For most new stores, e-commerce website development in Dubai should start on Shopify or WooCommerce, and move to Adobe Commerce or a custom build only when your catalogue, integrations or volume clearly demand it. The platform is the easy decision. A store also needs a licence that covers online selling, a payment provider that will approve you, delivery and returns that work, VAT-ready prices and invoices, and consumer information in Arabic.
This guide covers each of those, with the official platform and payment fees where vendors publish them. It touches on UAE law and tax, so treat it as general information, not legal or tax advice.
Start with the licence and the bank account
Payment providers check your business before they let you take cards, so the licence comes first. You need a trade licence whose activities cover e-commerce and the goods you sell, either on the mainland, from DET in Dubai, or from a free zone. The UAE government portal notes that a free zone company may need a local distributor or extra approvals to sell directly into the mainland. Our e-commerce licence guide compares the options.
Open the corporate bank account early as well. Payouts need a business account to land in, and opening one can take longer than building the store.
Which platform fits your store?
| Platform | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | New stores and small teams that want hosting, security and checkout handled | Monthly fees, paid apps, extra fees with third-party payment providers |
| WooCommerce | Stores that want WordPress and full control of hosting and data | You run updates, security and hosting; many extensions renew yearly |
| Adobe Commerce | Large catalogues, B2B pricing, complex integrations | A paid edition that needs specialist developers |
| Custom or headless | Unusual checkout logic, or a fast custom front end | Highest build and upkeep cost; every fix is yours |
For a first store, the real choice is usually between Shopify and WooCommerce. Shopify is quicker to launch and you never patch a server. WooCommerce has no platform subscription but more upkeep, because you look after WordPress, hosting and security yourself. Magento Open Source is the free edition of the platform behind Adobe Commerce. A headless build, meaning a custom front end on top of a commerce platform, makes sense when speed and design are part of what you sell, and rarely before you have sales data to justify it.
What does it cost to build an e-commerce website in the UAE?
The build is quoted by your developer and depends on scope: design, theme setup or development, product data, photography, Arabic content, and integrations with couriers, accounting or an ERP. Running costs are easier to pin down, because platforms and payment providers publish them. As of October 2026, Shopify's UAE pricing page lists:
| Shopify plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly, per month | Online card rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | USD 32 | USD 24 | 2.9% + AED 1 |
| Grow | USD 92 | USD 69 | 2.8% + AED 1 |
| Advanced | USD 399 | USD 299 | 2.7% + AED 1 |
The card rates apply to standard cards through Shopify Payments; American Express and international cards cost more, at 3.9% plus AED 1 on Basic. Shopify Plus starts at USD 2,300 a month. If you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on top of the provider's charges. Manual methods such as cash on delivery carry no Shopify transaction fee.
Stripe, which also serves UAE businesses, lists 2.9% plus AED 1 per successful domestic card payment, plus 1% for international cards and another 1% where currency conversion is needed, and charges AED 60 for each dispute you receive. Whichever provider you choose, ask for the full rate card in writing, including refunds, chargebacks and payouts.
WooCommerce itself is free, but you pay for hosting, a domain, any premium theme and extensions, and the time to keep WordPress and its plugins updated. Extensions from WooCommerce.com are usually sold as annual subscriptions. For how developers price the build itself, see how much a website costs in Dubai.
Payments: gateways, buy now pay later and cash on delivery
Card payments. Shopify Payments is available to UAE businesses, and so is Stripe. WooPayments, WooCommerce's own payment service, accepts UAE merchants on business accounts only. Local providers include Network International's N-Genius Online, Telr and PayTabs. Before you commit, check that the provider has a maintained plugin for your platform and accepts your type of business.
Payment services in the UAE are licensed by the Central Bank under its Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation, and licensed banks are treated as licensed for them. Ask any provider which licence, or which bank, it operates under.
Buy now, pay later. Tabby and Tamara both offer instalment payments to UAE merchants, and both say the merchant is paid upfront while the shopper pays over time. Tamara lists integrations for Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento among others. Neither shows its merchant fees on its business pages, so get them in writing and compare them with your card costs.
