On March 19, 2022, Saudi Arabia's Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih and Amazon's Vice President Middle East and North Africa Ronaldo Mouchawar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) at MISA's office, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

According to the SPA, the new MoU is expected to increase opportunities for SMEs across the kingdom.

The Saudi Minister of Investment said: "Our partnership with Amazon will bring growth opportunities to SMEs, addressing key challenges facing the industry and creating jobs in the Kingdom by leveraging new technologies. The Kingdom's Vision 2030 plan includes developing a digital foundation. The terms of the facility are designed to enhance the quality of life and attract investment .

Developing local talent is another focus of the MoU.

"This partnership underscores our commitment to the Kingdom and Amazon customers and will help accelerate growth in the e-commerce space," said Amazon's vice president of Middle East and North Africa.

The Amazon Saudi station was officially launched in June 2020 , and the user information on the website was transferred to amazon.sa. Amazon Prime launches in Saudi Arabia in January 2021. That same year, Amazon announced a massive expansion in Saudi Arabia, with more than 867,000 square feet of storage capacity, the equivalent of more than a dozen football fields, by the end of the year.

At present, the Amazon Saudi station is in a very young and rapidly developing stage . After this cooperation, the proportion of prepaid orders in the entire Saudi market will be higher and higher, which will play a very benign role in promoting Saudi e-commerce mainly based on COD. We can be clear that the Middle East market will attract more and more cross-border sellers, and now is the golden time to enter .

Here to remind sellers: the compliance requirements in the Middle East market are relatively strict.

On 3.24th, a Saudi seller reported to us that they had received an official email from Amazon, asking the seller to upload the Saudi VAT number to Seller Central. The content of the email is roughly:

According to the requirements of the Saudi Tax Authority and the Saudi VAT law, if the seller is not a resident of Saudi Arabia and sells goods (including overseas warehouses ) to local residents of Saudi Arabia through the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) channel , then he is obliged to make the first FBA sale Register for a VAT number within 30 days .

If you already have a valid Saudi VAT ID number, please upload it to your Seller Central immediately to ensure smooth account operation. Until you upload your tax ID and get verified by Amazon, your Saudi site selling rights and related FBA functionality may be limited . At the same time, Amazon may from time to time disclose your account information to the Saudi Arabian Tax Authority.

Saudi sellers, please check the "Tax Settings" page in Seller Central. If it appears that you have not provided a Saudi Arabia VAT ID or provided an invalid VAT ID, you need to take the following actions immediately for the health of your account:

1. If you have not yet started the process of registering a VAT number in Saudi Arabia, please start the registration of the relevant VAT number immediately. At present, Sandstar Cross-border is conducting VAT related promotions in the Middle East. You can learn more about it at the end of the article.
2. If you have successfully completed the VAT registration process and have already registered your number, please upload it here: