A properly configured starter store runs from about AED 15,000. A custom build with full checkout work, Arabic support and integrations typically falls between AED 45,000 and AED 110,000, and complex or enterprise projects go above that. Very cheap builds are usually a purchased theme with apps stacked on top, which works until you need something specific and then costs more to unpick than it saved.

Shopify suits the majority of UAE stores, because the ecosystem handles local payment gateways, cash on delivery apps and courier integrations well. Magento or Adobe Commerce makes sense for large catalogues and complex pricing. Custom builds are for unusual logic or deep back office integration. We will tell you honestly if your current platform is fine, because replatforming is expensive and often unnecessary.

As a build decision, not a plugin. That means verification steps before an order is accepted, order value thresholds, address quality checks and sometimes a deposit for higher value baskets. A checkout that treats cash on delivery as a simple option produces refusal rates that quietly destroy margin, and you only find out when you reconcile the courier invoices.

Yes, and it needs to be planned from the start. Right to left mirrors the whole layout rather than just swapping the words, so it belongs at template level. Doing it that way is straightforward. Adding a translation layer to a store already built left to right produces broken layouts and a checkout that visibly was not made for that reader.

A starter store is four to six weeks. A custom build with full checkout work, Arabic and integrations is typically ten to fourteen weeks. Migrations are similar, with more of the time spent on data mapping and redirects. Anything promising two weeks is a theme install with your logo on it.

Not if the URLs are handled properly, which is the part most migrations get wrong. We map every existing URL to its new destination and put redirects in place before launch. Some short term fluctuation is normal. A sustained drop means the redirects were not done, and that is preventable.

Either. Most clients keep us on for maintenance, because platforms and apps update constantly and stores get slower and more fragile through the first year without someone owning that. If you would rather take it in house we hand over documented, and you own everything.

Yes, and we would rather do both. When one company builds the store and another markets it, every problem turns into a conversation about whose fault it is. With one team, a checkout problem gets fixed instead of reported.