5 Things To Consider When Setting Up A Shopify Ecommerce Store In UAE: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s digital arena, it is easier than ever before to set up a business and start making profit online. There are a lot of awesome web hosting services accessible in the UAE that business visionaries can use to set up an ecommerce store, as well as shopping cart software plug-ins that one can utilize to facilitate customers pay for the goods and services bought online.

Shopify is one of the most well known choices with regards to setting up an ecommerce store. Simplicity, versatility and range of modern templates to choose from, has led Shopify earn a powerful reputation in the competitive digital world. Regardless of whether you need to set up your own point of sale terminal or online store account, Shopify is here to help. 

What is Shopify?

Shopify is one of the popular ecommerce platforms used to build both online & offline stores. Shopify gives the ability to sell both online with your own site or in person with Shopify POS. No matter if you are a beginner or an expert, it has distinctive features for everyone.

It allows creating a store that integrates well with social networking sites, shopping cart and payment gateways, shipping etc. Being set up in 2006 by Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake, Shopify has over 1 million clients in the previous year. 

How Shopify Works?

Shopify is a cloud-based software giving organizations access to an administrator board where you can enter stored information, add products, and process orders. With its easy to use interface, proficient plan, and usability, it has gained wide popularity among business owners making it easy & efficient  to set up an online store in UAE. It offers an option to choose from a variety of free and paid theme layouts. Offering clean & modern themes, Shopify gives an assortment of editing tools that can be used to customize themes that fits best with the brand. 

In addition, Shopify subscription incorporates secure, reliable high-end cloud hosting for websites. Moreover, you don’t need to stress over your site slamming during peak traffic. With 99.98% uptime and a free SSL authentication, Shopify has got you covered. With Shopify membership, you have everything that is required to easily start selling on your website. For all those who are looking for an easy-to-use & reliable platform that gives the access to sell across multiple channels, Shopify is truly a good fit for all of them. 

How to Sell & What to Sell on Shopify?

The most important thing is to pick the products you want to sell. Being the most challenging part for the newly established businesses, it is a must to determine what type of products you want to directly sell to your customers. 

Shopify upholds a wide range of ecommerce businesses. Users can sell physical products, drop-ship & even sell digital products etc. Almost anything can be sold when it comes to selling on Shopify, but make sure the things you are about to sell are legal. Selling of products like alcohol, tobacco, CBD, fireworks, drugs, firearms, and weapons, however are prohibited. 

 

Key Considerations While Setting Up An Ecommerce Store in UAE

• Pricing Plan & Payment Gateway:

Prior to choosing the Shopify ecommerce platform in Dubai, it is a must to think about the cost, regardless of whether you are a startup or an enterprise, you need to consider a specific budget for store development.

Much the same as other ecommerce platforms, Shopify has monthly expenses. Contingent upon the services & tools, the expenses may change. You ought to likewise search for processing expenses that will be associated along with pricing. 

It is also a must to consider numerous payment methods offered by Shopify. Different people pay using different gateways, thus it is necessary to have various payment modes.  The payment integrations have been streamlined by Shopify and can be handily connected with your online business store. 

• Plugins & Integration:

Another basic factor to keep in mind while choosing Shopify is its modules and integrations. This ecommerce platform provides plenty of tools for easy access to your business. The requirements of business are key considerations while picking the modules that suit the business. How about taking look at the most conspicuous kinds of modules you ought to consider: 

Email promoting tools to stay in touch with the customers. These tools offer the finest way to boost sales, improve conversions and get repeat business to the online store. 

Accounting & analytics plugins that make it easy to keep detailed records. The advantage of these plugins is that they provide tailored & day-to-day performance insights direct to your Shopify workspace.

• Mobile Responsiveness & Scalability:

There is no compelling reason to tell that over 55% of users search for the things on mobile phones, these searches turn out to be the purchase which implies that it is an absolute necessity to select a mobile-friendly ecommerce platform. A mobile-friendly platform permits the potential customers to rapidly & easily access the online store & buy their favorite product. 

