Three ways to prepare for UAE peak season 2025

During peak season, heavy traffic puts your checkout to the ultimate test.

No matter the channel, UAE shoppers expect a fast checkout that lets them pay with their preferred methods. According to our 2025 UAE Retail Report, 54% of shoppers will leave the store or abandon the online checkout if they can’t pay with the method they want.

That’s why offering the right mix of bank and alternative payment methods is key to increasing conversion rates, including:

• Local payment methods (LPMs): Our data collected during Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend 2024 shows that LPMs deliver a global ATV that’s 26% higher than other methods.

• Digital wallets: Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet, Google Pay, and local bank wallets offer faster, more secure checkouts by reducing steps during payment.

• Contactless payments: On our platform, contactless payments in the US rose from 45% to 58% during BFCM between 2023 and 2024, while globally they reached 81%, reflecting shoppers’ demand for speed and convenience.

• Tap to Pay on iPhone/Android: Our platform shows that Tap to Pay on iPhone grew 177% during Black Friday between 2023 and 2024 among our customers already offering it, showing its power to cut queues and elevate the in-store experience.

Adopting a single platform omnichannel approach is crucial to meeting shopper expectations during peak season.

With Adyen’s single platform, you can remove friction so every payment feels natural, whether online, in person, or on mobile, helping you deliver a smooth, consistent checkout experience.

Our wide range of global and local payment methods are built into fast, intuitive flows, making it easy for customers to pay with their preferred payment methods across all channels.

The goal during peak season is to maximize conversion without opening the door to fraud.

But shopper behavior changes dramatically this time of year; a customer who normally places two orders a month might suddenly place five. Our data also shows that the average transaction value rises by nearly 30% on Black Friday compared to a typical day, which might look suspicious to a rigid rule-based system.

It is critical to have a solution that can distinguish a genuine customer on a shopping spree from a fraud attempt. Blocking legitimate customers over unusual (but valid) patterns leads to lost revenue and frustration.

Our data also shows that fraud attempts have an average transaction value 64% higher than legitimate sales, meaning fraud prevention isn’t just about stopping bad activity but also about protecting your most valuable transactions.

This is where data-driven optimization makes a difference. 

Adyen Uplift optimizes for conversion, risk, and cost at the same time, using machine learning built on Adyen’s $1.3 trillion worth of transaction data. 

For retail businesses working with Adyen, there’s over 90% chance we’ve already seen that shopper before. Recognizing the customer helps our AI minimize false positives, so fewer legitimate shoppers are wrongly blocked. This results in higher conversion and sales when it matters most.

With the Adyen Uplift overview dashboard, you can easily improve payment performance through customized recommendations. The dashboard highlights opportunities based on your data, and with just a few clicks, you can test and implement changes to boost results.

UAE consumers increasingly choose brands that share their values. Our research shows that 91% already give to charity, and 58% say they’d be more loyal to a retailer with a strong social purpose.

Loyalty drives long-term success. By letting your customers donate at checkout, you support meaningful causes and give customers a reason to return.

Donations don’t stop during peak season. They often grow stronger during heartfelt celebrations like Eid and Ramadan, when in-store giving in the UAE reaches its peak.

With Adyen Giving, you can offer customers the option to donate at checkout with minimal effort:

• 100% of every donation goes directly to charity, and we cover all transaction fees.

• In 2025, Adyen will match all donations made through our platform.

Activation is simple: no integration is needed for in-person payments, and a small one is required for online.

*We’re also proud to bring Adyen Giving to leading UAE businesses such as Go Sport, CAFU, and Shake Shack.

Most retailers spend months preparing systems for peak season. Fewer review the operational processes that support them. Clear ownership, monitoring, and escalation processes help teams respond quickly when transaction volumes increase or unexpected issues arise.

Questions to ask your team

• Does every team know who owns payment incidents?

• Are escalation paths documented and understood?

• Have support, finance, and operations teams aligned on peak season processes?

• Are dashboards and alerts configured around the metrics that matter most?

Peak season preparation doesn't stop with retailers. See how we prepare our platform, teams and operational processes to support merchants during the busiest shopping period of the year.

The decisions made during peak season shouldn't end when the season does. Reviewing payment performance, customer behavior, and operational trends creates a stronger foundation for future optimization — not just next Black Friday but throughout the year.

Questions to ask your team

• Which metrics will define success beyond revenue?

• Are we measuring authorization performance alongside conversion?

• How will we review what worked and what didn't?

• Which opportunities should become priorities after peak season?

Customer experience

□ Can customers pay using their preferred payment methods?

□ Have we reviewed checkout performance across every channel?

□ Are there any unnecessary points of friction before payment?

Promotions & loyalty

□ Are our promotions rewarding the right customers, rather than everyone? □ Can we personalize offers across online and in-store experiences? □ Have we reviewed safeguards against promotion and policy abuse?

Payments & risk

□ Have fraud settings been reviewed for seasonal shopping behavior?

□ Are we monitoring false positives alongside fraud rates?

□ Is our authentication strategy optimized for both conversion and risk?

Operations

□ Does every team understand incident ownership and escalation?

□ Are dashboards and alerts ready before peak traffic begins?

□ Have refund and dispute processes been reviewed?

Performance

□ Have we agreed on the metrics we'll monitor throughout peak season?

□ Do we have a plan to review performance after BFCM?

□ Have we identified opportunities for improvement next year?

The retailers that perform best during peak season are rarely the ones making last-minute changes. They're the ones that have reviewed their customer experience, aligned their teams, and prepared for how shoppers actually behave during the busiest shopping period of the year.

Peak season may only last a few weeks, but the decisions made before it (and the insights gathered afterwards) can improve performance long after Black Friday/Cyber Monday ends.

"It's easy to view peak season as a sprint to survive, but the most successful retailers view it as their greatest opportunity to learn. The data you collect over these few weeks provides an invaluable roadmap for the rest of the year. By analyzing how your systems, fraud rules, and customer touchpoints handled the pressure, you can turn seasonal insights into a year-round competitive advantage. And who knows? In the world of modern retail, any ordinary day can turn into peak season if you happen to go viral!" — Priyanka Agrawal, Global Retail Lead, Adyen