What a Lebanese or MENA brand has to get right on tax, customs, licensing, payments and Arabic before the first order ships.
To sell online into Saudi Arabia or the UAE from Lebanon or anywhere else in MENA, you need to settle six things in this order:
Ads, creative, influencers and retention only start to pay once those six are settled.
Most Lebanese and MENA founders treat the Gulf as an extension of the home market with better purchasing power. It is not. It is a separate commercial system with its own tax authorities, customs rules, licensing regimes, payment rails and language obligations.
The useful mental model is this: your product and your brand travel. Your operating model does not. Every element that touches money, goods or legal disclosure has to be rebuilt for each country you enter.
That is also why the "launch across the GCC" plan almost always fails. Six countries means six registrations, six tax positions and six delivery networks. One country done properly beats six done approximately.
There are three realistic structures, and they are not interchangeable.
| Model | What it means | Main advantage | Main cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-border, foreign seller | You ship from Lebanon, Europe or Asia direct to the customer | No local entity, fastest to test | Customer pays duty and VAT on arrival, slower delivery, weaker trust |
| Local entity in the target country | You register a company and licence in Saudi Arabia or the UAE | Local payment rails, local trust, local pricing | Setup cost, accounting, ongoing compliance |
| Marketplace or local partner | You sell through an established regional platform or distributor | Fastest route to local checkout and delivery | Margin share, limited data and customer relationship |
Founders often run the first model while promising the experience of the second. Refunds, chargebacks and bad reviews come out of that gap.
Saudi Arabia is the Gulf market with the most published pre-trading requirements for an online store, covering tax registration, store verification, disclosure and product conformity.
The Saudi VAT rate is 15 per cent. [2] Resident businesses must register once taxable supplies pass SAR 375,000 in any 12 month period, and may register voluntarily above SAR 187,500. [1]
The point that catches foreign sellers is this: non-residents must register for VAT regardless of the value of their supplies. There is no threshold protecting a small foreign seller. [2]
Purchases from foreign online stores are exempt from customs duties when the total value is under SAR 1,000, and that total includes the goods, the shipping and the insurance, not just the product price. Above SAR 1,000, duties apply per the customs declaration. [3]
VAT is a separate matter and is not waived below that threshold. The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority collects VAT regardless of shipment value, and charges it on the whole declaration total including goods, duties, shipping, insurance and customs fees. [3]
The Ministry of Commerce moved e-store verification off Maroof and onto the Business Platform at business.sa, under the Saudi Business Center. The Ministry describes it as the only authorised platform for e-commerce verification. Verification requires an active commercial registration, or a valid professional document, plus a commercial bank account linked to the store. [4]
If you are still following guidance that tells you to register on Maroof, that guidance is out of date.
The Saudi E-Commerce Law sets specific disclosure duties for any online store serving the Kingdom:
Enforcement is real. The Ministry has publicly blocked a non-compliant foreign store under this law and directs consumers to its "Verify E-Store" service. [6]
One thing worth correcting, because it circulates widely: the E-Commerce Law requires the total price inclusive of taxes and delivery, but it does not specify a currency. There is no statutory requirement in that law to display prices in riyals. Showing SAR is a strong commercial decision, not a legal one.
For regulated goods, Saudi Arabia runs conformity through the Saber platform. The product is registered, a SASO-approved certification body assesses it and issues a conformity certificate, and a shipment certificate then goes to Saudi customs before the goods enter the market. Unregulated products use a self-declaration followed by a shipment certificate. [7]
Whether your category is regulated or unregulated changes the work and the lead time significantly. Confirm your specific category on saber.sa before you commit to inventory.
The UAE is the easier of the two to start in, and it is the usual bridgehead for Lebanese brands entering the Gulf.
