Noon Listing Guide (2026): Arabic and English Titles, GTIN, Image Rules, Category Approval and Bulk Upload

Noon is the one marketplace where an Indian brand has to think in two languages, two currencies and two sets of barcode rules before a single product goes live. As of September 2026, noon's Seller Help Center sets out the listing rules in detail: what a title may contain, what an image must look like, when Arabic is required, how GTINs and partner barcodes work, and how the bulk New Item Set-up (NIS) sheet is filled. This guide pulls those rules into one place, adds the rejection reasons noon itself publishes, and shows the order in which to do the work so your first catalogue upload clears quality check. If you are still deciding whether to sell there, read how to sell on noon first, and noon seller fees explained for what each order will cost. If you would rather have the catalogue built for you, our Noon account management team does this every week.

How does listing on noon actually work?

Noon has two kinds of product record. A noon SKU (code starting with N) belongs to a noon-controlled brand: noon owns the content, one record is shared by every seller, and you simply create an offer (price, stock, barcode) against it through the noon Catalog page. A Seller SKU (code starting with Z) is for every other brand: you write the content, upload the images, and only you can sell against it. Even if an identical product already exists on the site as another seller's Z-SKU, you must create your own.

The flow noon describes is simple: create the SKU content, fix any rejection reasons, then add price, stock and barcode once the content is approved. Seller SKU approval "takes up to 2 business days" on the FAQ page and "within three business days" on the bulk-creation page. If you use Fulfilled by noon (FBN), the listing goes live only after your stock has been received and passed quality check; on Fulfilled by Partner (FBP) it goes live as soon as content and offer are approved, so have stock ready.

Two gates sit in front of all this. First, brand approval: noon "allows listings only for products from verified brands". Request a new brand from Catalog, My Brands (name in English and Arabic, a website or social page, a logo); you can create products against it at once, but nothing goes live until noon approves. Second, category and product type: the template and attributes are fixed by the category, type and subtype you choose, so pick them before you build the sheet.

Do I need Arabic titles and descriptions?

It depends on the country, and noon is explicit about it:

"Optional" is doing a lot of work in that table. Noon warns that "if you only provide English content for a product being sold on the UAE website, that product might only get shown on the English website and be hidden from the Arabic one". A large share of Gulf shoppers browse in Arabic, so an English-only listing is invisible to them. Noon's advice is "at least provide the Arabic title, if not the other content". Noon does not translate for you: dropdown values in the template are translated automatically, but free text such as the title, description and feature bullets must be written in both languages by the seller. For most Indian brands the practical answer is an English-plus-Arabic template with a professionally translated title and bullets; machine-translated descriptions are a common cause of Arabic content rejections, and a rejected Arabic block delays the whole SKU.

What are noon's title rules?

Noon's title page is the most prescriptive of any marketplace we work with. A Seller SKU title must:

• be between 5 and 200 characters (the worked example on the same page calls a title over 160 characters "too long", so treat 160 as the practical ceiling);
• contain the product type or subtype ("Washing Machine", "Garment Steamer"), because the type is what noon's search and quality team key on;
• use title case, capitalising the first letter of each word except prepositions, conjunctions and articles; all-caps is allowed only for genuine acronyms such as UAE, HP or LED;
• be unique and not resemble another product's title;
• describe the top features "while being as short as possible".

A title must not include the brand name (noon adds it from the brand field), special characters such as @ ^ * # and &, promotional phrases, prices or shipping claims, irrelevant keywords, prohibited or restricted words, spelling mistakes, or repeated words. Noon's own before-and-after examples make the point: "Steamer HST1500" becomes "Handheld Portable Garment Steamer 1500 W HST1500 Black", and a diaper title stuffed with "The Softest Diaper and the Best Skin Protection" is cut to "Premium Care Diapers, Size 6, 13+ kg, 36 Count". If you have built titles for Amazon or Flipkart, the brand-name rule is the one that trips people up most often; strip it before you upload.

What are the GTIN and barcode requirements?

Noon uses two related fields and it helps to keep them apart.

The GTIN column in the NIS sheet is "Global Trade Identification Number for inventory tracking; also used as the partner barcode". If your product carries a manufacturer's EAN or UPC, enter it here. Noon's catalogue matches on GTIN, so a wrong or reused GTIN either fails the import or attaches your offer to somebody else's product. See our glossary entry on GTIN for how the number is structured.

The partner barcode is what noon's warehouse or your own packing team scans. Noon's barcode page says that "having barcodes on all units is mandatory" for both FBN and FBP, and that "products without barcodes will be rejected during quality checks and cannot be fulfilled". If your product has no manufacturer barcode you must create one: either a custom alphanumeric code of up to 16 characters, or your partner SKU or model number, with no symbols or spaces. Every size and colour needs its own barcode; "different SKUs with the same barcode will lead to reconciliation issues". Barcodes are uploaded through Catalog, Imports, Import Type: Barcode, Sub-type: Partner Barcode Map, and can be printed from Seller Lab on a Zebra ZPL printer via QZ Tray, or from any free generator for other printers. Once assigned, a barcode cannot be deleted, only supplemented, so get it right first time.

