By Ed Kamel, founder of Zerak and Wieldy.
Short answer: An online shop built and run by Zerak costs USD 32 a month, all in, on a 12-month minimum, with Shop Plus at USD 59 a month for stores that need a till, branches, loyalty or digital products. There is no setup fee — hosting, updates, support and the first set-up of your products are included in the monthly figure. The site is built around how Gulf and Egyptian customers actually buy: phone-first checkout, cash on delivery, Arabic and English on one shop, and payment options agreed per shop.
Most ecommerce agency pages in Dubai will not tell you a price. This one will. An online shop built and run by Zerak costs USD 32 a month, all in, on a 12-month minimum. Shop Plus is USD 59 a month. There is no setup fee. Hosting, updates, support and the first set-up of your products are included in the monthly figure, not billed on top.
That is the whole offer, stated before you scroll. If you are a small or mid-size business in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar or Egypt that wants to start taking orders online without a five-figure upfront quote you cannot evaluate, this page is written for you.
Zerak works with businesses in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Riyadh and across the Gulf and Egypt, remotely. We do not have an office in the UAE and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we have is a build process, a store engine, and prices you can read.
To start: message us on WhatsApp or use the form at zerak.io/contact.
What does an ecommerce website actually cost in Dubai, and why do quotes vary so much?
Ask five agencies in the UAE what an online store costs and you will get five numbers with nothing to compare them against. Prices vary widely across the UAE and Saudi market, and there is no honest single figure. What is useful is knowing what actually drives the number, so you can read a quote instead of guessing.
Six things move the price more than anything else:
- How many products, and who enters them. Fifty products with supplied photos is a different job from 500 products that need photography, descriptions and variants typed in. Many quotes assume you do the data entry.
- Bilingual or not. An Arabic and English shop is not a translation plugin. It is right-to-left layout, Arabic product data, Arabic URLs and Arabic emails. Quotes that treat it as an add-on are usually quoting the plugin, not the work.
- Branches and stock control. One warehouse is simple. Two shops with their own stock and click-and-collect is a different build.
- Payments. One gateway is a day. Several gateways, wallets and cash on delivery with reconciliation is not.
- Whether it is a template or a build. A theme bought and recoloured is cheap and looks like every other store on that theme.
- Whether running costs are in the quote. This is the one that catches people.
Why is the running cost the real cost?
An upfront build fee is not what the shop costs you. Before you sign anything, ask the agency for the annual running cost in writing: hosting, SSL, plugin and extension licences, theme updates, security patching, backups, and the hourly rate for changes. A shop that was built for one figure and then costs something unpredictable every month to keep alive is not a cheap shop.
Our answer to that framework is deliberately boring. One price covers the build and the running of it.
| Shop — USD 32/month | Shop Plus — USD 59/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Products and photos set up for you | Yes | Yes |
| Arabic and English | Yes | Yes |
| Phone-first checkout | Yes | Yes |
| Orders, stock, refunds, packing slips | Yes | Yes |
| Discount codes and reviews | Yes | Yes |
| Abandoned-cart reminders | Yes | Yes |
| Instagram and Google product feed | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting, updates, support, first set-up | Yes | Yes |
| In-store till with receipts | — | Yes |
| Branches with their own stock and pickup | — | Yes |
| Gift cards and loyalty points | — | Yes |
| Digital products | — | Yes |
Both plans have a 12-month minimum and no setup fee.
If you want a brochure site rather than a shop, that is a separate plan at USD 34.95 a month on the same terms. The site is yours outright after two years, or you can take it after the first year for a one-off USD 150.
What is included in the USD 32 plan?
The list, plainly:
- Products and photos set up for you as part of first set-up
- Arabic and English on one shop
- Phone-first checkout
- Orders, stock, refunds and packing slips
- Discount codes
- Product reviews
- Abandoned-cart reminders
- Instagram and Google product feed
- Hosting, updates and support
Three of those are worth a sentence each, because they are the ones merchants underestimate.
Abandoned-cart reminders recover orders you have already paid to acquire. Someone found the product, chose a size, reached the checkout and stopped. A reminder costs nothing per send and brings a share of them back. Agencies routinely sell this as a paid extension.
The Google and Instagram product feed is how your products appear in Google Shopping results and in Instagram tagging. Without a feed, your products exist only to people who already know your URL. With one, they exist in the places people browse. It is included rather than billed as an integration.
Packing slips, refunds and stock sound administrative until your third busy week. They are the difference between a shop and a form that emails you.
Every client also gets a console: request changes, see orders and enquiries, watch what is happening without emailing anyone.
When do you need Shop Plus instead — a till, branches or loyalty?
Do not pay for Shop Plus because it is the bigger number. Move up when one of these is true:
- You have a physical shop as well as the website. Shop Plus includes an in-store till with receipts, so counter sales and online sales sit in one stock count.
- You have more than one location. Branches get their own stock and their own pickup option, so a customer in Sharjah is not sold something that is sitting in Abu Dhabi.
- You want repeat buyers, not first orders. Gift cards and loyalty points are in Shop Plus.
- You sell downloads. Digital products are Shop Plus.
If you start on Shop and later need a till, branches or loyalty, talk to us about moving to Shop Plus — get in touch and we will work out the details for your account.
How do Gulf customers actually buy, and how is the shop built around it?
This is where a Western store template quietly costs you orders.
