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What Saudi online stores show on the homepage: a checklist from the 2025 Ministry of Commerce evaluation

18 Oct 2026 ·5 min read · اقرأ بالعربية

In August 2025, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce announced the first phase of an evaluation of online stores: the top 100 stores, assessed against 10 criteria. Several of those criteria are things a shopper, or a crawler, can see on the store itself: the VAT number and commercial registration (CR) number on the homepage, the return, shipping, complaints and privacy policies, and a clear way to contact the store. This article is a presence checklist: what to display and where to check it. It is not legal advice, and it doesn't tell you whether your store complies. For that, read the ministry's announcement and ask a qualified advisor.

The criteria (phase 1, August 2025)

Outlets word the list slightly differently. Combining the ministry's announcement with Argaam's and Mubasher's coverage:

  1. The store documented with the Saudi Business Center.
  2. An exchange, return and refund policy.
  3. A shipping and delivery policy.
  4. A complaints policy.
  5. A data-protection and privacy policy.
  6. The store's link documented in its commercial registration.
  7. The tax (VAT) number and all required licenses on the homepage, in the ministry's wording.
  8. The CR number and all required licenses on the homepage, in the ministry's wording.
  9. A contact option in a clear place.
  10. A secure (HTTPS), fast and usable site.

Items 7 and 8 follow the ministry's text, which asks for the tax number and the CR number, each with all required licenses, on the homepage. The audit looks for the two numbers only, and only on the homepage; it doesn't check licenses. One outlet combines contact and site security into one item. I found no second phase or 2026 update at the time of writing; check the ministry's news page for anything newer.

Two of the criteria aren't visible on the storefront at all: the Saudi Business Center documentation and the store link in the commercial registration are records held outside your store. A checker can only look for a visible link or badge. Confirm the records themselves in your official accounts.

How to check

  1. Open your homepage as a customer would and scroll to the footer. Find the VAT number, the CR number and a link to each policy.
  2. Check that the numbers appear as text, not only inside an image.
  3. Open each policy link and confirm it leads to a page with real content, not a placeholder.
  4. Confirm a phone, WhatsApp or email link is easy to find, and that the site loads over https.
  5. Run the free audit. For stores it identifies as Saudi (SAR prices, a .sa domain, +966 numbers, or Salla or Zid with SAR), Store Audit by Ahmed Fayed looks on the homepage for a VAT number (15 digits), a CR number (10 digits), a Saudi Business Center link or badge, and a complaints policy, and reports each one as found or not found. It never states that a store complies.

How to fix

Salla

Salla's default Raed theme shows the VAT number in the footer when it's entered in the store's tax settings, and it can also show the VAT certificate. Enter the number there rather than typing it into a footer text block, so it stays in sync. The theme also includes a trust-badges component; I haven't confirmed whether it displays a Saudi Business Center or CR badge, or where the CR number is set. On the Salla store checked for this article, the policy pages lived at /p/سياسة-الخصوصية (privacy), /p/الشروط-والأحكام (terms) and /p/سياسة-الاستبدال-والاسترجاع (exchange and return). Review their content, and add shipping and complaints policies if your store doesn't have them.

Zid

Create policy pages under Online Store › Pages (المتجر الإلكتروني ← الصفحات) and link them from the footer. I haven't confirmed which Zid footer components display the VAT and CR numbers. Check your theme's footer settings, and if there's no field for them, contact Zid support.

Shopify, WordPress and custom-coded stores

Add the VAT and CR numbers as text in the footer, which appears on every page including the homepage. Link each policy page there. If your store is documented with the Saudi Business Center, link to your listing on business.sa.

Common mistakes

  • Showing the VAT number only on invoices or at checkout, not on the homepage.
  • Showing the numbers only inside an image. The audit reads page text, so it reports them as not found.
  • Policy links that lead to empty or placeholder pages.
  • Having return, shipping and privacy policies but no complaints policy.
  • Treating a checklist, this one included, as legal confirmation.

Run the free Store Audit by Ahmed Fayed to see which of these items it finds on your homepage. If you'd like help fixing this, contact me on WhatsApp +20 102 702 0701 or at ahmed-fayed.com.

Sources

Saudi stores

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