Arriving in late winter (an occurence after ~30 years), this year’s Ramadan coincides with cooler evenings, longer nights, and far more opportunities to be out; cafés stay busy, malls come alive after iftar, and in-store experiences compete directly with screens for attention. At the same time, data points to what analysts are calling a “nocturnal revival”: quieter days, busier nights, and digital engagement stretching deep into late-night hours.  

What makes this Ramadan different is context. The last time Ramadan fell in late winter, it was closer to the early stages of the digital age, when buying journeys were far more linear and far less fragmented than they are today. In 2026, customers move fluidly across devices, channels, and physical spaces. This marks the beginning of a new era of Ramadan data collection, one where the insights captured this year will shape how brands understand and design for Ramadan in the years to come. 

For omnichannel brands, this is an opportunity to connect with consumers in a way that encapsulates the digital and physical world.  

Every year, Ramadan moves back by roughly nine days, reshaping daylight hours, work schedules, weather, and routines across the region. This alone makes it one of the most complex periods for brands to plan for. 

Ramadan 2026: When physical and digital attention collide 

Ramadan has always changed daily rhythm. What’s different in 2026 is where attention is being split. 

Evenings are no longer primarily digital downtime. They’re social, experiential, and mobile, often all at once. A customer might: 

• Browse on their phone before heading out 

• Visit a café, mall, or pop-up after iftar 

• Resume browsing late at night 

• Complete a purchase days later, or even closer to Eid 
   

This blending of channels means brands are no longer competing just with other brands. They’re competing with: 

• Outdoor plans 

• In-store experiences 

• Social commitments 

• And limited cognitive bandwidth 
   

In this environment, coordinated experiences matter more than isolated campaigns. 

Ramadan during winter months changes engagement expectations  

When Ramadan falls during summer months, evenings are naturally spent indoors (home, with friends or family at their place or malls). Digital channels often see a higher spike in engagement as a result. Ramadan during winter months does not have that restriction. With more to do outdoors, engagement becomes more selective and more fragmented across different touchpoints.  

With an increase in outdoor experiences (desert cafes, pop ups etc), consumers want to do it all to avoid the FOMO. So what do customers do? They engage on their own terms, making it difficult for brands to predict intent.  

If digital messaging ignores in-store behaviour, or physical experiences don’t reflect digital intent, the journey feels disjointed and attention is lost. 

Having said that, previous Ramdan campaigns are a treasure trove of behavioural information and can be used to understand patterns:  

• Where did our journeys break down last year or the year before during Ramadan? 

• Should we have started earlier with our messaging?  

• Which channels allowed us to meaningfully engage with our ICP? 

• Did we have an overhaul of messaging and where could we have been clearer? 

• Did our competitors use channels where we could also have been relevant? 

• What did our experimentation look like across the year and did we see any significant trends during Ramadan? 

And there’s so much more where that came from, but we’ll save that for a conversation between your team and ours. 

We aren’t asking you to repeat engagement patterns (which is a major faux-pas) – changing customer behaviour and the ever evolving digital landscape requires a strategy that addresses these patterns but keeps customer needs at the heart of all experiences you choose to build during this period.  

Chasing conversions will only get you so far  

During Ramadan, hypermarkets, food delivery and grocery stores have a significant edge and media consumption also sees a significant uptick, with people spending more time on streaming, gaming and audio channels.  

Throughout Ramadan, consumers primarily turn inward, focusing on spirituality and reflection. Engagement opportunities, however, tend to shift based on clear behavioural phases. 

During each phase of Ramadan, behaviours and purchasing patterns change. 

Chasing one metric will result in misreading intent, mistiming engagement, and optimising for short-term signals at the expense of long-term relationships. 

This is an opportunity to think about:  

• How can we meaningfully connect with our audience during each phase? 

• Is our customer data up-to-date? 

• Is our tech stack integrated properly to manage higher volumes of engagement?  

• Can it break at any point?  

• What steps can we take to manage connectivity risks? 

• Is our tech stack and messaging ready to handle rapid shifts in consumer behaviour?  

• For example, do we have the right discount messaging on the right channel ready to go out at the right time to the right segment? 

• Are we accounting for increased outdoor time and reduced screen availability when planning message timing and frequency? 

• Have we properly connected offline and online journeys so in-store activity informs digital follow-up, and vice versa? 

👉 Talk to us about assessing your Ramadan readiness across data, journeys, and omnichannel execution and turning this year’s behavioural shifts into long-term advantage. 

How different verticals can win omnichannel during Ramadan 2026 

Ecommerce 

Ecommerce brands typically see: 

• Increased browsing frequency 

• More fragmented sessions 

• Fewer same-session conversions 

Stronger teams respond by: 

• Treating Ramadan as an intent accumulation phase, not a conversion-only period 

• Using behavioural signals (repeat views, depth of engagement, product comparison) to prioritise follow-up across channels 

• Designing for cross-session continuity, recognising that conversion may occur later, on a different device, or even offline 

The technical shift here is from optimising endpoints to managing stateful journeys over time. 

Luxury Retail 

Late-winter Ramadan increases competition from physical experiences, dining, events, travel, and in-store browsing, raising the bar for relevance. 

Luxury brands that perform well avoid overexposure and focus instead on: 

• Selective engagement based on demonstrated intent 

• Aligning digital touchpoints (content, reminders, storytelling) with in-store moments and clienteling activity 

• Measuring engagement quality (return visits, dwell time, assisted conversions)  

In this category, omnichannel maturity shows up in restraint, sequencing, and coherence. 

Cafés, Retail Spaces & In-Store Experiences 

In Ramadan 2026, physical spaces play a larger role in evening engagement, especially cafés, casual dining, and experiential retail. 

The opportunity lies in connecting physical presence to digital understanding. 

The teams that get it right: 

• Recognise prior digital intent [website visits, menu checks etc] when a customer enters a physical space 

• Use in-store behaviour (visits, timing, repeat presence) to inform post-visit engagement 

• Design continuity across visits, rather than treating each interaction as isolated 

This is where a unified customer view becomes a competitive advantage as the foundation for consistent, context-aware experiences across physical and digital touchpoints. 

The Common Thread Across Verticals 

Regardless of category, Ramadan 2026 rewards brands that: 

• Understand when engagement happens, not just where 

• Track behaviour across time, channels, and environments 

• Optimise for continuity, not isolated conversion events 

Moving from campaigns to connected experiences 

Ramadan will always be culturally and emotionally unique. 

But in 2026, success is less about campaign execution and more about experience orchestration; understanding how customers shift between channels, moments, and mindsets. 

The brands that stand out aren’t treating Ramadan as a short-term spike. They’re using it as a high-signal period to understand behaviour, close experience gaps, and design journeys that feel connected, during Ramadan and beyond. 

Because when customers have more choice, more plans, and more places to be, the brands they remember are the ones that truly understood them.