# Getting ready for White Friday, Ramadan and Eid with COD

> Before a sales peak, check last year's refusal rate, set temporary COD limits for the sale dates, promise delivery dates that allow for busy couriers and Eid holidays, agree capacity with your courier, and plan who confirms orders. Switch the temporary limits off when the peak ends.

URL: https://khaleejicod.com/guides/peak-season-cod/  
Updated: 2026-10-26  
Publisher: Trifid Media LLC

Sales peaks bring more orders, more first-time shoppers and slower deliveries, and each of these
can push COD refusals up. Prepare in four parts: set temporary COD limits for the sale dates,
promise delivery dates you can keep, agree capacity and cut-off times with your courier, and plan
who will confirm orders. When the peak ends, switch back to your normal settings and measure what
happened.

## What are White Friday, Ramadan and Eid for an online store?

**White Friday** is the Middle East's name for Black Friday sales. Khaleej Times described it as
the region's adaptation of Black Friday, and in 2025 it ran from 20 to 30 November.

**Ramadan and the two Eids** follow the Hijri (Islamic) calendar. The UAE government's holiday
list says Islamic holidays are determined according to moon sighting, so plan around the expected
dates and watch for the official announcement. In the UAE, the same holidays apply to the public
and private sectors:

- Eid Al Fitr: 1 to 3 Shawwal, plus 30 Ramadan if Ramadan lasts 30 days.
- Arafah Day: 9 Dhu al-Hijjah.
- Eid Al Adha: 10 to 12 Dhu al-Hijjah.

Other GCC countries announce their own holidays, so check each country you ship to.

Each peak puts a different strain on COD:

| Peak | What changes for COD |
|---|---|
| White Friday | Discounts and heavy ad spend can bring many new and impulse orders in a few days, while couriers are busy |
| Ramadan | Daily routines and working hours change, so shoppers may want deliveries at different times |
| Eid | Gifts and outfits must arrive before Eid, and couriers and your own team take days off |

## Why do peaks need different COD settings?

A peak changes who is ordering and how long they wait. Sale ads reach people who have never bought
from you. Discounts invite impulse orders. Busy couriers can take longer, and every extra day gives a
shopper more time to change their mind. A gift that arrives after Eid is easy to refuse.

How much this matters differs from store to store, so look at your own numbers before you change
anything. Work out last year's refusal rate for the peak weeks and for a normal month, and compare
them, overall and by emirate or city. The steps are in
[how to work out your COD refusal rate in a spreadsheet](/guides/refusal-rate-spreadsheet/). If you
have no history yet, start with modest limits and measure this year.

## What should you do, and when?

### Four weeks before

1. Measure last year's peak as described above.
2. Talk to your courier. Ask these questions:
   - How many parcels can you collect per day during the peak, and can we add pickups?
   - What are your cut-off times, and do they change in Ramadan?
   - Which days are you closed over Eid, and what happens to parcels already on the road?
   - Do your rates, delivery times, attempts or return rules change during the peak?
   - When will the COD cash from peak sales reach us?
3. Decide your temporary COD limits (see the next section).

The cash question matters for planning stock and ad budgets. One UAE courier's fee schedule
(Quiqup's, checked 26 October 2026), for example, says invoicing and COD reconciliation happen
every 2 weeks and COD payments are made once a week, after your written confirmation. Cash from a
late-November sale may not reach you until December. See [courier COD payouts](/guides/courier-cod-payouts/) for the questions to ask.

### One week before

4. Set the limits and write down your normal values and the date you will switch back.
5. Test them with a draft order: open its checkout link and check which payment methods show.
   See [how to test checkout payment rules with draft orders](/guides/test-payment-rules-draft-orders/).
6. Update your delivery promises (see below).
7. Plan confirmation: who sends messages, who calls, and at what times of day.

### During the peak

8. Ship every day, confirm COD orders on the day they arrive, and check your courier's failed
   attempts every morning. See
   [failed delivery attempts: what to do before a parcel comes back](/guides/failed-delivery-attempts/).

### After the peak

9. Switch the limits back on the date you wrote down.
10. Measure the peak's refusal rate a couple of weeks later, once every parcel has been delivered
    or returned, and tag the customers who refused.

## Which temporary COD limits make sense?

Keep COD for the orders that usually arrive and get paid, and limit it where a refusal costs most:

- **A lower cart-total limit.** Big carts tie up more stock and need more cash at the door.
- **A lower limit on large first orders.** Sale ads bring shoppers you have no history with.
- **No COD on limited-stock or deep-discount items.** A unit sitting in a returning parcel can't
  be sold during the sale, and you may have to sell it later at a lower price. Tag these products
  `no-cod`.
- **COD stays for small carts and returning customers** who don't trip any other rule.

> **Example:** These amounts are examples. Choose yours from your own orders. A store that normally
> hides COD above AED 1,500 and on first orders above AED 500 lowers these to AED 1,000 and AED 300
> from the day before its White Friday sale starts until the sale's last day, then puts them back.

In Khaleeji COD, you change the amounts and click **Save rules**. Nothing changes at checkout until you
save, and you switch back the same way. Shoppers who lose COD can still use the card, Apple Pay or
pay-later methods your store offers, which the rules never touch.

## How do you set delivery promises for a peak?

A late parcel gives the shopper an easy reason to refuse. Make the promise match what your courier
can do during the peak:

- **Add days to your delivery times** for the sale period, for example a shipping rate named
  "Delivery in 2 to 4 working days (sale period)".
- **Publish a last order date for delivery before Eid.** Work back from the expected Eid date: take
  your courier's last working day before the holiday, subtract its delivery time, then subtract
  your own packing time. Show the date on product pages, in the cart and in the order confirmation.
- **Ask about Ramadan hours.** In the UAE, private-sector working hours are reduced by 2 hours every
  day during Ramadan, so courier and warehouse schedules may shift. Check your courier's delivery
  windows, and ask shoppers in the confirmation message what time suits them.

## How do you confirm orders at peak volume?

You may not have time to call every COD order. Split the work:

- Send every COD order a confirmation message that repeats the total and the delivery date.
- Call only the orders where a refusal costs most, such as big carts or first orders.
- Cancel unconfirmed orders before dispatch if your policy allows it, and say so in the message.

Confirm on the same day, before the parcel leaves. A confirmation sent after dispatch can't stop a
wasted trip.

## What should you check after the peak?

Put the results next to last year's: refusal rate overall, by emirate or city, and for first
orders. Note which limits you changed and when. Next year you can start from your own numbers
instead of guesses, and set the limits a little tighter or looser.

## Sources

- [Khaleej Times: UAE shoppers to spend 3 times more than Mena average during White Friday 2025](https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-shopping-trends-white-friday-2025-mena)
- [UAE Government portal (u.ae): Public holidays](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/public-holidays-and-religious-affairs/public-holidays)
- [UAE Government portal (u.ae): Working hours in the private sector](https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/jobs/Sector-of-employment/employment-in-the-private-sector/working-hours)
- [Quiqup: Services and Fees Schedule (self-service, UAE courier), checked 26 October 2026](https://www.quiqup.com/terms-of-service/quiqup-services-and-fees-schedule---self-service-26-07-15)