Tips
E-commerce in Saudi Arabia: what the numbers actually say
E-commerce registers are rising and sales are rising, but not at the same rate. The gap between the two is the story.
Dynamics team Editorial desk 2 min read Tips
Saudi e-commerce growth gets quoted constantly, usually as a single number from a research firm. The official figures are less exciting and more useful, because they separate how many people are selling from how much is being sold.
How many are selling
According to the Ministry of Commerce's Q1 2026 business sector bulletin, active commercial registers in the e-commerce activity reached 45,669 — up 9% from 41,800 in the same quarter a year earlier.
Geographically:
| Region | Registers |
|---|---|
| Riyadh | 20,039 |
| Makkah | 11,569 |
| Eastern Province | 6,831 |
| Madinah | 1,940 |
| Qassim | 1,467 |
Riyadh and Makkah together hold roughly 69% of the Kingdom's e-commerce registers.
How much is being sold
Here is the figure that matters more. Per the General Authority for Statistics, the e-commerce sales index rose 9.8% year on year in Q2 2026, split as follows:
- Retail trade: +13.4%
- Wholesale trade: +6.5%
- Vehicle sales and repair: +2.4%
Quarter on quarter the increases were far smaller: 1.1% for retail, 0.3% for wholesale, 0.1% for vehicles.
In the same release, the overall operating revenue index for wholesale and retail trade rose 3.2% year on year, and fell 0.6% against Q1.
The gap between the two
Online retail sales are growing 13.4% a year; the register count is growing 9%. Sales are outpacing sellers in retail — a healthy signal: the market is widening faster than it is crowding.
Wholesale inverts it: 6.5% sales growth against faster growth in entrants. And quarterly growth topping out at 1.1% means the annual momentum accumulates slowly rather than in jumps.
The activity growing faster than any of them
Registers for delivery services via electronic platforms rose 30%, to 12,845 from 9,846 in the comparable quarter.
That is more than three times the growth of e-commerce itself. The infrastructure that moves the order is expanding faster than the stores placing it — worth noting if you are building a store today: delivery is no longer a competitive advantage, it is a crowded market of its own.
What this means if you are opening a store
- Riyadh is not an empty market. Twenty thousand registers in one region means your edge will not come from being online, but from what you sell and to whom.
- Retail beats wholesale online, for now. A 6.9 percentage-point gap in annual growth between them is not a detail.
- Quarterly growth is modest. Anyone planning around "the market grows 10%" should know that figure is annual, accumulated across four quarters.
- The commercial register is a first step, not a last one. The e-commerce activity is added to the register, and some activities need further permits from the competent authority.
If you want your store in the directory, start at add a listing.
Sources
Written by
Dynamics team
Editorial desk — the team that reviews listings and keeps the directory's data current.
Related insights
