Why do dropshipping stores selling pet fail in the UAE?

Almost never the product. What kills them is a rising cost per customer meeting a margin that cannot absorb it — the store is profitable at one ad price and underwater at another, and nothing on the storefront changed.

What actually kills them

The second cause is delivery time. A customer who waits three weeks does not buy again and frequently does not stay quiet about it, so the acquisition cost has to be paid twice for the same person.

Dropshipping trades margin for not holding stock, and the trade only works while traffic is cheap. For a pet supplies store in the UAE, the answer turns on one thing in particular: Pet food is the most reliably repeated purchase in retail: the bag runs out on a known schedule.

What is different about the UAE

Delivery expectations in the UAE are set by same-day services, so five-day shipping reads as slow whatever the price.

Card payment is the norm in the UAE, with cash on delivery still expected by a meaningful minority.

What is different about a pet supplies store

The part nobody plans for is returns: if the supplier will not take one back, the store is the returns department.

Where a mobile app comes into it

This is the clearest case for an app of any category. TicApp built barcode reordering into Pets Lounge for exactly this.