Adaptability: Every business owner wants to scale up their business to the levels that yields profit. To attain this successfully it is important to invest in the plan that provides useful features in a set budget. 

• Quick Customer Services:

Customers play a vital role in the success of every business. In today’s digital era it is necessary to keep your store updated & everything checked to attract customers & save them from any technical issues. Though the control of server downtimes and software outages are not in our hands, make sure to provide quick & reliable customer support to solve these issues. Providing full & timely assistance to your customers will help in improving the brand images & revenue too. 

• SEO Tactics:

Nowadays, every digital marketing strategy is incomplete without SEO. Applying proven SEO tactics help in generating traffic from tops search engines which in turn increases the number of genuine visitors to the store. 

In addition to SEO, security is another key factor that needs consideration. Make sure to follow all safety regulations so that the account & payment information of the customers are never leaked or misused. 

 

Shopify Subscription Plans 

There are basically five Shopify pricing options that you can choose from. However, the selection of a particular plan depends on the budget & functionalities required in your ecommerce store.

1. Shopify Lite: This is the least expensive option that you can choose from Shopify pricing selection. The monthly price starts from $9 with a fundamental difference that it is not a real online store having a shopping cart?

This plan integrates with an existing site. This implies that it is a must to have a fully functional website properly configured with a domain.

2. Basic Shopify: This plan starts from $29 every month and gives you all the fundamental things required to begin a new business, including two staff accounts, day in and day out help, limitless items, an online store with blog and deals channels.

This plan is perfect for the new established websites. This is the best option for those who need an excellent, functional & beautiful website without paying for the expensive features. 

3. Standard Shopify: This standard plan is marginally more costly than the basic one. The expense for this plan every month is $79 every month. You will get everything like in the Basic Shopify plan. However, the quantity of staff accounts is 5, and the locations are 5. 

Moreover, you will get more features contrasted with Basic Shopify plans like Gift Cards and professional reports. The standard plan functions admirably for businesses that have a plan for scaling up rapidly. In the event that your site gets more than $5000 every month, this alternative is a smart thought. 

4. Advanced Shopify: With $299 every month, it is the most costly plan available. It accompanies 15 staff accounts. You will have the option to access an advanced report developer and outsider delivery rates. Limitless availability of features is the best part of this advanced plan.

It’s a magnificent alternative for high-revenue companies which have an income of over $10,000 every month. The storekeeper can set aside a touch of cash with the diminished exchange.

5. Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus is designed particularly for the enterprise level framework and high-volume undertaking brands. The primary advantage is that it gives more control, customization, and automation for standard setup, joined with quicker speeds and better omni-channel administrations. 

The cost of this plan is around “$1000 -2000” every month. In the event that you have a huge team, and you would prefer not to invest a lot of energy dealing with it, this is a magnificent method to automate.

Other than the month to month membership expense that you have to pay for each Shopify plan, transaction charges are also applicable if you are using any external payment gateway. If you are utilizing Shopify payment gateway or Shopify Lite, these transaction charges will not apply. The extra expenses will be applied 2%, 1% or 5% for Basic Shopify, Shopify Standard, and Shopify Advanced, separately. The exchange expenses drop because of the expansion in the volume of your store.

 

The payment gateway providers charge the Credit Card fees depending on the purchase of the customers. However, these charges are different for each subscription plan –

• Basic Shopify plan: 2.9% + $0.3 
• Shopify Standard: 2.6% + $0.3
• Shopify Advanced: 2.4 % + $0.3

While the rate for an offline transaction of charge card is underneath: 

• Essential Shopify plan: 2.7% 
• Shopify Standard: 2.5% 
• Shopify Advanced: 2.4% 

These charges are determined depending on the transaction, not according to the things. It implies that if your clients buy numerous items one time, you will be charged once.

Best Shopify Payment Gateways in UAE

In the course of recent years, ecommerce has become an integral part of the retail business, while online shopping has entered the day by day lives of most consumers all around the globe. Furthermore, all together for online shopping to work flawlessly, there is a need for a right payment gateway so that buyers can effortlessly pay for their products and services while sellers can also receive payments without any glitches. 

