Makkah Al-Mukarramah, [2 September 2026] — In the e-commerce economy, a merchant's most valuable asset is not a new visitor, but rather the visitor paid for twice: once to bring them to the store, and once to convince them to add a product to their cart. An abandoned cart is not just a fleeting visit; it is a purchase that began but never completed, 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 recovering 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 the LEAP 2026 conference takes off, adding an intelligent, AI-powered communication channel to the merchant ecosystem. Speaking Arabic in its various dialects, it takes charge of voice follow-ups with customers at the decisive moment between a cart that is checked out and one that is abandoned.

The partnership is based on integrating Salla stores with “Sawt” voice agents, enabling merchants to follow up on abandoned carts through natural phone calls rather than cold messages, answer frequent customer inquiries, notify them of their order statuses, and run outbound sales communication campaigns around the clock without doubling the customer service team's size. It thereby transforms a step once left to chance into a measurable recovery touchpoint.

The partnership is rooted in Saudi technological expertise; “Sawt” has developed Arabic voice AI models locally within the Kingdom supporting multiple dialects. Today, it serves over fifty entities across sectors including retail, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, and logistics, having conducted 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 smarter tools that operate on their behalf in the finer details for which they lack the time.

Abdulmalik Al-Saeed, Co-founder and CEO of “Sawt”, said: “Our technology was built on the conviction that Arabic deserves voice intelligence that understands its dialects rather than translates them. Bringing this technology to Salla merchants means transitioning it from an enterprise-grade solution to a capability accessible to 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 purchasing journey. We take pride in putting into our merchants' hands a tool built right here, in our language and dialects, and in being the platform that gives their stores a voice to follow up with their customers just as they would themselves, whenever time permits.”

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

About “Sawt”

A Saudi company established in 2024 specializing in building AI-powered call systems, Sawt has developed Arabic voice models within the Kingdom supporting multiple dialects. Its solutions cover inbound call handling, outbound campaigns, appointment booking, ticket management, and 24/7 customer order status updates. It serves more than fifty entities across financial services, real estate, healthcare, logistics, tourism, retail, e-commerce, and sports sectors. In July 2025, the company closed an investment round worth SAR 3.75 million led by T2 and STV.

About Salla

Salla is a leading Saudi e-commerce solutions platform, recognized as the Kingdom's first e-commerce platform and the largest in the Middle East, with over 65,000 active subscribed stores and a sales volume exceeding SAR 45 billion. Salla empowers merchants to set up their online stores and integrate them with a comprehensive ecosystem covering payments, shipping, inventory management, and marketing, thereby supporting their business growth within the Kingdom and beyond.

For inquiries: Press@salla.sa