For retail clients in the Gulf, the stretch from 11.11 to UAE National Day is the busiest of the year. None of the big platforms had announced their 2026 dates by early October, so planning starts from last year's pattern and this year's calendar.
What we know about the dates
- 11.11 falls on a Wednesday this year. In 2025 noon ran its 11.11 sale from the evening of 7 November to 12 November with up to 80% off, and Sharaf DG and Jumbo ran 11.11 deals too, according to Gulf News.
- Black Friday is 27 November and Cyber Monday is 30 November.
- White Friday: Amazon.sa ran its sale from 21 to 30 November in both 2024 and 2025, with early access for Prime members the day before. No 2026 dates had been announced, whatever some search summaries say.
- UAE National Day is Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December, and Dubai's official retail calendar runs a National Day campaign from 30 November to 3 December.
- Dubai's calendar also has the Dubai Home Festival from 16 October to 1 November and Diwali promotions from 2 to 12 November. The Dubai Shopping Festival usually starts in December.
- Retailers set their own windows: in 2025 Namshi ran Black November from 24 to 29 November and Sephora ran its sale from 11 to 30 November.
What the numbers say
- Online purchases with Saudi mada cards reached SAR 30.7 billion in October 2025, up 68% on a year earlier and a record month, according to Saudi Central Bank figures reported by Okaz. The full-year 2025 total was SAR 325.2 billion, up 65%. These figures exclude credit cards, so they understate total e-commerce.
- Visa says spending on its premium cards in the UAE rose 30% year on year in December 2025, and luxury retail spending rose 35%.
- Data from Flowwow and Admitad, based on orders from November 2023 to 2024 and reported by Khaleej Times, found White Friday gross merchandise value up 40% and orders up 20%, with UAE shoppers spending about three times the regional average per order.
Discounts need permission
In Dubai a permit is mandatory for any promotional offer, issued by the Department of Economy and Tourism's consumer protection sector. Under Executive Council Resolution 13 of 2011, running a sale, clearance or promotional offer without a permit carried a fine of AED 10,000; check whether later amendments have changed it. In Saudi Arabia, shops and online stores apply for a discount licence through the Ministry of Commerce's sales platform. Each licence carries a barcode shoppers can scan to check it. The regular allowance is up to 90 discount days a year, in up to three periods of at most 45 days, and seasonal licences such as National Day do not use it up. A special discount season running to the end of October 2026 also sits outside the allowance.
We could not confirm Abu Dhabi's current permit rules, so check with the client's Abu Dhabi team or the authority before launching there.
A planning checklist
- Agree the budget and creative split across 11.11, White Friday week and National Day before November starts.
- Get the Dubai permit or the Saudi licence before any discount ad goes live, and keep the reference on file.
- Treat every 2026 date as unconfirmed until the retailer announces it.
- Use last year's figures as context, not as a forecast.
- For National Day promotions, follow the official logo and flag guidelines, which our Eid Al Etihad guide covers.
The ad metrics calculator on this site works out CPM, CPC and return on ad spend when you compare channels during the sale period, and the UTM builder keeps each campaign's links trackable.
