How to Build a Winning Omnichannel Strategy for White Friday

White Friday: The Middle East’s Biggest Shopping Moment

White Friday, first introduced by Souq in 2014 as a four-day event, has evolved into the Middle East’s most important retail event for retailers and brands. Today’s discerning shoppers search for deals both online and offline and it is a once-a-year opportunity for retailers to capture record sales. Beyond offers and discounts, the leaders must deliver seamless, connected, omnichannel experiences to win White Friday sales.

In 2024, White Friday sales in the GCC surged by over 45% year-on-year, with eCommerce orders peaking at 3x normal weekly volumes within 72 hours — Source: Statista / RedSeer MEA.

Modern shoppers in markets like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, browse on Instagram, compare prices on Amazon.ae or Noon, and visit stores before making a purchase. To win in this scenario, brands need more than promotion and an elegant website — they need omnichannel execution.

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1. Connect Every Sales Channel: The Power of a Unified Commerce Platform

White Friday shoppers navigate between marketplaces, web stores, and physical stores. If your systems are not integrated, you lose visibility into incoming orders, thereby reducing fulfillment rates and worse, the ability to make a sale by not knowing what is in stock.

With a modern Order Management System, brands can consolidate orders from multiple channels, use a centralized pool of inventory and ensure every order is fulfilled from the most optimal location, whether a warehouse, store, or marketplace partner.

Brands using unified inventory systems report up to 25–30% fewer stockouts and 40% faster fulfillment times during peak events.”
(Vin OMS benchmarks)

Key takeaway: Consolidation of orders to the optimal fulfillment location and unified inventory view that prevents stockouts, overselling, and delayed deliveries to ensure success.

2. Build Marketplace Agility

White Friday sales are dominated by marketplaces such as Amazon, Noon, Carrefour, and Namshi. Yet managing each marketplace’s own APIs, fulfillment rules, and fee structures require an automated system that integrates with them. Managing them manually is a recipe for failure and costly errors.

An integrated WMS (Warehouse Management System) and OMS (Order Management System) that communicates directly with top marketplaces, allowing real-time order sync, faster dispatches, and automated reconciliation.

The result? Higher on-time fulfillment rates and better marketplace performance scores.

3. Offer Click-and-Collect and Same-Day Fulfillment

Omnichannel is about merging online and offline experiences and making it seamless. Click-and-collect, ship-from-store, and endless aisle options give shoppers instant gratification while helping brands manage inventory efficiently. Brands offering click-and-collect see up to 30% higher conversion.

With a modern OMS, you can easily enable store-level fulfillment, allocate orders intelligently, and update customers in real time.

Shoppers offering same-day pickup options are 2.5x more likely to complete their purchase and 15% more likely to repurchase after the sale. (McKinsey Omnichannel Study 2023)

Example: A shopper in Dubai can buy online at 10 a.m. and pick up her order by 3 p.m. from the nearest store — a powerful differentiator when competitors are battling shipping delays.

Quick Win: Enable same-day pickup in key metro area stores — GCC shoppers are 2.5x more likely to convert when this option is visible at checkout.

4. Personalize Promotions and Communication

White Friday campaigns are an essential element of the sales strategy. Data from your OMS, CRM, and marketplaces help target promotions and personalized messages to the right customer.

Use case: Target past high-value customers with personalized WhatsApp or email offers. Also, remind cart abandoners of expiring deals. Loyalty programs can be used effectively to drive repeat purchases even after White Friday.

5. Automate Reconciliation and Returns

Ensuring a successful sale during White Friday is the first step. To ensure success in this sales period, reconciliation of sales and finances with every marketplace and payment gateway and successfully managing the returns is key.

With Automated Reconciliation Software, brands can automatically match payments, commissions, and refunds and recover leaks to ensure profitability.

Automated reconciliation tools can recover 1–3% of GMV lost to hidden marketplace fees and transaction mismatches.” (Vin Reco case studies)