11.11 and 12.12 in the GCC: A Seller's Guide for 2026

11.11 started in China as Singles' Day. Today it's a normal sale day in Riyadh and Dubai too.

Noon, Amazon, AliExpress, Temu, SHEIN and Namshi all run 11.11 campaigns in the Gulf. 12.12 follows a month later, as a smaller second round.

For sellers, these dates are bookends. Between them sit White Friday, Yellow Friday, UAE National Day and the start of the Dubai Shopping Festival.

Here's how each sale works, how they fit together, and a worked plan for stock, discounts and ads in 2026. It's part of our seasonal marketing guides.

What are 11.11 and 12.12 in the Gulf?

11.11 and 12.12 are date-named sales. The day and the month share a number, which makes them easy to market and easy to remember.

Alibaba turned 11 November into the world's biggest shopping day. Chinese-origin apps then brought it to the Gulf, and local marketplaces copied it.

Here's what that means for you:

• They're marketplace events first. The big apps set the dates and the traffic. Your own store can ride the same wave with a code.
• They're short. Most 11.11 campaigns run 3–8 days around the date. The December round is shorter, usually one to three days.
• They're the warm-up and the cool-down. Shoppers use 11.11 to start their Q4 shopping. By 12.12, they're hunting for leftovers and gifts.

Gulf shoppers expect deals. More than half of UAE affiliate-tracked orders used a promo code in the first half of 2026. A date with a number on it is an easy reason to buy.

How the big platforms run 11.11

Every major app in the Gulf now runs 11.11. They differ in length, in who funds the discount and in how you join.

Platform	11.11 in the Gulf	How sellers join
noon	About 9–12 Nov in KSA and UAE, up to 80% off. Pitched as the start of the Yellow Friday season	Book price-drop deals and Mega Deals in Seller Lab
Amazon.sa / .ae	7–12 Nov on Amazon.ae in 2025, with early deals and Prime offers	Submit Lightning Deals, coupons and Best Deals by 6 Nov 2026
AliExpress	11–18 Nov in Saudi Arabia in 2024, up to 80% off, plus Tamara and bank-card offers	Cross-border sellers join through AliExpress campaigns
Temu and SHEIN	Deals cluster around 11 Nov, with app coupons and flash sales	Platform-led; sellers supply stock and deal prices
Namshi and fashion apps	Fashion-led 11.11 codes, often 40–70% off selected lines	Brand and vendor deals agreed with the retailer
Your own store	Your own dates and codes, pushed on Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp	Set up the code yourself; in KSA get a discount licence first

12.12 follows the same pattern on a smaller scale. Noon, Amazon and the Chinese apps run it, mostly as one to three days of deals.

Selling on more than one app? Keep your deal prices close. Shoppers compare noon and Amazon side by side on the same phone.

Where 11.11 and 12.12 sit in the Gulf sale season

November and December in the Gulf are one long sale. 11.11 opens it and 12.12 closes the marketplace part, with the biggest week in the middle.

Want every date through 2027? Try the calendar below, or open the full GCC ecommerce calendar.

Why 11.11 is worth your effort

11.11 is smaller than White Friday. So why bother?

Here's why it pays:

• It's a cheap rehearsal. You test deal prices, keywords and stock levels two weeks before the real peak.
• It starts the shopping list. Shoppers who find you on 11.11 come back for White Friday.
• Ad prices are still climbing, not peaking. You buy reach before the late-November auction gets crowded.
• It earns reviews in time. Orders delivered in mid-November turn into reviews before the biggest week.

Our noon Yellow Friday playbook covers deal types, FBN cut-offs and returns for the peak itself.

A worked promo plan for 11.11 to 12.12

Let's plan one product through the whole season. Say you sell an insulated tumbler on noon Saudi and on your own Salla store.

Its normal price is SAR 99, and it sells 8 units a day. It weighs about 0.45 kg packed and costs you SAR 25 landed in Saudi Arabia, freight and duty included.

Step 1: set a discount ladder

Start shallow and go deepest in the middle. Return to your normal price between events, so each discount is real.

