Key takeaways
- Ramadan and both Eids follow the lunar calendar, move about 10 to 11 days earlier each year, and can differ by a day between countries.
- Plan in phases: preparation before Ramadan, the month itself, the last 10 days before Eid al-Fitr, Eid, and Eid al-Adha about 10 weeks later.
- Build a one-day buffer into any end date tied to Eid, because the date is confirmed by moon sighting.
- Time zones and weekends differ across the region, so schedule and announce times in your customers' local time.
- Sale Scheduler by SalePilot's admin is available in Arabic with a full right-to-left layout, chosen per staff member.
When are Ramadan and Eid in 2027 and 2028?
Ramadan 2027 is expected to start on or around Monday, February 8, 2027, and Eid al-Fitr on or around Tuesday, March 9, 2027. Eid al-Adha 2027 is expected on or around Sunday, May 16.
These dates come from Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar, which is widely used for planning. The actual start of Ramadan and the Eid dates are confirmed by moon sighting, often only the evening before, and can differ by a day between countries. Because the Islamic year is about 354 days long, each event moves about 10 to 11 days earlier in the Gregorian calendar every year: Ramadan began around February 18 in 2026, is expected around February 8 in 2027, and around January 28 in 2028.
| Event | 2027 (expected) | 2028 (expected) |
|---|---|---|
| First day of Ramadan | Around Monday, February 8 | Around Friday, January 28 |
| Eid al-Fitr | Around Tuesday, March 9 | Around Saturday, February 26 |
| Eid al-Adha | Around Sunday, May 16 | Early May; confirm closer to the date |
How do shopping needs change through Ramadan and Eid?
Needs shift through the season, so plan a different offer for each phase instead of one discount for the whole month. The pattern below is a starting point; the details vary by country and category.
| Phase | Timing | What people often shop for | Offer ideas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before Ramadan | 2 to 3 weeks before the first day | Home and kitchen items, decorations, food staples, modest wear | New arrivals and ready-made sets at regular prices; preparation guides |
| Ramadan | Most of the month | Everyday needs, items for gatherings, gifts | A moderate sale on selected collections, or a different offer each week |
| Last 10 days | About 10 days before Eid al-Fitr | Eid clothing, gifts, sweets, children's items | Your main Eid offer, with a clear last order date for delivery before Eid |
| Eid al-Fitr | 1 to 3 days of holiday, depending on the country | Gift cards, late gifts, treats | A short, simple offer; many shoppers are with family |
| Eid al-Adha | About 10 weeks after Eid al-Fitr | Clothing, gifts, home and travel items | A second, shorter seasonal campaign |
Which Ramadan and Eid offers should you run?
Pick a few clear offers and tie each one to a phase, so you are not discounting the same products for 40 days. Browsing often moves later in the evening after iftar, but check last year's orders by day and hour against a normal month before you schedule offers by time of day.
- A Ramadan sale on selected collections for the month, at a moderate discount you can afford for weeks.
- Weekly offers that change every week on a fixed day, so customers have a reason to come back.
- An evening offer after iftar, for a few hours each day, on one product or collection.
- Eid gift offers in the last 10 days, with a published last order date for delivery before Eid.
- An Eid al-Adha campaign, shorter than Ramadan, about 10 weeks later.
How deep can a month-long Ramadan discount go?
A month-long sale uses much more margin than a weekend sale, so set each product's floor price before you choose a percentage. Floor price = unit cost + shipping you pay + payment fees + the minimum profit you accept.
Example with hypothetical numbers: a $50 abaya that costs $20, with $8 of shipping and fees, makes $22 per order at full price. At 25% off ($37.50) it makes $9.50, so you need about 2.3 times your normal units to earn the same profit. A moderate 10% to 15% for the month, plus a deeper offer for the last 10 days, is often easier to fund than one deep discount for 30 days. The margin calculator shows what is left at each price.
How do moon sighting and time zones affect your schedule?