The UAE VAT rate is 5 per cent. The mandatory registration threshold is AED 375,000 and the voluntary threshold is AED 187,500. The Federal Tax Authority states explicitly that the mandatory threshold is not applicable to foreign businesses. [8]
There is a second rule that only affects large sellers. Since 1 July 2023, qualifying registrants must report e-commerce supplies by the emirate in which the customer receives the supply, and keep supporting evidence. The qualifying test is whether e-commerce supplies in the calendar year ending 31 December 2022 exceeded AED 100 million. [9]
This is where a lot of published advice is simply wrong. The AED 300 de minimis figure that still appears across blogs came from Dubai Customs Notice 05/2022, took effect on 1 January 2023, and was suspended from 1 March 2023 with the previous threshold reinstated.
For Dubai, the current rule is AED 1,000. Dubai Customs Notice No. 16/2026, issued 30 July 2026 and effective 3 August 2026, states that goods and products with a value not exceeding AED 1,000 are exempt from customs duties. Tobacco products, electronic smoking devices and accessories, nicotine liquids, alcoholic beverages and alcohol-containing food preparations are excluded. [10]
If your landed-cost model still uses AED 300, rebuild it. Note the jurisdiction: Dubai Customs administers Dubai. Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates run their own customs administrations, so confirm the threshold for the emirate you are actually shipping into rather than assuming the Dubai figure applies federally.
E-commerce in the UAE is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 on Modern Technology-Based Trade. On the mainland, you need a commercial licence that includes the e-commerce activity, issued by the relevant emirate's Department of Economic Development, and all e-commerce licences also require approval from the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority. [11] Check the specific emirate, because the licence structure is not identical across all seven.
Free zones issue their own e-commerce licences, and a free zone company may need additional permits to sell directly on the mainland. That distinction is often discovered after the company is already formed.
Shopify Payments is available in the UAE. It is not available in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia does not appear on Shopify's supported-countries list for Shopify Payments. [12]
That matters more than it first appears, because of how Shopify Markets works. Markets lets you customise currency, language, pricing, product availability, theme content, domains and taxes per market. [13] But selling in local currencies is supported only through Shopify Payments or Adyen, and displaying prices in local currencies and setting manual exchange rates require Shopify Payments. With any other third-party gateway, orders are processed in the store's default currency. [14]
Put those two facts together and the practical options for SAR checkout are:
| Route | How it works | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| UAE entity on Shopify Payments | Local-currency selling enabled through Shopify Payments | Requires a UAE company and licence |
| Adyen | Supported for local-currency selling alongside Shopify Payments | Enterprise-level onboarding and requirements |
| Local Saudi gateway, SAR as default currency | Store base currency set to SAR, local provider handles checkout | You give up multi-currency display across other markets |
In Saudi Arabia, mada is the national payment network. The Saudi Central Bank designates it as one of the Kingdom's systemically important payment systems, connecting the ATM and point-of-sale network across all Saudi banks. [15] A checkout that does not accept mada is leaving real volume on the table.
Buy now, pay later is a licensed, regulated activity in Saudi Arabia. SAMA has licensed Tabby Finance to conduct BNPL activity, [16] and has licensed Tamara Finance to provide consumer finance and BNPL services. [17] If you offer BNPL in Saudi Arabia, check that your provider holds a SAMA licence for the activity, particularly on higher basket values where it does most work.
Cash on delivery still has a role, and the economics of it are covered in detail in our guide to starting a Shopify store in Lebanon and MENA. The short version for GCC: COD refusal rates change your real cost per delivered order, and your ad platform cannot see that unless you feed it back.
Both markets impose Arabic obligations, and they are narrower and more specific than most agencies claim.
Saudi Arabia, food products. The technical regulation for labelling of prepackaged foodstuffs requires Arabic on the label and on adjoining explanatory statements. Any second language sits alongside the Arabic rather than replacing it, and the two must carry identical information. [18] So an English-only label fails, and so does an English version that says less, or more, than the Arabic.
UAE, invoices and e-commerce information. Federal Decree Law No. 5 of 2023 requires invoices to be issued in Arabic, with any other language added at the provider's discretion. It also requires e-commerce businesses to supply consumers and UAE authorities with Arabic information about the product or service. [19]
Note the limits. The published UAE consumer protection requirements do not impose Arabic on packaging, advertising or signage. Claims that every UAE package must be bilingual by federal law are worth checking against the actual article before you act on them.
