When Is White Friday 2026? Dates, the Discount Licence and a Weekly Plan for Your Store

When is White Friday 2026? This year White Friday falls on Friday 27 November 2026. It always comes the day after American Thanksgiving, which this year is Thursday 26 November. Three days later comes Cyber Monday on 30 November. Before it there's the 11.11 sale on Wednesday 11 November, and after it 12.12 on Saturday 12 December.

White Friday is simply the name Saudi Arabia and the Gulf use for Black Friday. But for a merchant, the date isn't the real question. Shoppers ask "when is White Friday?" to know when to buy. You need to know how many weeks you have left to get your products, offers, licence and shipping ready before the season gets busy.

This guide gives you the sales calendar from November to mid-December, what you need to know about the Ministry of Commerce discount licence, and a week-by-week plan that starts now.

The November and December 2026 sales calendar

• 11.11 (Singles Day): Wednesday 11 November. A sale that started in China and has spread to online stores here. Many shoppers now know it, so it's a chance to test your offers two weeks before White Friday.
• White Friday: Friday 27 November. The same day as Black Friday, under the name used in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. It's the busiest day for searches and sales in the season.
• Cyber Monday: Monday 30 November. It closes White Friday week and suits a final offer for anyone who missed out.
• 12.12: Saturday 12 December. Good for clearing stock left after White Friday, or for winter and year-end offers.

One thing to keep in mind: many large stores don't stop at the Friday itself. They stretch their offers over days or weeks before and after it, so shoppers start comparing prices from around the beginning of November. You don't need to run offers for a whole month, but your pages should be ready before shoppers start looking.

Do you need a discount licence for White Friday?

Yes. The Ministry of Commerce requires a business or online store to get a licence to run discounts before advertising them, not after the ad goes out. The licence is issued online through the "Discount Licences" service on the Ministry's website, with no need to visit a branch.

According to the service page on the Ministry's website, these are the main requirements:

• You have a commercial registration, a commercial agency, or a trademark registered with the Ministry.
• You attach a list of the discounted products, and a list of their prices before and after the discount.
• At least 50% of your products are discounted.
• The fee listed on the page is 300 SAR per shop.

According to Okaz's 2026 report on the Ministry's rules, a business may run discounts for no more than 90 days a year, split into at most 3 periods, and a single licence can't exceed 45 days. There was also an exceptional sales season from 1 August to 31 October 2026 that didn't count toward the annual allowance, which means White Friday falls outside it. So plan your licence now, and count its days so they cover the November offers you want to run.

Rules to follow while your offers are live

The Ministry published 9 rules for discounts in shops and online stores. The most relevant for a Salla store:

• Display the licence prominently: shoppers can scan its barcode with their phone to see the discount type, rate and duration.
• Show the price before and after the discount on discounted products. In Salla you can do this with the product's discount price field, so the old price appears struck through next to the new one.
• State the discount range clearly as "from–to", such as "10% to 40% off", instead of "up to…" with no minimum.
• Real offers only: don't raise a price before the season just to "discount" it. That's misleading, exposes you to penalties under the Anti-Commercial Fraud Law, and shoppers today compare and remember.
• Disclose your exchange and return policy during the sale. If you don't have a written policy, we have a ready-made exchange and return policy template.
• Let the shopper choose: you can't force someone to buy within an offer to get a product, and the manufacturer's warranty still applies to discounted products.

Regulations get updated, so before you apply, check the service page on the Ministry of Commerce website, or call the unified number 1900 if you have a question about your own situation.

How long until White Friday? Your week-by-week plan

From now until White Friday is roughly 5 weeks. That's enough time if you split it well. Weeks here start on Sunday:

Late October: decide what you'll sell and at what price

• Choose the products for your offers, starting with best sellers and stock you want to clear.
• Work out your margin on each product before setting a discount. We cover offers that protect your margin in White Friday offer ideas.
• Order the quantities you need from your supplier now, because suppliers get busy in November.
• Prepare the product list with before and after prices, since you'll need it for the discount licence application.

Week of 1 November: get your product pages ready

• Review the description, photos and sizes for every product in your offers. Shoppers compare fast during the season, and an incomplete page loses to a clear one.
• Fill in the SEO fields (page title and meta description) well ahead of the season, so Google has time to see the update.
• We have a full checklist for this step in get your product pages ready for White Friday.

Week of 8 November: the licence and an 11.11 trial run

• Get your discount licence before any advertising, and keep a copy to display in your store.
• Use 11.11 as a small test: an offer on a limited number of products, to see what works and whether your shipping and support can keep up.
• Set up your discount coupons in the Salla dashboard and test them with a trial order. Make sure they apply to the right products and expire at the right time.

Week of 15 November: marketing, shipping and support

• Prepare your ad copy, messages and stories. You can start from our ready-made marketing phrases for online stores and adapt them to your actual offer.
• Talk to your shipping company about the expected volume, and update the delivery time in your store if it will be longer. A longer delivery time stated up front is better than a short one you can't keep.
• Prepare saved replies for the most common questions: when will my order arrive? Does the coupon stack with the discount? How do I exchange an item?

Week of 22 November: White Friday week

• Switch on the discounted prices on the date set in your licence, and display the licence in your store.
• Check stock every day, and hide or update products that sell out instead of taking orders you can't fulfil.
• Friday 27 November: be available to answer shoppers, and keep an eye on checkout and coupons throughout the day.
• Monday 30 November: a short final offer for anyone who missed out, without extending offers beyond your licence period.

Early December to 12.12: after the season

• Ship delayed orders first, and tell customers about any delay before they ask.
• Handle return requests according to your published policy, without stalling.
• Ask customers to review their products. Reviews from the season keep helping you all year.
• Look at the numbers: which product sold most? Which offer didn't work? And if you still have stock and days left in your discount allowance, 12.12 is a chance to clear it.

Mistakes merchants make before White Friday

• Announcing the offer before getting the licence. The licence must come before the advertising, not just before the sale day.
• Preparing pages in the same week as the sale. By then you're busy with orders and messages, and you won't get it done.
• Discounting everything. A blanket discount on low-margin products means more sales and less profit, sometimes a loss.
• Not testing the coupon before the season. A coupon that fails on Friday means abandoned carts and angry messages.
• Promising fast delivery you can't deliver. Delays during the season are expected. It's the delay nobody mentioned that brings the bad review.

After the season, carry on with the year-end sales plan, and before White Friday, go through our seasonal product page checklist.

Product descriptions before the season: don't leave them to the last minute

Descriptions are the step that gets postponed most, because they take time for each product. But they answer shoppers' questions for you when you're busiest, and they help your pages show up in search.

Wasef is a Salla app that drafts product descriptions from your product data, in Arabic and English, along with an SEO title and meta description. You review and edit the draft before publishing. There's a 7-day free trial with no card required, so you can try it on your sale products before the season and see whether it fits how you work.

Sources

• Ministry of Commerce: Discount Licences service (Arabic)
• Ministry of Commerce: 9 rules for commercial discounts in shops and online stores (Arabic)
• Okaz: The exceptional sales season and licence periods, 2026 (Arabic)
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