Here is an example. Say you make Kolhapuri chappals. You already sell them on Amazon.ae, Amazon’s store in the UAE, and your stock is in Amazon’s warehouse there. Now you want to sell in Saudi Arabia too. Amazon India calls it the largest market in the Gulf.
Amazon groups its stores in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt into one region: the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA. So much of what you did for the UAE works the same way in Saudi Arabia. What changes is the tax, the product rules and how your stock gets into the country.
There are two ways to sell there. In the first, your stock stays in the UAE, and Amazon sends each Saudi order across the border. In the second, you move stock into Saudi Arabia. The first needs very little new paperwork. The second needs a Saudi importer, Saudi VAT registration and certificates for your chappals.
For most Indian brands, we would start with the first. This guide covers what is different in Saudi Arabia. Our UAE guide covers the steps the two stores share.
Adding Saudi Arabia to your account
In Europe, one Amazon account covers many countries. The MENA region works differently: each store has its own account, and you link them. If you already sell on Amazon.ae or Amazon.in, you add Saudi Arabia from the “Sell globally” page in Seller Central. It then joins your existing account, under the same login. The merge cannot be undone, and Amazon allows only the account owner to do it, not an agency.
India is on Amazon.sa’s list of countries allowed to register, so you do not need a Saudi company to open the account. If you are new to Amazon, you can register directly on Amazon.sa through Global Selling. For a limited time, Amazon charges no monthly fee to sell there. It takes a referral fee on each sale, between 5% and 15% in most categories. FBA fees start at 5.5 Saudi riyals (SAR) a unit.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia, side by side
| Amazon.ae (UAE) | Amazon.sa (Saudi Arabia) | |
|---|---|---|
| VAT | 5% | 15% |
| VAT registration for an Indian seller with stock there | From your first sale | From your first sale |
| Who imports your stock | A UAE importer. Amazon will not. | A licensed Saudi importer. Amazon will not. |
| Product approvals | MoIAT certificates, and Dubai Municipality for cosmetics and more | SABER certificates, and SFDA for food, cosmetics, supplements and medical devices |
| Labels | Arabic, or Arabic and English | Arabic, or Arabic and English |
| Trade deal with India | CEPA, in force | None yet |
| Selling without stock in the country | Ship each order from India | Remote Fulfillment from UAE stock, or ship from India |
| November sale | White Friday | White Friday |
The rest of this guide explains the Saudi column.
The easy way in: selling from your UAE stock
Amazon calls this Remote Fulfillment with FBA. Your products stay in Amazon’s UAE warehouses. When a shopper in Saudi Arabia places an order, Amazon ships the parcel from the UAE. For now, Saudi Arabia is the only country it works for.
To use it, you need a Professional seller account that uses FBA in the UAE, with FBA Export turned on. Amazon then enrols your eligible products by itself, and its Build International Listings tool creates your Saudi offers. By default, your Saudi price follows your UAE price, adjusted for the exchange rate, fees and duties.
What matters most is who imports the goods. With Remote Fulfillment, the Saudi shopper is the importer, and the shopper pays the import duty and taxes. So, Amazon says, you generally do not need to register for Saudi VAT, as long as you sell to Saudi Arabia only this way. Amazon’s Remote Fulfillment page explains the details, and adds that this is not tax advice.
You pay Amazon.sa’s referral fee on each sale, plus a Remote Fulfillment fee for each unit, based on its size and weight. Since 25 August 2026, a standard parcel of up to 250 grams, such as a phone case, costs SAR 5.60. Prime members in Saudi Arabia get free shipping on these orders. Returns go back to the UAE warehouse.
There are limits. Amazon does not publish a list of eligible categories or a price limit. It decides product by product, and it can remove a product from the programme, for example when customs rules change. Your UAE stock also still needs everything the UAE asks for, including a UAE importer and UAE VAT registration. Our UAE guide covers those.
Stock in Saudi Arabia: the importer and VAT
The second way is to send stock to Amazon’s warehouses in Saudi Arabia. You might choose it if you do not sell in the UAE, or once Saudi Arabia becomes a big market for you. It needs much more paperwork.
Amazon will not be your importer. Its page for international sellers says you must use an import broker, ship with all duties and taxes paid, and name yourself as the importer. You also need an import surety bond, which is a guarantee to customs. Saudi customs says every importer must be licensed to import, and must be identified by a Saudi number, such as a commercial registration. In practice, an Indian company works with a licensed Saudi importer, or sets up its own Saudi company.