Every step is at least 10% off, which also meets the Saudi minimum for a licensed sale.

Step 2: check the margin at each price

Next, run each price through noon's Saudi fees. Home and kitchen pays 14% commission on the VAT-inclusive price. A 0.45 kg parcel pays a SAR 9.50 FBN fee.

The deepest deal halves your profit per unit, but it still pays. At triple the sales, the 11 White Friday days earn about SAR 5,100, against about SAR 3,300 at full price.

Your floor is about SAR 48. Below that, every sale loses money before you spend a riyal on ads.

Step 3: plan the stock

Now size each block of demand. The example's inputs are a 2x sales lift on 11.11 and 12.12, a 3x lift at White Friday, and a 20% buffer on event units.

That's about 590 tumblers. Get them all checked in before 11.11, so you never restock mid-peak.

Packed 24 to a carton, they fill about 1.5 cbm. From China, that's a small LCL (shared container) shipment of about USD 475–825 all-in. It works out at roughly SAR 3–5 per tumbler.

Step 4: time the ads

Finally, split the ad budget by event. Warm up in October and early November, push hardest at White Friday, and switch to retargeting for 12.12.

Want to run your own numbers? Our noon seller fees guide has the full rate card.

Ad costs from 11.11 to 12.12

Ads cost more in November. Every brand in the Gulf bids for the same shoppers across 11.11 and White Friday.

In the UAE, Meta CPMs (cost per thousand views) peaked at $23.52 in November 2025, per Superads. Median clicks peaked at $1.66.

So what should you do?

• Build audiences early. Run video and engagement ads from mid-October, then retarget those viewers in November.
• Use your own channels. WhatsApp and email cost the same in November as in May.
• Spend late in the day. Gulf shoppers buy in the evening, so keep budget for after 8pm.
• Cut ads on low stock. A sold-out ad wastes the most expensive clicks of the year.

Our paid ads guide covers CPMs by channel and country.

The Saudi discount licence

Running 11.11 or 12.12 on your own Saudi store? You need a Ministry of Commerce discount licence first.

It takes minutes at sales.mc.gov.sa and costs SAR 300 per store. The core rules: at least 10% off a genuine previous price, on at least half your products, with both prices shown.

For this season, the key point is the dates. The discount can only run inside the licence period, so make sure each step of your ladder is covered. The full checklist is in our SAR and AED pricing guide.

Notes for Chinese sellers

11.11 is the event you already know best. The Gulf version is shorter, but the stock rules are stricter, because FBN and FBA check-in closes weeks before day one.

Work backwards from check-in:

• LCL sea freight takes 25–35 days port to port from China to Jeddah or Dammam. Add consolidation and clearance, and allow five to seven weeks from booking to warehouse check-in.
• For 11.11 and White Friday, book LCL in late August or early September, so stock is checked in by mid-October.
• For 12.12 and DSF, book by early October. That stock also covers the pre-Ramadan run in January.
• Already late for 2026? Air freight reaches a Gulf warehouse in about two weeks, clearance included. Fly a small top-up for your hero SKUs and ship the rest by sea for 12.12 and Ramadan.

LCL from China to Saudi Arabia costs about USD 170–250 per cbm in October 2026, plus CFS and document fees. Price your load with the estimator below.

Selling through noon Global Shipping? Noon sets the shelf price, so agree your 11.11 and 12.12 deal levels with your account manager. The full route is in our noon guide for Chinese sellers, and our China sellers hub covers setup, payouts and SABER.

Notes for own-store sellers

• Run 11.11 and 12.12 codes on your own dates. You don't need to match the marketplaces exactly, but shoppers are in deal mode all week.
• Lead with WhatsApp and email. Your list is the cheapest traffic you have in November.
• Split by country. Saudi codes need the licence. UAE shoppers also get National Day and DSF, covered in our UAE National Day and DSF guide.
• Show delivery dates. "Order by Thursday, delivered before the weekend" sells better than another 5% off.