Selling on Amazon.ae, Amazon.sa and noon in 2026: How to Ship Stock from China

TL;DR

• Amazon is never the importer. FBA stock must arrive delivered duty paid with an importer of record that is not Amazon; a non-resident importer is allowed. Stock with charges to collect is refused, and in the UAE stock without an importer of record is detained at AED 10 a day after five days.
• Boxes have hard limits. Amazon allows cartons of up to 23 kg and 63.5 cm per side, and pallets of 1.0 by 1.2 m up to 1.6 m tall. noon wants one SKU per box and a booked slot for every delivery.
• Shelf life and labels decide check-in. Every unit needs a scannable barcode. Amazon needs the consumption period plus 90 days of shelf life for expiry-dated goods, and more than 105 days for food; noon needs at least a year.
• Compliance comes before listing. Amazon must approve requested compliance documents before a product goes live. Saudi imports need SABER certificates, and regulated products in the UAE need a MoIAT conformity certificate.
• Storage got dearer in 2026. Amazon added long-term storage charges from 15 January, and noon raised storage fees on 1 October.

Amazon is never the importer

Amazon’s import rules for the UAE and Saudi Arabia are short and strict. Amazon never acts as importer of record, goods may not be imported in its name, and FBA shipments must be delivered duty paid. A fulfilment centre refuses anything that arrives with duty, VAT or freight to collect, and stock removed from FBA can only go to an address inside the country. A non-resident importer of record may clear the goods, which is how a forwarder’s DDP service works.

The penalty for getting it wrong is storage at the port. Amazon’s UAE seller guide says stock that arrives without an importer of record is detained and charged AED 10 a day after five days.

Amazon has its own route from China. Amazon SEND ships from China to the UAE and Saudi Arabia by air and sea, with the carrier handling customs at both ends, but it excludes dangerous goods. Amazon Global Logistics, the programme used for the US and Europe, does not serve the Gulf.

Getting the boxes right

Amazon’s own pages disagree on some limits. A second UAE guideline allows pallets of up to 750 kg, keeps loose boxes under 20 kg at standard sites such as DXB3 and AUH1, and sends heavy and bulky items to separate sites. Check the current page for the fulfilment centre named in your shipment plan, and pack to the stricter figure if in doubt.

New professional sellers also have monthly capacity limits: in the UAE 17.98 cubic metres of standard-size and 19.96 of oversize stock, in Saudi Arabia 16.99 and 22.94. A full container of one product can exceed them, so check the limit before you book the freight.

Booking the delivery

Amazon. Create the shipping plan, print the box labels, then book a delivery slot in Carrier Central at least 24 hours ahead, and ship only once the slot is confirmed. Drivers get 30 minutes’ grace. Cancel at least two hours before the slot, Amazon asks for two days, or the missed slot counts as a no-show.

noon. Create and seal the advance shipping notice in Seller Lab, then book the warehouse, date and time slot. noon’s warehouses are in Dubai South, Jebel Ali, Jafza and KEZAD in Abu Dhabi, and in Jeddah and Riyadh; Seller Lab shows which have space. Since 29 September 2026 bulky items need their own notices, and when sizes are mixed at least 70 percent of the units must go to one warehouse. An inbound accuracy score sets seller tiers, gold from 85 and silver from 60, and the tier controls access to extra inbound slots.

Seller requirements: licences and VAT

Two changes to know. Since April 2025 one Saudi commercial registration covers the whole kingdom, with an annual data confirmation instead of an expiry date. In the UAE, businesses with revenue under AED 50 million must appoint an e-invoicing provider by 31 March 2027 and go live by 1 July 2027.

Compliance that blocks listings

• Amazon documents. Since 30 September 2024, when Amazon.ae or Amazon.sa asks for compliance documents, they must be approved before the product can be listed.
• Saudi Arabia. Every import, regulated or not, needs a SABER Shipment Certificate before the customs declaration. Regulated products also need a Product Certificate of Conformity. Since 1 October 2026 products under ten technical regulations must carry the importer’s name and commercial registration number. Details are in our guide to shipping to Saudi Arabia.
• UAE. Regulated products need a MoIAT conformity certificate based on an accredited laboratory report, at AED 500 for review and AED 2,500 for issue. Online sellers must give product specifications in Arabic as well as the original language, state the country of origin and show the conformity documents and mark on the product page.
• Batteries. For the Middle East Amazon accepts lithium-ion cells of up to 20 Wh and batteries of up to 100 Wh, rejects larger ones, and asks for battery details, an exemption sheet and state-of-charge data. The air transport rules are in our lithium battery guide.

What storage costs in 2026

With long-term fees in place, a slow seller that arrives in one big container can cost more in storage than in freight. Smaller, more frequent inbounds are usually cheaper.

The market behind it

UAE e-commerce reached AED 42.2 billion in 2025, 15.7 percent of retail sales, and is forecast to reach AED 67.2 billion in 2030, according to a Euromonitor study for the EZDubai logistics hub. In Saudi Arabia, e-commerce paid with mada cards reached SAR 35.4 billion in March 2026, 28 percent more than a year earlier, according to central bank data.

A checklist for your first inbound from China

1. Confirm the importer of record and that the freight price is delivered duty paid. If it is not, the fulfilment centre will refuse the delivery.
2. Create the shipping plan or the noon notice before the goods leave the factory, and send the box labels to the supplier or the forwarder.
3. Pack to the limits: 23 kg and 63.5 cm per carton for Amazon, one SKU per box for noon, barcodes on every unit.
4. Check shelf life for anything with an expiry date.
5. Get compliance done first: SABER for Saudi Arabia, MoIAT for regulated products in the UAE, Amazon’s document approval for the listing.
6. Book the slot once the cargo is cleared, and keep a few days of buffer: sea cargo to the UAE now lands on the east coast and is trucked in, see our Hormuz update.

How Cargix delivers to marketplaces

Our air and sea rates to Dubai, Sharjah and Amazon FBA warehouses in the UAE are the same, with duty and VAT paid, so the stock arrives at the fulfilment centre delivered duty paid. Send the shipment plan and box labels before the goods leave the factory, and we can consolidate several suppliers into one inbound. For noon warehouses and Saudi fulfilment centres, ask for a quote through the quote form; the calculator shows the all-in price for FBA deliveries in the UAE.