What are the image rules and why do images get rejected?

Noon recommends at least three images per product (angles, sizes, textures). The technical minimums are:

The primary image must be a front view, shot outside the packaging, with no boxes, bags, swing tags or brand tags visible, light shadows only, one product view only, and no lifestyle context. Bundles must show the full bundle. Smartphones and tablets need a front-and-back combination. Adult apparel should be on a model (except swimwear and underwear); kids' apparel should be flat lay or on a hanger. Secondary images must match the title, be sharp, carry no logos, watermarks or text, show no accessories that are not included, and be photographs rather than renders or illustrations.

Noon publishes its own rejection codes, which is unusual and useful. The ones we see most on Indian brands' catalogues are:

• Need product image without packaging: the hero shot shows the box or a price tag.
• Cropped/half image: part of the product is outside the frame on the primary image.
• Low resolution: upscaled or stretched files.
• Duplicate images: the same file uploaded twice against one SKU.
• Conflicting images: a secondary image shows a different colour or model from the title.
• Needs editing: unclear background, a frame border, price, expiry or manufacturing date, watermark or hard shadow on the first image.

How do I bulk upload with the NIS sheet?

The route is Catalog, My Catalog, Add Products, Create Multiple Products. Choose category, product type and subtype, then download the template in English or English + Arabic; tick "With Instructions" to get the guidance tab. Fields are colour coded: red is mandatory for the product to go live, green is important for identification and discovery, plain is optional, and grey does not apply to the category. The key fields are Partner SKU Unique (your own identifier, used across reporting and invoicing), Brand (select an approved brand or raise a request), Product Title and GTIN, with Attribute Key/Value pairs and Feature Bullets strongly recommended.

Images go into the sheet as URLs. Either paste direct links ending in .JPEG, or put the files in a Google Drive folder shared as "Anyone with the link" and paste the comma-separated links. Every file must be JPEG or the import fails. Save as CSV, TSV or XLS and upload through Catalog, Imports; the file then appears under Imports, Content. One sheet takes up to 10,000 partner SKUs; split anything larger.

Variants are built with a parent-child structure. The parent row carries family, product type, brand, images and all shared content; each child row carries only its Partner SKU Unique and Size Variation, and both share a Parent Group Key. Noon currently allows variants on the size axis only; colour and other groupings use a separate grouping process. Pick the nearest noon size from the dropdown so filters pick the product up.

What gets a noon listing rejected, and how do I fix it?

Beyond the image codes above, the recurring reasons in our work are: a brand still in Pending status (the SKUs sit approved but invisible until the brand clears; add more verification links and resubmit under the exact same name); a GTIN that already exists in the noon catalogue for a different product (use the noon Catalog page to create an offer instead, or correct the GTIN); a title with the brand name or all caps; Arabic content that is a literal machine translation and fails the Arabic reviewer; a category mismatch between the template and the product; and, at fulfilment stage, units arriving at the FBN warehouse without the barcode that was uploaded to Seller Lab. Rejections are shown per SKU under Catalog with the reason, and a corrected sheet re-imports the same way. Keep the Partner SKU Unique identical on the re-upload so history and stock stay attached.

Prices you enter later are inclusive of VAT and fees; our noon landed cost calculator does that sum.

FAQ

Is Arabic mandatory to list on noon? Not in the UAE or KSA, where English is mandatory and Arabic optional; in Egypt one of the two must be approved. Noon advises at least an Arabic title because English-only content can be hidden from the Arabic site.

Does noon require a GTIN? The GTIN field is used to match your product in the catalogue and doubles as the partner barcode. If you have no manufacturer barcode, noon lets you use a custom alphanumeric code of up to 16 characters or your partner SKU, but every unit must carry a scannable barcode or it will fail quality check.

How long does noon take to approve a listing? Noon states up to two business days for a Seller SKU on its FAQ and within three business days on its bulk creation page, as of September 2026. Brand approval is a separate queue and can take longer if verification links are missing.

How many products can I upload at once? Up to 10,000 partner SKUs per NIS sheet, saved as CSV, TSV or XLS and uploaded through Catalog, Imports.

Why was my primary image rejected? The usual reasons are packaging or tags in shot, a cropped product, a non-white background, a border, a price or date on the image, or a lifestyle setting. Move those to secondary slots and keep the hero as a clean front view.

Can I list a product that already exists on noon? Yes if it is a noon SKU (code starting with N): search the noon Catalog and create an offer against it. If it is another seller's Seller SKU (Z), you must create your own listing.

Getting your noon catalogue approved first time

Noon's rules are public and consistent, so most rejections are avoidable: register the brand first, write titles to noon's format, put an Arabic title on every SKU, keep GTINs and barcodes one-to-one, and shoot the hero on white. For a team that builds bilingual catalogues and manages brand, category and FBN barcode approval, see our Noon account management service.