Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin on 8 February 2027 and to last 29 or 30 days, according to astronomical calculations reported by The National; the exact date follows the moon sighting. Eid Al Fitr is expected on 9 or 10 March 2027. For retailers, restaurants and charities in the UAE, the busiest WhatsApp weeks of the year start then, and the work starts now.
Three months before: templates and opt-ins
- Write your templates early. Business-initiated WhatsApp messages need an approved template. Prepare your Ramadan greeting, iftar offers, donation appeals and Eid greetings in Arabic and English, and submit them well before February.
- Grow your opt-in list. Add an Opt-in step to your MonoChat flows, so each customer’s Yes or No is saved on their profile. A bulk message can then go only to customers whose Opt-in is Yes.
- Check your payment link. If you sell or collect donations in the chat, connect a payment system in MonoChat, such as N-Genius, MyFatoorah, Telr, Ziina or Tabby, and test one payment link.
One month before: the replies
- Prepare your AI assistant’s answers for Ramadan opening hours, delivery times before iftar and Eid closing days.
- Set the hand-over. Decide which questions go to a person: large orders, complaints, zakat questions for charities.
- Plan your team’s hours. If your conversations move to the evening, a flow with a working-hours condition can tell customers when a person will answer.
During Ramadan: send at the right time
- Choose the hour. Schedule bulk messages for the hours your customers read them, avoid the moment of iftar, and keep SMS campaigns between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.
- Answer inside the 24-hour window. When customers write to you, your replies within 24 hours are not charged by Meta. Customers who come from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad give you 72 hours of free messages.
- Keep it warm and modest. Greetings such as «رمضان كريم» and «عيد مبارك», no jokes about religion, and modest visuals.
For charities: Donor Assistant
Donor Assistant, MonoChat’s app for charities, shares your campaigns as cards, gives each donation a code and the way to pay, sends the receipt and the field photos, and never calculates zakat or gives rulings: it explains zakat only from the text you approve and hands over to your team. Fundraising in the UAE needs the authorities’ permission, so check which permits apply to your campaign and channels first.
For shops and restaurants
Shop Assistant answers “where is my order?” around the clock and reminds customers about abandoned carts, only those who agreed to marketing messages or wrote to you recently. There is no restaurant app yet: a restaurant can still take orders with flows and payment links.
Eid Al Fitr
Run your Eid offers in the days before Eid, and keep the day itself for a greeting. Check the official announcement of the date the week before, and move your scheduled messages if the moon sighting changes it.