SAMA data: online mada spending grows five times faster than store sales.
Shoppers in Saudi Arabia spent SAR 36.95bn online with mada cards in August 2026, according to the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), up 26% on a year earlier by our calculation. Spending at shop tills grew 5% to SAR 65.69bn over the same period.
The figures come from SAMA's monthly statistical bulletin for August, published on 30 September; the other percentages and averages here are our calculations too. Online transactions with mada cards rose 27.3% to 196.9 million, while point-of-sale transactions rose 10.3% to 1.1 billion. The average online payment was about SAR 188, against about SAR 59 in stores. Phones are taking over at the till too: payments made with mobile devices accounted for 54.4% of point-of-sale spending in August, up from 51.6% a year earlier.
Online mada spending was 36% of combined store and online mada spending in August, up from 31.9% a year earlier. The comparison has limits. SAMA's e-commerce figures cover mada cards used on shopping sites, in apps and in e-wallets, and exclude Visa, Mastercard and other credit cards, so they understate total online spending, while the point-of-sale figures include all cards. July was slightly stronger than August online, at SAR 37.63bn.
For retailers and brands, the gap in growth rates is the story. Store sales are still almost twice the size of online mada spending, but the online share is rising by about four percentage points a year, and online baskets are about three times the size of in-store ones. Checkout, delivery and mada support in apps now deserve the same attention as the shop floor.
Why it matters
Online mada spending in Saudi Arabia is growing about five times as fast as store sales, with baskets three times larger, so digital checkout and delivery deserve a bigger share of retail plans.
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