What is different about selling online in the UAE?

Delivery expectations set by same-day services, two languages in regular use, and a customer base that shops on a phone more than almost anywhere else.

In more detail

The margin consequence is real: a week’s delivery reads as broken rather than slow, so logistics is a competitive lever here in a way it is not in larger, slower markets.

What to do about it

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.

Arabic is not a translation job. A right-to-left screen reads in a different order, so the layout changes and not only the words.

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

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.