Sale Season

Cover of Sale Season, Moment Report No. 05

Moment Report No. 05 · 15 pages · 14 sources

Why are sales so hard to resist?

Sale signs raise demand even when prices do not change, struck-through prices raise perceived value, and deadlines push decisions forward. In the UAE, 59 per cent of residents planned to shop the Dubai Shopping Festival, and shoppers who arrive with a list gain the most.

What the report found

  1. The UAE has a long sale season, not a single day. White Friday ran from 20 to 30 November 2025, and the Dubai Shopping Festival from 5 December to 11 January, 38 days of discounts, raffles and events.
  2. Shoppers plan for it. In a YouGov survey, 59 per cent of UAE residents planned to shop the Dubai Shopping Festival, and a third expected to spend more than the year before. Clothing topped the list, chosen by 67 per cent.
  3. A sale sign sells, even without a price cut. Studies of catalogues and supermarkets found that sale signs raised demand, and promotion signals raised choice even when the price did not change. Signs lose force when too many products carry them.
  4. The best deals go to planners. A UK consumer group tracking 175 products found every one at or below its Black Friday price at some point in the six months before or after, so the saving lies in buying what was already wanted.
  5. In Saudi Arabia, salaries move spending more than sale days. Central bank card data show the biggest weekly jumps around salary payments and school holidays. Spending in the week after the October salary reached SAR 16 billion, against SAR 12.5 billion in the week before White Friday.

What is inside

  1. A season, not a day
  2. Before: planning to buy
  3. During: why a sale sign works
  4. After: was it a bargain?
  5. What lasts

Plus a timeline of the UAE sale season, Saudi card spending data, a graded list of claims and a five-question checklist.

Who it is for

For anyone who shops the White Friday and festival sales, and anyone who sells, markets or runs a mall in the UAE and the Gulf.

How we work

Moment Reports examine how people think and decide at particular points in the year or in life, looking first at the UAE and then at the wider Gulf. Every claim is graded Established, Emerging or Untested. Where researchers disagree, as they do on whether sales are good for shoppers, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.

Cite this report

The Why We Project (2026) Sale Season: Black Friday, Singles' Day and the urge to buy. Moment Report No. 05. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com