Saudi Founding Day 2027: A Marketing Guide for Online Sellers

Saudi Founding Day is on 22 February, and it celebrates where the Kingdom's story began: Diriyah, in 1727.

It's a young holiday, but it has quickly become a proper retail moment. eXtra, Ounass, Carrefour and noon all run Founding Day offers, from appliances to oud.

Here's the twist for 2027: the day lands in the middle of Ramadan, the biggest shopping month of the year.

Below, you'll see how to fold Founding Day into your Ramadan plan, from what to sell and the official identity to the licence and a timeline.

What is Saudi Founding Day?

Founding Day marks the founding of the First Saudi State by Imam Muhammad bin Saud in Diriyah, near today's Riyadh. King Salman made it an official holiday by royal order in January 2022.

The mood is pride in roots and heritage. Think three centuries of history, regional costumes, Najdi mud-brick architecture, Arabic coffee and family gatherings.

How is Founding Day different from National Day?

Many sellers mix the two up, and Saudi shoppers notice when you do.

National Day (23 September) celebrates the 1932 unification of the Kingdom, and it's bright, green and flag-heavy. Founding Day goes further back, so its look is warm, earthy and historical.

	Founding Day	National Day
Date	22 February	23 September
What it marks	First Saudi State, Diriyah, 1727	Unification of the Kingdom, 1932
Colours	Browns, beiges and earth tones	Green and white
Visual themes	Mud-brick, regional dress, coffee, horses, palms	Flag, skylines, modern Saudi
2027 timing	Inside Ramadan	Late September, no overlap
Retail scale	Growing, mostly heritage and gifts	One of the year's biggest sales

Running National Day as well? Our Saudi National Day sale guide covers the green-flag playbook in full.

Why Founding Day 2027 is different: it's inside Ramadan

Ramadan 1448 is expected to start around 8 February. That puts Founding Day, a Monday, about halfway through the holy month.

That's good news, because shoppers are already in buying mode. In 2025, 76% of Saudi shoppers said they hold back purchases to catch Ramadan deals (Toluna and MatrixLab).

It also changes the rules of the game:

• One campaign, not two. Treat Founding Day as a heritage chapter inside your Ramadan story.
• Calm, not loud. Fasting days are quiet and reflective. Party-style creative feels wrong.
• Night-time shopping. Most Ramadan spending moves to after taraweeh prayers, roughly 10pm to 1am.
• A tight gap before Eid. The last 10 nights start around 26 February, so your Founding Day push hands straight over to Eid gifting.

This isn't a one-off. Ramadan moves about 11 days earlier each year, so Founding Day will sit inside or right next to Ramadan for the next few years.

Want the full year at a glance? Filter the calendar below to Saudi Arabia.

What sells on Founding Day?

Heritage and gifting lead. Retailer offer pages in recent years show the range:

• Fragrance, oud and bukhoor. Founding Day gift sets sit perfectly next to Ramadan and Eid gifting.
• Traditional and modest fashion. Abayas, thobes, shemaghs, kids' regional costumes and jewellery inspired by heritage designs.
• Coffee, dates and sweets. Saudi coffee sets, dallah pots, finjan cups and date boxes.
• Home and majlis. Cushions, rugs, incense burners and serving trays in earthy tones.
• Electronics and appliances. Big retailers run Founding Day price cuts, so shoppers compare.

Local pride runs deep in this season: in 2025, 38% of Saudis said they prefer locally made fashion during Ramadan. If you work with Saudi makers or designers, say so.

Campaign ideas that work

Pick one or two of these, not all of them:

1. A heritage capsule. A small limited range with regional patterns, earthy packaging and a short story card.
2. A Founding Day gift box. Coffee, dates and bukhoor in one box, priced for gifting.
3. Regional storytelling. Short videos on the dress, food or crafts of one region, with a Saudi creator.
4. Kids' costume content. Families dress children in traditional outfits for school events and gatherings.
5. A giving-back angle. Pair the campaign with a Ramadan donation or a gift-with-purchase.

Running creators? Make sure each one holds a valid licence. Our guide to the Mawthooq licence explains what to check.

How to use the official Founding Day identity

Founding Day has an official visual identity, published each year at foundingday.sa. It comes with the logo, strapline, fonts, colours, icons and design templates.

The logo combines five symbols: the Saudi flag, the date palm, the falcon, the Arabian horse and the souq. Its wordmark is inspired by old manuscripts from the First Saudi State.

