Ramadan and Eid change how customers in the GCC actually shop: suhoor and iftar create two distinct daily rushes instead of one steady flow, Eid gifting drives a short, sharp spike in retail and F&B spend, and a customer who's normally an occasional visitor often becomes a regular one for the season. Almost none of that seasonal behavior gets reflected in how merchants run their loyalty programs, which usually just keep running on autopilot through the exact weeks where a small, well-timed nudge would do the most good.
Wallet push notifications are a good fit for this specifically, because they land on the lock screen at the moment that matters (right before iftar, right after a Ramadan purchase, in the run-up to Eid) instead of sitting unread in an inbox. Here's a practical playbook for using that channel through the season, not a generic list of "run a promotion" advice.
1. Send a "Ramadan hours" or "Ramadan menu" update, once
If your business changes hours, menu, or offerings for Ramadan, a single wallet notification to existing loyalty members announcing that change is worth sending in the first few days of the month. It's genuinely useful information, not a promotion, which makes it a good low-risk way to confirm the channel is working before sending anything more marketing-forward.
2. Time reward-ready notifications around iftar, not randomly
If a customer crosses their reward threshold, the "your reward is ready" notification lands better in the hour or two before iftar, when food and shopping are already top of mind, than at a random point in the day. This doesn't require rebuilding your program, just being deliberate about when an already-planned notification goes out during this specific month.
3. Run a limited-time "Ramadan stamps count double" push
A temporary boost, double stamps or double points for a set window, gives existing members a specific reason to visit more often during the month, and a wallet notification announcing it reaches people who already opted in rather than requiring a fresh ad spend to reach the same audience.
4. Send an Eid-specific reward a few days before the holiday
A small, unprompted "Eid Mubarak, here's a reward on us" notification a few days before Eid, independent of whether a customer hit a normal threshold, is a low-cost goodwill gesture that reads as a genuine seasonal touch rather than a sales pitch. It tends to be remembered specifically because it wasn't tied to a transaction.
5. Use the pre-Eid gifting window for a referral push
Eid gifting drives real foot traffic for retail, F&B gift items, and services people book for family visits. A notification encouraging an existing loyal customer to bring a friend or family member, with a small reward for both when the new customer enrolls, taps directly into a spending pattern that's already happening in that window rather than trying to create demand from nothing.
6. Don't let the pass go quiet after Eid
The most common mistake is treating Ramadan and Eid as the whole campaign and going silent afterward. A short post-Eid "thank you for a great season" notification, especially if paired with a normal reward-ready or near-threshold nudge, keeps the pass feeling active instead of like something that was only relevant for a few weeks.
What to avoid during this window specifically
- Sending too frequently. The instinct during a high-attention season is to push more often. Resist it. The same rule that applies year-round, only send when there's a specific, relevant reason, matters more here, not less, because customers are already receiving more messages than usual from every business they interact with.
- Sending during suhoor or late night. A notification timed for the wrong part of the daily rhythm reads as inconsiderate rather than helpful. Late-evening and pre-iftar windows generally work better than early morning or late night.
- Generic promotional language with no seasonal relevance. A discount push that could have been sent any month of the year doesn't benefit from being sent during Ramadan specifically, and can read as tone-deaf if it ignores the season entirely while everything else a customer receives is Ramadan-themed.
Setting this up without building new infrastructure
None of the six ideas above require a new system. They're all timing and content decisions layered on top of the same wallet-push mechanism covered in wallet push notifications for GCC merchants, reward-ready alerts, near-threshold nudges, and occasional time-sensitive offers, just planned deliberately around the calendar instead of ignored during it. The main preparation worth doing in advance is deciding your Ramadan hours message, your Eid reward, and your post-Eid re-engagement notification before the month starts, so none of it is improvised at the last minute.
WalletOS issues real Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes with push updates built in, the same mechanism this playbook relies on, from day one without a separate messaging tool to manage. For the full mechanics behind how these passes work, see the digital loyalty card guide. If your customer base skews Arabic-speaking, the native Arabic version of this playbook covers the same season with region-specific examples, and the car wash loyalty program in Arabic is worth a look if a high-frequency vertical fits your business better than a seasonal campaign alone.