Saudi VAT is 15%, and customs charges it on imported goods, on top of the duty. Saudi businesses register for VAT once their sales pass SAR 375,000 a year. For a seller based outside Saudi Arabia, there is no threshold. When your FBA stock sells in Saudi Arabia, you must register from your first sale, either yourself or through a tax representative approved by ZATCA, the Saudi tax authority.
Amazon does not collect the VAT for you, and your prices on Amazon.sa must include it. One thing is simpler: Saudi Arabia’s e-invoicing system, called FATOORA, does not apply to sellers based outside the country.
There is no trade deal to lower the duty yet. India and the Gulf Cooperation Council, the group of six Gulf countries that includes Saudi Arabia, formally started talks on 24 February 2026. No agreement is in force. The agreement between India and the UAE, called CEPA, covers only the UAE. So your chappals pay the normal Saudi customs duty. Your importer can check the rate in ZATCA’s tariff search.
Plan for unsold stock too. Amazon cannot send FBA stock back to India. To get it back, you need a return address in Saudi Arabia.
SABER and the product rules
When you move stock into Saudi Arabia, your products must also be registered on SABER. It is the online system of SASO, Saudi Arabia’s standards body. The SABER website is used by importers and local manufacturers, so in practice your Saudi importer applies.
If a Saudi technical regulation covers your product, you need a product certificate of conformity from an approved certification body. For other products, the importer makes a self-declaration. After that, each shipment needs its own shipment certificate, which is valid for 90 days. SABER charges SAR 500 to register a product certificate and SAR 350 for each shipment certificate, before VAT. Testing and inspection cost extra.
Your chappals are a good example. Saudi Arabia has a technical regulation for footwear, so your importer needs a product certificate for them, and then a new shipment certificate each time you send stock.
Food, cosmetics, supplements and medical devices are handled by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) instead. A cosmetic cannot be imported or sold until it is listed on SFDA’s system, and opening an account there needs a Saudi commercial registration. On Amazon.sa, cosmetics and medical devices also need Amazon’s approval before you can list them. And Amazon.sa does not allow electrical products that cannot run on 220 volts.
From 1 October 2026, products covered by 10 of Saudi Arabia’s technical regulations must have the Saudi importer’s name and commercial registration number printed on them. Most of these products are industrial, but the list includes child car seats, strollers, electric self-balancing boards and small solar power kits.
Arabic on the pack and the page
Saudi rules ask for product information in Arabic. For food, the label must be in Arabic, and any other language on it must say the same thing. Amazon.sa accepts food labels in Arabic, or in Arabic and English.
Many Saudi product regulations ask for labels in Arabic, or in Arabic and English. The footwear regulation is one of them, and it also asks for the brand name and the country of origin. The Ministry of Commerce’s guide for consumers says the label must show the maker’s name, the size or weight, the country of origin and any warnings in Arabic.
If you plan to add Arabic stickers to packs printed for India, ask your importer first. Keep your brand name printed on the pack itself. Amazon.sa says that a brand shown only on a sticker may be treated as generic.
Amazon.sa runs in Arabic and English, and it asks for listings in the store’s language. International sellers must also answer customer messages within 24 hours, in the store’s language. If you add Arabic words to your listing’s backend search terms, remember that the limit is 250 bytes. Each Arabic letter uses two bytes, so fewer words fit.
Brand Registry works the same way as on Amazon.ae, and our Brand Registry guide covers the Indian side. Amazon recommends a trademark in each country where you sell. A Saudi trademark costs SAR 6,500 in fees at SAIP, Saudi Arabia’s intellectual property office.
The sales to plan for
Amazon.sa’s main sales are the Ramadan sale early in the year, Prime Day in the summer and White Friday in November. In 2026, the Ramadan sale ran from 28 January to 14 February, and Prime Day in Saudi Arabia ran from 24 to 30 June. White Friday 2025 ran from 20 to 30 November, and the first day was for Prime members only. Amazon has not announced this year’s dates yet.
If your stock is already in the UAE, Remote Fulfillment is the realistic way to reach White Friday this year. To move stock into Saudi Arabia, you first need an importer, VAT registration and SABER certificates. In our view, that is hard to finish before November.
Where we come in
We work with Indian brands that sell through Amazon Global Selling. For Saudi Arabia, we adapt your UAE listings and images for Amazon.sa, and make A+ Content once your brand is in Brand Registry. We design packs with room for the Arabic information and your importer’s details, using translations that you or your importer approve. See our listing work and packaging design.
We are not an importer, a tax adviser or a certification body. You will need partners for those. Our advice: sell to Saudi Arabia from your UAE stock first. If you are not on Amazon.ae yet, start there, because one setup in the UAE opens both stores. When you know which products sell in Saudi Arabia, find a Saudi importer and move those products in.
