Makkah, [2 September 2026] — In the e-commerce economy, a merchant's most valuable asset is not a new visitor, but the one whose acquisition cost has been paid twice: once to bring them to the store, and once to persuade them to place a product in their cart. An abandoned cart is not merely a passing visit; it is a purchase that began but was left unfinished, and sales value halted just one step before the finish line. With its daily recurrence across thousands of stores, millions of riyals in pending potential sales accumulate, making the recovery of even a portion of them the shortest and most cost-effective path to growth: additional sales without new acquisition costs.

It is precisely from this point that the strategic partnership announced by Salla with “Sawt” during LEAP 2026 takes off, adding to the merchants' ecosystem a smart communication channel powered by artificial intelligence. It speaks Arabic in its various dialects and takes charge of following up with customers via voice at the exact moment that makes the difference between a completed cart and an abandoned one.

The partnership is built on integrating Salla stores with Sawt’s voice agents. This enables merchants to follow up on abandoned carts through a natural phone call rather than a cold message, respond to recurring customer inquiries, notify them of their order status, and run 24/7 outbound sales campaigns without having to double the size of their customer service team. In doing so, it transforms a step once left to chance into a measurable point of recovery.

The partnership builds on Saudi technological expertise; Sawt has developed Arabic voice AI models locally within the Kingdom that support multiple dialects. Today, it serves more than fifty entities across sectors including retail, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, and logistics, having executed hundreds of thousands of calls since its launch.

This step comes as an extension of Salla’s role as an enabler of e-commerce in the Kingdom, grounded in the principle that merchants do not need more tools, but rather smarter ones that act on their behalf in handling the details they do not have time for.

Abdulmalik Al-Saeed, Co-founder and CEO of Sawt, said: “Our technology was built on the conviction that Arabic deserves voice intelligence that truly understands its dialects rather than simply translating them. Bringing this technology to Salla merchants means it transitions from being an enterprise-only solution to an accessible capability for every store, regardless of its size.”

For his part, Nawaf Hariri, CEO of Salla, said: “What excites us about this partnership is that it addresses the most vulnerable moments in the customer journey. We take pride in placing a homegrown tool, crafted in our language and dialects, into the hands of our merchants, and in being the platform that gives their stores a voice to follow up with their customers just as they would themselves if time permitted.”

The roll-out of the new channel to Salla merchants will begin in phases, with a gradual expansion across use cases and sectors.

About Sawt

A Saudi company established in 2024, specializing in building AI-powered call systems. It has developed Arabic voice models within the Kingdom that support multiple dialects. Its solutions encompass inbound call handling, outbound campaigns, appointment booking, ticket management, and round-the-clock order status updates. It serves more than fifty entities across financial services, real estate, healthcare, logistics, tourism, retail, e-commerce, and sports. In July 2025, the company closed a SAR 3.75 million investment round led by T2 and STV.

About Salla

Salla is a leading Saudi platform for e-commerce solutions, recognized as the Kingdom's first e-commerce platform and the largest in the Middle East, with more than 65,000 active subscribed stores and total sales exceeding SAR 45 billion. Salla empowers merchants to set up their online stores and connect them to an integrated ecosystem covering payments, shipping, inventory management, and marketing, driving the growth of their businesses within the Kingdom and beyond.

For inquiries: Press@salla.sa