Below given are the best Shopify UAE Payment Gateways in UAE that you can select from – 

• Telr – 

Telr is one of the most notable payment gateways in UAE. Being accepted in more than 100 nations, it has gained wide popularity mainly because of the multiple payment methods that it offers.

It comes with three payment levels: Entry, Small and Medium, which are incredible for new companies, SMEs and web based business organizations in the developing business sector.

• Payfort –

The second popular payment gateway in UAE is Payfort. Accepting & continuing multiple online payments in a single time with exceptional security is the greatest advantage of using Payfort. This gateway is custom fitted to Arab market trends & purchase styles, thus it stands apart as the perfect payment solution for the ecommerce store.

• Checkout –

Checkout is a main global payment solution provider for ecommerce businesses. Accepting payments globally and functioning in more than 200 countries and facilitating 80+ currencies, it is the choice of many businesses due to its easy integration facilities. Another advantage is that it does not have any monthly or setup fees and offers 5 installment strategies in particular VISA, Mastercard, JCB, Mada, and American Express.

• CCAvenue –

CCAvenue is one of the oldest payment gateway enabling customers/merchants to carry out payment in an extremely easy manner. Being the powerhouse in the online payment gateway space, it offers thousands of eMerchants with real time, multi-currency, multiple payment options online payment processing services.

The solution is powered by proprietary technology that integrates transaction-processing, advance shopping cart, auction payment collection facility, fraud control, financial reporting and order tracking. It provides a quick & simple checkout experience with the convenience of making transaction in the currency you know the best.

• Paytabs –

PayTabs is the best, secure and seamless e-commerce global payment gateway enabling you to perform quick transactions. Supporting 168 different currencies, Paytabs is secured with the PCI DSS certification and anti-fraud protection. This innovative payment gateway solution offers a better checkout flow & is perfectly designed with the features to enable your business to tread on a growth path.

The biggest perk that PayTabs is offering to all online traders and retailers is quick integration and the immediate exchange of payments to their bank accounts with double layered security assurance through incorporation with a leading fraud management company.

• Tabby – 

Tabby: buy now or pay later is a trending payment gateway enabling shoppers to make instant & interest free installments while making purchases. Being one of a kind, it paves the way for new credit solutions & offers payments options that perfectly suits with fast & convenient omni-channel experience. 

All you have to provide is the basic identity information and the tabby merchant will pay the charges after purchase is done. It is a safe, secure, and convenient service that is currently only available in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

• Myfatoorah  –

Myfatoorah is a new and innovative online payment solution enabling businesses to hold paperless, secure & personalized transactions. With easy-to-use software, it has been designed to put power at your fingertips. 

Its smart technology & seamless integration makes it extremely simple to create an invoice, collect payments, track sale and keep records. 24*7 customer support is another added advantage to enjoy uninterrupted, full-functionality & non-stop services.

• Tap –

Supporting over 1000 businesses and major corporations, Tap has emerged out as an extremely efficient payment gateway. Tap developed different items to fill the holes of the payment industry in the region with its strong API’s enabling new companies, SME’s and global associations to perform monetary installments and transactional services utilizing web upheld by interface items worked to upgrade merchant user experience.

 

How to Get an ecommerce License in UAE?

As there is a growing demand of ecommerce business in UAE, it is a must to go through a set of processes at the beginning. Though the process is simple & affordable, yet it is recommended to take business setup services from professionals to complete the process smoothly. 

• Legal Structure – 

The initial step to getting an ecommerce store permit in UAE is to choose the legal structure of your business. In straightforward words, regardless of whether to set up a LLC (Limited Liability Company), one-individual organization, part of a parent organization, agent office, and so forth LLC development and branch workplaces. 