Treat every Ramadan and Eid date as provisional until it is announced, and schedule in the time zone your customers live in. Because Eid is confirmed by moon sighting, an offer planned for one day can move by one day. The practical fix is a buffer: set the end of an Eid sale for the later possible date, and end it early if Eid is confirmed earlier. In SalePilot, clicking Restore prices on a scheduled sale ends it early, and the scheduled restore then does not run again.
Time zones matter when you sell across the region. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan use UTC+3, while the UAE and Oman use UTC+4, so a sale that starts at 21:00 in Riyadh starts at 22:00 in Dubai. Weekends differ too: Friday and Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Saturday and Sunday in the UAE. If you serve several countries, announce times with a city, for example "from 21:00 Makkah time".
Your Shopify store's time zone is set under Settings > General (Shopify Help Center). In SalePilot, recurring sales follow the shop's time zone, while one-time sales use your browser's local time, so check your computer's clock if you schedule while traveling.
Plan every Eid end date on the later possible day. A scheduled sale cannot be edited before it starts, but you can always end it early with Restore prices, so a later end date is the safer choice.
How do you set up a Ramadan sale on Shopify step by step?
Build the whole season ahead of time, then let each sale start and end on its own. Here is the flow with Sale Scheduler by SalePilot:
- List your phases and dates in one sheet, with the one-day buffer around Eid.
- Finalize regular prices and compare-at prices before you create any sale, because a scheduled sale applies the prices calculated when you reviewed it.
- Create the Ramadan sale: choose the price change, the compare-at action and a price ending, then target collections, one advanced condition such as a product tag "ramadan", or specific products, with one type of exclusion if needed.
- Review the preview and look at any Warning rows: a compare-at that would not be higher than the new price is not applied, because Shopify would not show it crossed out.
- Choose Schedule start and end, with the start a day or two before the expected first day and the end on the last day you want. One-time sales have no maximum length, so a full-month sale is a single sale.
- For weekly or daily offers, create a recurring sale: weekly on chosen days, or every set number of days, lasting a set number of hours (1 to 168) or days (1 to 14), or, for weekly sales, until a chosen weekday.
- Schedule the Eid offer as a separate sale, ending on the later possible Eid date. If it covers products that are in the Ramadan sale, end the Ramadan sale a few minutes before the Eid sale starts, so two sales never change the same variants at once.
- Turn on the Countdown and write its labels in Arabic.
What should Arabic-speaking teams know?
SalePilot's admin is available in Arabic with a full right-to-left layout, as well as in English and Spanish. The language is saved per Shopify staff user, so a merchandiser can work in Arabic while an agency partner uses English on the same store. Public help pages, plan names and the login page stay in English.
Your storefront is separate: product titles, collections and checkout language come from your theme and Shopify settings, not from SalePilot. For the Countdown, every label (headline, days, hours, minutes, seconds) is free text up to 120 characters, so you can write it in Arabic, for example "ينتهي العرض خلال". One small pill on the widget, "Limited time", is English only and cannot be changed.
Write offer copy in natural Arabic rather than translated English: عروض رمضان for Ramadan offers, تخفيضات العيد for an Eid sale, and an end date that includes the day name. Ready-made setups are on the Ramadan and Eid solution page.
How do you handle delivery and operations around Eid?
Publish a last order date for delivery before Eid, and plan for courier and staff holidays during Eid itself.
- Ask each courier for its Eid cutoff and holiday schedule, and set your own cutoff a day or two earlier.
- Show the cutoff on product pages, in the cart and in the announcement bar during the last 10 days.
- Turn off "Continue selling when out of stock" for gift items you cannot restock before Eid.
- Adjust support hours for Ramadan and tell customers when you reply.
- After the cutoff, promote gift cards or offers for delivery after Eid instead of products that cannot arrive in time.
What should you do after Eid?
Confirm that regular prices are back, review the season by phase, and start planning the next campaign. If your sales were scheduled, previous prices are restored automatically at each end time, within about a minute. Check the restore results for variants skipped because their price changed elsewhere, and fix those by hand.
Then compare each phase by orders, units and gross profit, and note which days and hours performed. Eid al-Adha follows about 10 weeks after Eid al-Fitr, and next year's Ramadan starts 10 to 11 days earlier, so add both to your ecommerce sales calendar.