How many perfume and cosmetics shops are in Saudi Arabia?
Retailers of perfume, oud, incense and cosmetics.
36.3K
active registrations list perfume, oud & cosmetics shops activities — 2.5% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
36,314 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list perfume, oud & cosmetics shops activities as of 16 September 2026 — 2.5% of all classified registrations, the 32nd-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
5,975 were registered in 2025 and are still active — -7.7% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (12,636), Jeddah (6,500), Makkah (3,319) lead. Relative to its size, Makkah is the most concentrated: perfume and cosmetics shops make up 1.8× the share they hold nationally.
38.5% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 100,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 36,314
- 2.5% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 5,975
- -7.7% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 38.5%
- 13,987 of 36,314
- Median company capital
- SAR 100k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where perfume and cosmetics shops are registered
Column height: perfume and cosmetics shops by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh12,6361.1×
- Jeddah6,5001.6×
- Makkah3,3191.8×
- Madinah1,8681.3×
- Dammam1,3460.8×
- Khobar9211.2×
- Taif6240.8×
- Tabuk5911.0×
- Buraydah5760.6×
- Khamis Mushait5270.8×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Perfume, oud & cosmetics shops: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Retail of oud and incense15,630Activity code 477261
- Retail of cosmetics and toiletries11,945Activity code 477230
- Retail of perfumes8,739Activity code 477262
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- Sole proprietorship22,30861.4%
- LLC13,43937%
- JSC4441.2%
- SJSC610.2%
- Limited partnership220.1%
- General partnership210.1%
- GCC branch18<0.1%
- Foreign branch1<0.1%
Perfume, oud & cosmetics shops by city
More in retail & trade
Common questions
How many perfume and cosmetics shops are there in Saudi Arabia?
36,314 active commercial registrations list perfume, oud & cosmetics shops activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most perfume and cosmetics shops?
Riyadh, with 12,636 — 34.8% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 6,500.
Is the number of perfume and cosmetics shops growing?
5,975 were registered in 2025 and are still active — -7.7% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in perfume, oud & cosmetics shops in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in perfume, oud & cosmetics shops?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.