• Select Location –

Location doesn’t mean where you will set up a shop or an office, however it specifies the certain area from where you need to get your permit. UAE has two sorts of zones, specifically (1) Free Zone, and (2) Mainland. A free zone permits you to have 100% ownership for the company. On account of the Mainland, you have to have a local sponsor whose possession in the organization should be at least 51%, and remaining would be your share. Essentially, both the zones have a lot of perks and drawbacks. You need to think about all the components and choose where you need to set up your online business.

• Choose a Trade Name –

Since the online ecommerce store doesn’t have any physical presence, pick a name that individuals will remember without any problem. The trade name can be utilized as your area name so that individuals can find it on the web easily. Ensure that your trade name should not match any other company name as it might prompt legitimate intricacy.

• Essential Documents –

1. Passport/visa copies of the shareholders
2. Copy of sponsors passport/ emirates ID
3. Local service agreement/ Civil works agreement
4. NOC from the relevant authority
5. Draft an MOA

• Import/Export Requirements –

Your business must be enrolled with one of the ports and customs authorities so you can get a shipper’s code. UAE forces 5% customs obligation on imported products. The organizations that go under free zone won’t have import obligation since they need to sell their item/administrations inside the free zones.

• Final Approval –

When you complete all the above process; you will get a business license inside 1-7 days, contingent on the authority. 

Below is the pricing structure of setting up an ecommerce store in UAE Mainland & Freezone –

Pros & Cons of Shopify

Benefits:

• Quick & Easy to Set Up –

Shopify is outfitted with convenient functions and easy to use tools for complete execution in lesser time fundamentally, unlike the other ecommerce stores that demand more expertise. It also maintains fast & secure servers so that the users won’t face any rage-inducing tech issues or software updates.

• Tons of Customizable Themes – 

A sleek & modern design can really wow the users & is loved by all. Shopify offers the most unique & wide range of customizable themes based on the customer’s requirements. Conversion rate optimization, advanced filters, faster & powerful storefronts, cart abandonment recovery functionality etc. are some wonderful features that can easily create a stunning storefront that drives sales. 

• Mobile Friendly –

Well-designed, simple to-explore online business sites are a higher priority in present times due to the ever-expanding usage of mobile phones by everyone. Shopify’s mobile friendly platform is designed in a way to make quick & easy shopping just a tap away for the customers. 

• Significant Amount of Added Functionality –

Another great advantage of using Shopify platform is the exceptional functionality that it offers. One can tailor the Shopify ecommerce site with the custom functionality features to offer customers with a seamless experience.

• Amazing SEO & Digital Marketing Capabilities –

With the remarkable SEO & digital marketing capabilities, it becomes easy to promote the products by sending targeted email campaigns & create automated campaigns to let prospective customers know about the deals & products. Connecting customers on social media platforms likewise help in creating sales through digital marketing techniques.

Drawbacks:

• Advanced Features are Bit Costly – 

The basic or starting plan of Shopify comes with limited features. And when talking about advanced features like gift cards, fraud analysis, reports, and real-time shipping, prices are on the higher side. This is one big drawback of opting Shopify for ecommerce store setup. 

• Less Customization Option  –

Shopify app store has a ton of excellent functionalities; however it has no correlation with the expanse of modules available in platforms like Woocommerce, many of which are free. Moreover, Shopify permits you just to change certain pieces of its functionalities and it isn’t as customizable as self-facilitated stages that can possibly permit you to change nearly anything. Shopify utilizes a one of a kind arrangement for customization of their subjects as opposed to utilizing something over which you can have more control. It’s positive for some people, yet for somebody who loves to change things without doing all out customization, it tends to be irritating.

• Content Management –

Shopify platform is basically not a content management system. So in case you want to add videos, carousels or anything rich in content, it is better to switch to another platform. 

• Difficult Migration –

This is another major drawback of Shopify. Many people usually face difficulty in migration from Shopify to other platforms & have even experienced loss of stored information. Though, this is an enduring issue with numerous ecommerce platforms including Shopify.

 

To run an effective ecommerce store, you’ll have to focus on promoting your store through advertisements, content creation, and building a group of people via social media too. At the point when all these are combined, it can powerfully affect your brand image in the long haul.