demand and mapping it to customer preferences, sellers can give their brand access to shoppers who are likely to convert.
E-Commerce Opportunities and Considerations for Ramadan 2025:
- Capitalize on Increased Spending: Sellers need to cater to demand with adequate supply. Focusing on categories like groceries, gifts, clothing, and home décor is important as shoppers in the Middle East will look to buy more products from these categories.
- Get the Timing Right: Understand when shoppers express a high intent to buy. With Ramadan fasting altering the regular schedule, it is important for brands to keep in mind how shoppers in the middle east behave. Shoppers express a high intent to buy once they break their fast, and brands should be ready with the resource to prepare for these peak sales times during Ramadan.
- Targeted Advertising: Understand consumer behavior during fasting and non-fasting hours. Create Ramadan-specific push notifications and timed campaigns that resonate with the season’s values and traditions. Use cues that follow festive themes. Sellers can use visuals and messaging of community, family, and spirituality.
- Social Commerce: During fasting hours, shoppers are likely to interact with brands more through social media and other e-commerce platforms. A significant percentage of residents are open to shopping on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Partner with influencers for product recommendations and host live shopping events.
- Stay on Theme: Develop content that bundles products that resonate with Ramadan values and practices. For retailers selling shelf-sable consumable goods, this could include healthy Suhoor and Iftar meals. For retailers selling home goods, bundling Ramadan-themed home decor items like curtains, rugs, mats, and pillow covers could entice shoppers to add more items to the cart.
- Cater to Local Preferences: Shoppers in major regions like KSA and UAE behave differently. For instance, shoppers in KSA are a little conservative and will focus on home-cooked meals. Shoppers in the UAE will liberally spend on ordering food and exploring diverse options.
The Secret to Ramadan Sale Success in the Middle East: Integrated Storage and Order Fulfillment
Now that we’ve analyzed the impact of Ramadan Sales on e-commerce, let’s look at how retailers in the Middle East should prepare for success. While a good campaign at the right timing could capture attention, the right post-purchase experience should be on point. Otherwise, visitors landing on your store may end up leaving as window shoppers. Also, without the proper infrastructure and fulfillment solution in place, a shaky order delivery experience could hit your seller ratings and tarnish your business reputation.
Integrated inventory storage and end-to-end fulfillment could be your e-commerce businesses’ edge when it comes to the Ramadan Sale 2025. Here’s how:
Free Zone Warehousing:
- Storing inventory in warehouses within the UAE’s Free zones offers sellers financial incentives. These benefits include tax exemptions and reduced customs duties, lowering operational costs.
- Warehouses in Free zone areas function due to streamlined customs procedures. Sellers sourcing their products from other countries can benefit from quicker importing. A faster process helps with quicker inventory replenishment and fewer out-of-stock experiences.
Improved Delivery Times:
- Proximity to Markets: Warehouses in the mainland offer access to major transportation hubs and high-density shopping markets. Sellers can store inventory close to customers for faster delivery within the UAE and also expand their reach to customers across the GCC.
- Localized Distribution: Localized inventory allows you to proactively respond to demand fluctuations. Quicker stock replenishments in retail outlets and faster import processes help you cater to sudden demand spikes. Timely inventory management lets you make quick decisions that help you manage forecasted demand and keep shelves stacked with products right when your shoppers need them the most.
Transparent and Secure Inventory Management
- Warehouses and storage facilities in the Free zones will be centered around areas with advanced security measures. This will offer transparent visibility and reduce the risk of inventory theft or damage, especially if you sell high-value products and fragile inventory.
- With access to good infrastructure, sellers can also leverage technology to implement monitoring, efficient inbounding and storage practices, a transparent pick-and-pack process, and more, especially if they do not have a localized presence.
How Locad can help your e-commerce business adapt to shoppers’ expectations ahead of Ramadan Sale 2025
Inventory Sourcing:
Shoppers in the Middle East are ready to splurge, but their carts move to the checkout only when they find the right product with the ideal price tag. Source your products from overseas sellers with Locad’s global network presence across China and Southeast Asia for better compliance and faster imports into the Middle East.
Ambient Storage Conditions:
Leverage Locad’s warehouse in the Middle East in Dubai’s Freezone and mainland. Gain transparent visibility into inventory storage, scalable space, affordable storage costs, and offset costly overheads that incur with fixed warehousing space. Store your inventory in optimal temperature conditions ahead of the Ramadan Sale and capitalize Locad’s VAS services like labeling, kitting, and bundling to group products together and reduce the time involved in picking and packing during the sale. With access to batch management, make sure that products from existing stock with sufficient shelf life are first cleared before moving on to newer inventory.
Regional Multi-channel Carrier Partners:
Tap into Locad’s partnership network of more than 50 last-mile carrier partners to handle last-mile fulfillment. Access preferential shipping costs and maintain your Rolodex of trusted and regional last-mile carriers to ship your orders from the warehouse to your customer’s doorsteps.
Tech-driven Fulfillment:
Integrate the Locad Logistics Engine with your online store across leading markets in the Middle East. You can also connect your ERP with Locad through Open API integration, which lets you automatically sync orders, consolidate order and warehouse management, and keep all orders in check from checkout to delivery.
Log expected sales demand and manage resources to handle the sales surge efficiently without SLA breaches. Ensure that the best tech blends with different facets of inventory storage, marketplace sync, dispatch, and delivery for a consistent customer experience every step of the way. Get timely notifications to stay on top of inventory levels, sales, and fulfillment to make proactive changes and data-driven decisions.
Lower Costs and Increase Margins:
Automatically assign the cheapest carrier to lower shipping costs and delight your customers. With scalable storage infrastructrue, bring down inventory storage costs by paying only for the space you consume. With Ramadan approaching, Locad waives of platform fees, bringing down your subscription costs when signing up. Locad’s inventory management makes sure to help you track inventory levels and clear off dead stock without having you pay for high holding costs that will offset any margins you would make selling them in the future.
Be Ramadan Ready:
With Ramadan, make sure that the warehouse ground staff is ready to handle the surge in orders during midnight, before dawn, and after the fasting period. Enlist Locad’s help to bundle commonly purchased products and use custom packaging for the festive season. Analyze existing inventory to finalize your Ramadan product catalog. With a live order tracking link, let your customers track their orders without having to connect with your customer success team.
Ramadan is a key retail shopping period in the Middle East. E-commerce sellers must be ready to cater to the surge in demand and an increased intent to shop during this time by promoting and selling highly relevant products, at the right cost and faster shipping times. With Locad, gain the confidence to handle peak surge of orders and effortlessly deliver an engaging shopping experience to your customers from the store all the way to their doorsteps.
For sellers looking to expand their business into the Middle East, Locad is running a special Ramadan offer where the platform fee is waived from the pricing plan. If you are looking for e-commerce storage and fulfillment services, contact us and we will tailor the best price and offer the right set of features for a stress-free storage, logistics and end-to-end fulfillment experience.
