How are UK retailers activating Ramadan 2026

This year, Ramadan began on the 17^th February and Eid is on the 19^th March, marking the end of Ramadan. Retailers’ participation in the event is typically down to the region and community surrounding it, with certain areas promoting Ramadan heavily while others don’t at all. Alongside this, seasonal spaces in-store are under strong competition after a quick turnaround from Valentine’s Day, with Mother’s Day and Easter in the mix.

Seasonal aisle takeovers

After a quick turnaround on Valentine’s Day, retailers have been using their seasonal aisle to highlight Ramadan, stocking products essential for the occasion such as snacks and confectionary, soft drinks, tinned food, cooking sauces and ingredients, and wholesale size bags of rice. Tesco had a seasonal aisle takeover, using a large digital header board to further promote the occasion in the aisle, the theming used was purple and gold colouring and used FSDUs along the centre of the aisle to promote bulk bags of rice. This was positioned directly at the front of the store and therefore perfect for shoppers taking part in Ramadan to stock up throughout the occasion, by placing this at the front of the store it ensure mission based shoppers can get what they need at the beginning of their shopper journey, and the retailer can promote what they wish to as part of the range. The aisle used purple shelf-strips and aisle fins to match the theming, and the range used value messaging through Clubcard prices to promote loyalty and improve value perception. Other stores such as Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons also used their respective seasonal aisles to promote Ramadan.

Buy-in-bulk offerings

Across retailers, bulk purchase options for certain cooking ingredients were promoted in Ramadan ranges, highlighting the need to stock up for cooking throughout the course of Ramadan. The main product promoted in bulk was rice, with bulk bags from 5kg to 10kg in weight, this could be seen throughout retailers in-aisle and along gondola-ends and FSDUs, often at a loyalty discount or on special offer for the occasion. Other products being promoted in bulk were cooking oils (sunflower, vegetable) in up to 5 litre bottles, atta in 10kg bags, and semolina in 2kg bags. This shows retailers cultural understanding of the event and the need to buy in bulk, with large communal meals of Iftar and Suhoor requiring large amount of food, also the fact that Ramadan is a key time for Zakat (donation) with many families donating food, both of these highlight the need to purchase essential foods and cooking ingredients in bulk for Ramadan. Sainsbury’s Ramadan aisle highlights this with the lower shelves of the aisle containing bulk sizes of products associated with Ramadan.

A variety of snacks

Practicing Ramadan consists of fasting throughout the day and often partaking in large meals at sunset (Iftar) and pre-dawn (Suhoor), therefore you would not expect retailers to stock large varieties of snacks in Ramadan specific aisle, yet they do. This is because eating snacks such as dates, pastries, sweets, and savoury snack mixes are a popular method of breaking the fast at sunset. This is important to retailers, as snacks are easy to stock, have good profit margins, and have an appeal to shoppers whether they are fasting or not. These snacks can be eaten during the large meals during Ramadan and brought as gifts and offerings to hosts of these meals, making them a fast seller during Ramadan. Major retailers such as Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, and Sainsbury’s, where the local Muslim communities are large, stock Ramadan seasonal aisle with snacks and treats to tempt shoppers, often including halal sweets, dates, chocolates, pastries, savoury snack mixes (Bombay, Karachi, London), and nuts. Tesco highlights the snacks in its Ramadan range at the start of the seasonal aisle and used Clubcard prices to further entice shoppers.

Price cuts and discounts

As is with all seasonal events, retailers have offered discounted prices on Ramadan ranges. Tesco and Sainsbury’s have used loyalty cards to promote discounts, with Clubcard prices found across Tesco’s Ramadan aisles (alongside EDLPs on some products which is available to all shoppers) and Sainsbury’s using Nectar card to offer significant discounts on products in the Ramadan aisle. This shows that Ramadan is a key time to improve shopper loyalty by enticing shoppers with loyalty card prices on seasonal items, potentially increasing the number of shoppers signed up to loyalty cards. Asda and Morrisons however, offered discounts on their respective Ramadan ranges regardless of loyalty, with many of Asda’s Ramadan products highlighted with Rollback prices and multi-buy offers. Morrisons held price cuts on items promoted for Ramadan, using a yellow gondola-end with large yellow barkers indicating savings on Ramadan products.

Standout brands for Ramadan: Laila

Laila branded products could be found across multiple retailers Ramadan ranges (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda). Asda specifically included a Laila branded bay in its Ramadan seasonal aisle, using light blue colouring on the header board and aisle fins to differentiate the range from the rest of the aisle themed in dark green. The header board and aisle fins included images on Laila products on offer and the message ‘Together this Ramadan’. This stood out in aisle due to its alternative colouring to the rest of the range, with a painted red wood pallet at the bottom holding bulk bags of Laila Gold Superior Longer Basmati Rice slightly sticking out from the rest of the aisle, further improving visibility of the bay.

Key takeaways from Ramadan 2026

Ramadan presents retailers with a slightly different seasonal event that has high potential. With the event lasting for over a month it gives retailers the opportunity to sell products multiple times over to the same shopper, a bit different from other seasonal events such as Valentine’s, Easter, and Christmas which tend to involve one-time purchases. This means retailers must stock up on key items for Ramadan, such as bulk options for cooking ingredients, particularly rice and cooking oils, and snacks. Retailers must also consider the overlap of other seasonal events around Ramadan and how to organise space to maximise the visibility of Ramadan ranges alongside other seasonal events. This year Ramadan has fallen just after Valentine’s Day and both Pancake Day and Mother’s Day fall within it. This means that while the event continues throughout February and March it competes with multiple other seasonal events making planning and organisation of aisles and activations imperative to retailers. Ramadan is also a great time to improve value perception, as has been done through loyalty card discounts, EDLPs, and other general price cuts on products promoted for Ramadan, as well as this, the specific types of products promoted throughout Ramadan improve a retailers reputation with the community as they show that they understand the needs of the local community.