E-commerce spending in Saudi Arabia via Mada cards jumped 72% year-on-year to SR25.97 billion ($6.93 billion) in June, underscoring the Kingdom’s rapid shift to cashless retail. Online payments rose 59.4% to 141.55 million transactions, covering shopping sites, in-app purchases and e-wallets — figures that exclude Visa and Mastercard activity and highlight the strength of domestic payment rails.
Mada, operated by Saudi Payments under SAMA, links banks, ATMs and point-of-sale systems and powers debit-card checkouts across the Kingdom. SAMA this summer launched an upgraded e-commerce payments interface that integrates Mada with international networks to boost speed and security.
Near-universal connectivity bolsters the trend: CST’s Saudi Internet Report shows 99% of residents online and 93% of e-commerce purchases on local sites, while average mobile data use hits 48 GB per person per month. Mastercard and other processors have built local infrastructure to keep transactions in-country and speed checkout.
Partnerships — Maersk with Saudi Post, DHL’s AJEX stake, and Amazon Payment Services adding Tamara BNPL — are scaling logistics and payments capacity. PwC surveys show Saudi consumers favor sustainability, digital innovation and strong data privacy, while 77% of CEOs are confident on the near-term outlook.
For merchants and investors, the immediate play is converting rising demand into repeatable scale via optimized mobile journeys, localized payment options and transparent data-privacy practices.