How much money do you need to start an ecommerce business?

Between 10,000 and 40,000 dirhams to start properly in the UAE, and the licence is a large part of it. The store itself is cheap; the testing budget and the first stock are not.

What decides it

The split that works: a third on getting legal and set up, a third on first stock, a third held back to buy traffic and learn. Spending the last third on more stock before knowing what sells is the most common way to run out of runway.

The part that gets skipped

A market that already spends money is easier than a market you have to convince exists. Competition is evidence, not a warning.

Test whether people will pay before building anything. A hundred people saying they like it is worth less than one paying.

An idea is worth almost nothing on its own. What is scarce is somebody who will keep going after the first version does not work, which is every first version.

Where an app fits

If the idea is a shop, the sequence matters: sell first, prove people come back, then build the app. An app before the customers is a cost with nothing to do.