Shopify development for stores in Dubai and the UAE

Who this is for

UAE brands that sell on Shopify, or plan to move to it, and have reached the point where the store needs engineering rather than another app: an English and Arabic storefront that has to read correctly in both directions, prices for customers across the Gulf, payment and delivery rules that differ by order, or stock and orders that must reach an ERP or a logistics partner.

Five things a UAE Shopify build has to get right

1. Arabic in both directions. Shopify notes that the latest Horizon themes support right-to-left languages such as Arabic, and that any other theme should be checked before it is translated. Custom sections, sliders, icons and number formats are where right-to-left layouts usually break, so we test each template in both languages.
2. AED and other Gulf currencies. Shopify’s international tools let one store sell to several countries with their own currency, language and domain. We set up the markets and make sure the theme, the product feeds and any custom app show the price the customer will actually pay. More on this in Shopify Markets.
3. Payments that fit the order. Shopify Payments is offered to stores in the United Arab Emirates, and Shopify lists cash on delivery among its manual payment methods. A payment customization Function can hide, rename or reorder payment methods at checkout, for example to stop offering cash on delivery above a set order value. Shopify says plan and regional restrictions apply to that API, so we confirm availability for your plan first.
4. Delivery and checkout rules. Rules such as “no express delivery for oversized items” or a minimum order for trade customers belong in Shopify Functions, which run inside Shopify’s checkout instead of in theme code a customer can bypass.
5. VAT at 5%. The UAE has charged VAT at a standard rate of 5% since 1 January 2018. Your accountant decides how it applies to your products; we configure prices, tax settings and invoices to match that decision.

What we build

• Theme engineering for bilingual, right-to-left storefronts and for sections your team can edit safely. See Shopify theme development.
• Custom Shopify apps for workflows no App Store app handles, such as trade pricing or approval steps. See custom Shopify apps.
• Integrations with ERPs, warehouse and delivery systems through Shopify’s APIs and webhooks. See API integrations.
• Migrations to Shopify from another platform, with products, customers, orders and URL redirects planned before launch. See Shopify migration.
• Headless storefronts with Hydrogen, only when the storefront needs something a theme can’t do. See Shopify Hydrogen.

Working with Lintel remotely from Dubai

• Hours. Ankara runs on UTC+3 and Dubai on UTC+4 all year, so the working days overlap for most hours.
• Language. Meetings and documents are in English. Arabic copy comes from your team or your translator; we build the store so it displays and switches correctly.
• First step. Describe the store and the problem through Start a project. We reply, usually within 24 hours, with questions or a proposed scope.

What you can check before you contact us

We have no UAE client work to show yet, and we say so. What you can check: our founder’s Shopify apps, the Snow / Motion Hydrogen showcase, and the founder’s Shopify store history since 2019. For web and mobile work in the UAE, see Dubai and the UAE.