Cash on delivery. Both main platforms support it. Shopify treats it as a manual payment method, and WooCommerce includes it in the core plugin, with an option to offer it only for chosen shipping methods. Budget for your courier's cash-handling charges and for refused deliveries, and consider limiting cash on delivery to certain areas or order values once you know your refusal rate.
Delivery, returns and the rules for online sellers
Two federal laws shape how a UAE store must behave.
The e-commerce law, Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 on Modern Technology-Based Trade, requires traders to give accurate product information, avoid misleading practices, keep their platform secure and provide a clear digital invoice for every transaction, according to the government portal. Cabinet Resolution No. 200 of 2025, in force since late 2025, attaches penalties to breaches, ranging from warnings and fines to closure for repeat offences.
The Consumer Protection Law, Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 as amended, applies to goods and services across the UAE, including free zones, and to online sales by suppliers registered in the UAE. For a store, it means:
- showing your name, legal status, address and licensing authority (Article 25);
- giving adequate information in Arabic about each product, its specifications and the terms of contract, payment and warranty (Article 25);
- issuing a dated invoice with your trade name, address, the goods, price and quantity, in Arabic, with another language optional (Article 8).
In practice, show delivery fees and delivery times before payment, publish a returns and refunds policy, give customers a working complaints channel, and don't add payment fees you haven't disclosed. Hadef & Partners' summary of Resolution No. 200 lists failures of exactly these kinds among the penalised breaches.
VAT: prices, invoices and registration
VAT registration becomes mandatory once your taxable supplies and imports exceed AED 375,000 over 12 months, and is voluntary from AED 187,500, as of October 2026. Imported stock counts towards the threshold. Once you are registered, three things change in the store:
- Advertised prices must include VAT under Article 38 of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017, so set the platform to show VAT-inclusive prices.
- Each taxable sale needs a tax invoice, so check that your invoice templates carry the details the Federal Tax Authority requires.
- Returns and refunds that reduce the VAT due need tax credit notes, so test the refund flow, not just the checkout.
Our VAT registration guide explains the thresholds and the process. If you also sell to businesses, the e-invoicing rollout applies to those invoices from your phase date; sales to consumers are outside it for now.
An Arabic storefront customers trust
Given the Arabic-language rules above, plan Arabic from the start rather than as a second phase. On Shopify, the latest themes in the Horizon family support right-to-left languages such as Arabic; with any other theme, Shopify advises confirming right-to-left support first. Once you publish a language, checkout and notification emails appear in it. On WooCommerce, check that your theme and every extension display correctly right to left before you pay for them.
Machine translation is a first draft, not a storefront. Have a native speaker review product names, size guides, policies, emails and checkout messages, and keep prices, phone numbers and order numbers reading left to right. Our guide to building a bilingual Arabic and English website covers layout, fonts and search.
Common mistakes
- Choosing the platform before the payment provider. Confirm the provider supports your platform and business type before you build.
- Launching with English-only policies. Delivery, returns, privacy and terms need Arabic versions too.
- Showing prices without VAT once you are registered.
- Treating WhatsApp as an afterthought. Shoppers often ask a question before they buy, and a click-to-chat button with clear order updates answers it; see our guide to WhatsApp on your website.
- Building a general store for a food business. Restaurants need menus, modifiers and delivery zones; see online ordering for UAE restaurants.
If you want a store scoped against these requirements, our website development team builds e-commerce stores in English and Arabic with UAE payment options.
Sources
- Shopify: pricing for the UAE
- Stripe: pricing for the UAE
- UAE Government portal: eCommerce
- Ministry of Economy and Tourism: Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer Protection (PDF)
- Federal Tax Authority: Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT (PDF)
- Hadef & Partners: the penalty framework for UAE digital commerce platforms
Frequently asked questions
Should I sell on Amazon.ae or noon before building my own store?
Do I need to register for VAT before my store launches?
How do I choose a payment provider for a UAE store?
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