Phone-first checkout. A buyer in Dubai expects to enter a mobile number and get on with it. They do not expect to create an account, confirm an email, and fill eight fields before they see a total. The checkout is ordered around the phone number, with the account optional and the address collected after the buyer has committed, not before.
Cash on delivery is built in. Across much of the region it is still the default expectation for a first order from a brand the buyer has not bought from before. A shop that cannot take COD is asking new customers to trust it with a card on day one. Many will not.
Egypt payments are built in and named: Paymob cards and wallets, Fawry and InstaPay.
Gulf payment options are agreed per shop. We scope the gateway with you rather than promising one on a web page.
The WhatsApp-confirmation pattern. For Gulf fashion houses, the couture design takes prices in dirhams with payment by link after a WhatsApp confirmation. The buyer picks the piece, the house confirms sizing and availability on WhatsApp, then a payment link goes out. It suits high-value, made-to-order abaya and couture selling far better than a hard checkout button. You can see it working in the Maison Mirath demo shop at zerak.io/shops.
Arabic and English on one shop. Not a translated afterthought bolted to an English theme — right-to-left layout, Arabic product data, and both languages maintained in the same admin.
Already selling on noon, Amazon.ae or Instagram — what does your own shop add?
Be honest about the marketplaces: noon, Amazon.ae, Carrefour UAE and Namshi are where a large share of UAE customers already shop, and listing there is a legitimate channel. If you are selling well on noon, keep selling on noon. Nothing on this page argues otherwise.
What the marketplace does not give you:
- A commission on every order, forever
- Control over how your brand is presented next to five competitors
- Your customer's contact details — those belong to the marketplace
- Any ability to remarket to a buyer who already chose you
- Protection from a category rule change that removes your listing
Your own storefront gives you the margin, the customer list and the brand. The marketplace gives you discovery. The practical answer for most merchants is to run both: the marketplace for people who have never heard of you, your own shop for repeat buyers and for anyone who searches your brand name, with the product feed synced to Google Shopping and Instagram so your own pages compete for the same product searches.
How do you move from Shopify, WooCommerce, Salla or Zid?
We import products from Shopify, WooCommerce, Salla or Zid and redirect the old product links to the new pages, so existing rankings and inbound links are not thrown away in the move.
If you already have a site and are not sure whether to move at all, there are two sensible options:
- We take it over and look after it — hosting, domain and access all in your name.
- We rebuild it, keeping your content and rankings, with old links redirected to their new equivalents.
The second is not always possible — when Best Egypt Holidays' old site was hacked, we rebuilt it from scratch on a new domain, and the old domain and its rankings were not carried over. The case study is here. Golden Gulf, a tourism and car rental business, is another live build worth a look: zerak.io/work/golden-gulf. Our own product Wieldy rounds out the portfolio (zerak.io/work/wieldy), alongside demo shops such as Maison Mirath at zerak.io/shops.
How does a shop build run, step by step?
- A free half-hour call. What you sell, how you sell it, what is already in place.
- A written fixed scope. What gets built, what it costs, when it lands. In writing before anything starts.
- A live preview link from the first week. You watch it take shape rather than waiting for a reveal.
- Domain and data in your name from day one, plus training on the dashboard.
We do not quote delivery in days or weeks on a web page, because the honest answer depends on your product count and how fast your photos and details arrive. The scope document gives you a date; the preview link shows you progress against it.
On ownership, because the monthly model raises it: the domain, the products and the customer list are yours from day one. Not held by us, not transferred at the end, not leverage.
Frequently asked questions
What happens at the end of the 12 months?
The 12 months is the minimum term, not the end of anything. The site becomes yours outright after two years. If you want it sooner, you can take it after the first year for a one-off USD 150. Either way the domain and data were already in your name from the first day.
Who owns the domain and the customer list?
You do, from day one. The domain is registered in your name, the customer records are yours, and access is yours. If you ever leave, you leave with the business you built, not with a request to a previous agency.
Can I edit products myself?
Yes. Every client gets a console for adding and editing products, managing orders and requesting changes. Small monthly changes are included in the plan, so if you would rather send us the new collection than upload it yourself, that is also covered.
Do you do the product photography and data entry?
Products and photos are set up for you as part of first set-up, included in the monthly price. That is the part most quotes leave to the merchant, and it is the part that stops shops from launching.
Can the shop be in Arabic and English?
Yes, both on one shop, on both plans. Right-to-left layout and Arabic product data, not an English store with a translate button.
What payment methods can a UAE online shop accept?
Cash on delivery is built in. For Egypt, Paymob cards and wallets, Fawry and InstaPay are built in. Gulf payment options are agreed per shop during scoping. Gulf fashion houses often use the couture pattern instead: prices in dirhams, payment by link after a WhatsApp confirmation.
Do you also do the SEO?
SEO is sold separately at seo.zerak.io, starting at USD 299 a month for SEO Monitor. Zerak website clients get 20% off every SEO plan. There is a free website audit at seo.zerak.io if you want to see where your current store stands first.
Start with a free half-hour call
The next step is a conversation about what you sell and how, not a form that disappears into a queue. Message us on WhatsApp, use the form at zerak.io/contact (Arabic: zerak.io/ar/contact), or email hello@zerak.io.
The numbers again, because this is where most people land: Shop at USD 32 a month, Shop Plus at USD 59 a month, 12-month minimum, no setup fee, hosting and support and first set-up included. Yours outright after two years, or after year one for USD 150.