Muslims believe that Ramadan is the month of generosity and forgiveness in which they should give the poor and teach themselves patience and temperance, so they yearn for its spiritual atmosphere and eagerly wait for its arrival every year.
However, work hours in Ramadan are shorter due to the hardship of fasting, especially in places with very hot or very cold weather. Working hours in most Muslim countries are shrinking because most employees need longer hours to rest, worship, and sleep for some time in the morning after the night prayers and pre-dawn meal (suhoor) or simply stay up late to watch the latest TV series that big Arab channels show exclusively in Ramadan to compete for more spectators. Some or all of these factors will result in the nervousness of some fasting people or their sluggishness during morning work hours. So either you are visiting government departments or private sectors for some work you need them to do for you, there will be always some bad-tempered employees and some annoying, repetitive delays that disrupt your interests. Sleepy, tired, and bad-mood, fasting employees plus shorter hours all means that the staff performance and productivity are significantly much lower in Ramadan than in any other month especially when these employees occupy important positions for business operations, decision-making, or government transactions. Their low performance is likely to have a negative impact on trade movement not only in their local cities but in the regional level as a whole.
But does this mean that Ramadhan is a low season for business? The good news is: No! Ramadan is the most prosperous business season in many Islamic countries. In contrast to the low performance and productivity of employees, demand is high for goods and services in most areas, especially food, catering, packaging, housewares, garments, jewelery, decorations, cosmetics, games and religious tourism, hotels, charitable work, and many others. In preparation for fasting in Ramadan as well as preparation for Eid al-Fitr, the golden season for businesses begins at the end of the eighth Hijri month, Sh’aban, culminates in the end of Ramadan, and continues until the end of Shawwal, the tenth Hijri month. Ramadan therefore be described as the largest season of consumption during the year in the Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of the Islamic world. Let us not overlook the fact that in parallel with this trade recovery, some industries may exaggerate prices, causing a drop in demand, especially in poor countries and small societies where the majority are low-income employees who cannot cope with this greedy inflation and pay the sums that greedy merchants drool over.
Consumers’ high demand is a great opportunity for business owners to make the biggest profits. For example, businesses of goods and services of ready-made garments, adornments, cosmetics and gifts reach their highest sales goals during Ramadhan. This is also true for food markets which witness a remarkable, uncommon, and frenzy food shopping that you would think it is the last opportunity to buy as much food as possible before the biggest famine in history starts very soon! Perhaps the main cause of this “fever” is that most people shop for food while fasting. That is, their hunger makes them act as if they are experiencing a real famine, and so they buy everything they can or cannot eat. However, the wonderful result is abundant profits! Ramadan is also a golden season for restaurants and catering services businesses, as well as entertainment cafes that compensate smokers who suffered deprivation throughout the day with varied kinds of drinks, sweets and multi-flavor hookah smoking.
Even e-commerce makes a big profit in Ramadan for both giant companies on the Internet like E-bay and Amazon, and small businesses whose owners market their services and products via social media applications such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Criteo*, a global e-commerce marketing company, has analyzed more than 1 million desktop and smartphone businesses activities from more than 135 retailers across the Middle East and North Africa (in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey and Qatar). The survey was conducted Ramadan before last. It showed that 49% of the sales were made by smart mobile phones. The highest sales were in Saudi Arabia followed by Morocco, UAE, then Kuwait and Qatar at very close rates, and finally Egypt and Turkey.
Based on the results of this study, Ramadan this year will be a golden month for e-shopping in the Middle East and North Africa region, especially in the fourth week. Therefore, Cretio advises traders and marketers to be very interested in marketing goods and services through applications compatible with mobile browsers because most people carry their smartphones wherever they go. It also pointed out that business owners should launch marketing campaigns for their products strongly with the beginning of the month of fasting or even a few days before, and also continue marketing their produts until after Eid al-Fitr to ensure the greatest profit in the high consumption season. Cretio described Ramadhan as the season in which the largest possible profit in the Islamic world (and perhaps in the whole world) can be achieved. Compared to other global seasons such as Easter and New Year’s Day, the period of the Ramadan season is thirty or forty days if we add the last week of Sh’aban and the first week after Eid al-Fitr, so it is indisputably the best month in the Islamic world, both spirituality and economically.
When Ramadan arrives, Muslims congratulate each other with phrases like “Ramadan Kareem” which means: “Ramadan is generous”. It is indeed the month of blessings because it is a season not only for Muslims to feel for and give the poor, but also to share many joys with family and friends, and this surely includes the joy of a happy shopping!
المينـــاء 