Here are the rules from the 2026 brand guideline:

The identity also includes nine icons, such as the horse, falcon and First Saudi State flag. There are four extra icons for Ramadan: a star, an incense burner, a crescent and prayer beads.

There's even an official Ramadan decorations guide, plus fashion and culinary guides by region. They're free to download, and they make a great brief for your designer.

The Saudi flag still carries the Shahada, the declaration of faith, so the usual rules apply: never alter it, and keep it off packaging and anything that gets thrown away. Our guide to cultural localization in the Gulf covers the full list of symbols to handle with care.

Do you need a discount licence for Founding Day?

Yes, if you run a sale, because every sale campaign in Saudi Arabia needs a Ministry of Commerce discount licence, and that includes online stores.

The good news is that the Ministry opens a seasonal Founding Day licence every February. You apply at sales.mc.gov.sa, pay SAR 300 per store, and it's issued instantly.

You'll need a CR (commercial registration), a registered commercial agency or a trademark, plus a list of the products on sale with before and after prices.

Recent windows look like this:

The seasonal licence doesn't use up your store's yearly discount days. Shoppers can scan its barcode to check the offer is genuine, so show it on your sale page.

The usual sale rules still apply. Cut each price by at least 10% from its genuine earlier price, and discount at least half your products for a partial sale. Our guide to SAR and AED pricing has the full pre-launch checklist.

How do noon and Amazon run Founding Day?

noon usually runs a Founding Day campaign in Saudi Arabia, with app-wide coupon codes (around 10% extra off) and cashback. Amazon.sa puts its Saudi weight behind National Day instead, but Founding Day falls inside its Ramadan deals season.

For marketplace sellers, that means:

• Ask your account manager about Founding Day or Ramadan deal slots in January.
• Get stock in early. Warehouse check-in for Ramadan events often closes 3–6 weeks ahead, so plan for mid-January.
• Add heritage keywords. Use "يوم التأسيس" in titles and backend terms for relevant products.

Your discount is still a Saudi sale. Follow the same 10% and genuine-price rules on your own listings.

How to set the right tone during Ramadan

Founding Day is joyful and Ramadan is reflective, so your creative needs to hold both.

Here's a simple way to balance them:

Customer service changes too, because Saudi law caps working hours for Muslim employees at six a day in Ramadan. Publish your Ramadan support hours, and keep WhatsApp answered late at night. Our guide to running an online store during Ramadan covers staffing and couriers.

Your Founding Day 2027 timeline

Need every Gulf date in one place? Our ecommerce calendar lists the full year with prep lead times.

Worked example: a Saudi coffee and gifts store

Imagine a Riyadh store on Salla selling coffee sets, dates and gift boxes. Its usual Ramadan gift box sells for SAR 249.

For Founding Day, it adds a limited heritage version. It has the same coffee and dates, plus bukhoor, a dallah-print sleeve and a card about Najdi coffee traditions.

Here's how the numbers work:

• Launch price: SAR 299 from the first day of Ramadan, around 8 February. A week at full price gives the box a genuine earlier price to discount from.
• Founding Day offer: 15% off during the licence window, so SAR 254.15.
• The rest of the range: every gift box and coffee set also gets 15% off. That's more than half the catalogue, so it meets the partial-sale rule. The standard box drops to SAR 211.65.
• Licence: one seasonal licence at SAR 300 covers the whole offer.

During the sale, each heritage box still brings in SAR 42.50 more than the standard one. On 23 February, the store ends the offer, swaps the sleeve message to Eid and goes back to SAR 299.

Notes for fashion brands

• Get regional dress right. Use the official Founding Day fashion guide, which documents traditional clothing by region.
• Kids' outfits sell. Schools and families hold Founding Day events, so stock children's sizes early.
• Keep it modest. Ramadan styling rules apply to every shoot.

Notes for foreign and Chinese sellers

• Have a Saudi review your creative. Small mistakes in dress, dialect or symbols stand out on a heritage day.
• Skip printed flags on products. Heritage patterns and earth tones are safer and look more premium.
• Plan freight early. Sea freight from China takes about five to seven weeks from booking to warehouse check-in. Add production, and factory order to campaign day is 10–12 weeks, so order by mid-November.

Notes for UAE-based sellers

• Target Saudi audiences only. Founding Day is a Saudi occasion and won't move UAE shoppers.
• Follow Saudi rules for Saudi sales. The discount licence and the 10% minimum apply to offers aimed at Saudi shoppers.
• Book Saudi creators. Foreign creators need a licensed Saudi agency to post Saudi ads. Find a partner in our Saudi influencer agencies directory.