How do GCC customers prefer to pay?

Card and digital wallet first, with buy-now-pay-later a significant and growing share, and cash on delivery still present. Apple Pay in particular is used heavily here.

In more detail

The practical instruction is to support wallet payment properly rather than as an afterthought, because it removes the step — typing card details on a phone — where the most checkouts are lost.

What to do about it

Phone-first is not a trend here, it is the default. A store that works badly on a phone works badly.

Delivery expectations in the UAE are set by same-day services, and a store shipping in five days is judged against that.

Cash on delivery is still expected in parts of the region, and it changes the economics: a refused delivery costs the shipping both ways and the stock is back with you.

The mobile app angle

Both of TicApp’s most-used builds are bilingual and priced in AED, with the layout rebuilt for right-to-left rather than mirrored.