The practical standard is higher than the legal minimum anyway. If your Arabic is machine-translated and unreviewed, customers notice immediately, and in a market where trust decides the sale, that is the expensive mistake. We cover bilingual brand and copy decisions in Branding & Design and bilingual conversion copywriting in Digital Marketing & Content Strategy.
Build your landed cost before you build your store. For each country, the real figure is:
Two country-specific notes:
Then decide, explicitly, whether you quote delivered duty paid or let the customer settle on arrival. A customer asked for an unexpected payment at the door usually refuses the parcel, and you absorb both legs of the freight.
Be careful with the e-commerce market-size numbers that circulate in pitch decks. Almost all of them come from consultancies or content marketing, not from statistical authorities. Here is what primary sources actually support.
The GSMA reports 308 million mobile internet users across MENA in 2024, which is 46 per cent of the population, projected to reach 378 million and 52 per cent by 2030. Mobile internet penetration is 71 per cent in the high-income GCC countries against 43 per cent in the region's low and middle income countries. Mobile technologies contributed USD 350 billion to the regional economy in 2024, or 5.7 per cent of GDP. [20]
The ITU puts internet use in the Arab States at 70 per cent of the population in 2025, slightly below the global average of 74 per cent. [21]
Two conclusions follow. First, the high-income GCC is a mobile-first, high-penetration market at 71 per cent, so your store will be judged on a phone. Second, the gap between the high-income GCC and the rest of MENA is large enough that a single regional strategy will underperform in both.
Work in four phases, and do not overlap them.
Phase 1, commercial validation. Confirm demand in that specific country. Price the product with full landed cost including import VAT and duty. Confirm your category is not restricted.
Phase 2, legal and tax. Decide cross-border or local entity. Register for VAT where required. For Saudi Arabia, obtain commercial registration and complete e-store verification on the Business Platform. For the UAE, obtain the commercial licence covering e-commerce and the TDRA approval.
Phase 3, operations. Confirm payment provider eligibility in writing. Test the courier with real parcels to real addresses. Confirm Saber registration for regulated goods. Prepare compliant Arabic for the information you are legally required to publish.
Phase 4, controlled launch. Open with limited budget. Measure delivered, paid orders separately from placed orders. Only then scale.
This is the sequence we build and assess in E-Commerce Mastery, where the capstone is a complete store and operating plan rather than a theoretical exercise.
The UAE appears on Shopify's supported-countries list for Shopify Payments. Saudi Arabia does not. [12]
AED 1,000. Dubai Customs Notice No. 16/2026, effective 3 August 2026, exempts goods and products valued at not more than AED 1,000 from customs duties, with exclusions for tobacco, electronic smoking devices, nicotine liquids and alcohol. [10] The older AED 300 figure is no longer current. Dubai Customs covers Dubai, so check the position for the specific emirate you ship into.
Yes. The SAR 1,000 threshold is a customs duty exemption. ZATCA collects VAT regardless of shipment value, calculated on the full declaration total. [3]
No. E-store verification moved to the Business Platform at business.sa under the Saudi Business Center, which the Ministry of Commerce describes as the only authorised platform for e-commerce verification. [4]
The E-Commerce Law requires the total price including all charges, taxes and delivery fees, but it does not specify a currency. [5] Showing SAR is strongly advisable commercially, not legally mandated by that law.
It depends on what you sell and where. Saudi Arabia requires Arabic on prepackaged food labels, identical to any other language used. [18] The UAE requires invoices in Arabic and requires e-commerce businesses to provide information in Arabic about the product or service. [19] Beyond the legal minimum, Arabic is a commercial necessity in most categories.
The UAE is usually faster to enter, with Shopify Payments availability and a simpler licensing path. Saudi Arabia is the larger market and more demanding on registration and conformity. Most brands we work with prove the model in the UAE and then build the Saudi entry properly.
Hands-on work on market selection, landed cost, payments, compliance and delivery operations, assessed on a real capstone.
View courseShort, applied advice on product pages, mobile usability, trust and cash on delivery from Mohamad Haidar.
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