As Shopify adoption increases across the GCC, regional merchants are beginning to move beyond just selling online. They are shifting toward creating storefronts that convert across markets, languages, and cultural boundaries. According to Mwwared, Arabic-speaking markets are seeing a major e-commerce surge, powered by a digital-first consumer base of over 420 million people worldwide. Countries like Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are leading this shift, as the Middle East’s online retail sales are projected to cross $50 billion by 2025.
When you’re looking to grow across the GCC, the way your Shopify storefront is designed and localized will directly impact how your brand is discovered, trusted, and remembered. As Shopify rightly puts it in their article, “Ecommerce localization is the process of taking an online store’s existing content and personalizing it for a different market.”
At Marmeto, we’ve worked with some amazing merchants in this region to build Shopify storefronts that are designed for cross-border acquisition. This checklist brings together what we’ve learned from those builds and what every GCC e-commerce merchant should consider before going regional or global.
1. Understand Your Regional Segments Before You Design
Everything starts with clarity. Are you expanding into the UAE and KSA simultaneously, or building parallel campaigns? Do different markets need different SKUs, pricing logic, or fulfillment partners? Are your brand personas consistent across regions, or do they shift?
The answers to these questions shape your storefront strategy. The more varied your markets, the more you’ll need to customize content, UI, and operations. According to Moldstud, customized content based on the user’s location can help create a more relevant and seamless shopping experience whereby geo-personalized recommendations can show an increase in sales by 10% to 30%.
2. Choose the Right Storefront Architecture
There is no single "best" way to structure a multi-region Shopify setup. It depends on how much localization you need and how much operational complexity you're ready to manage. In an article, it was marked that 72% of consumers are more likely to buy a product with information in their native language and, 56% believe that getting information in their preferred language is more important than price.
Option A: Multiple Shopify stores
Perfect for merchants that want complete control over each region under languages, currencies, catalogs, pricing, and marketing campaigns. It’s more operationally intensive, but it allows for tailored experiences country by country.
Option B: One store with dynamic geo-targeting
Best for merchants that want to simplify operations while still offering regional relevance. Using Shopify Markets, IP detection, and dynamic content, you can localize key elements like currency, language, and checkout without spinning up multiple stores.
Option C: Hybrid Approach on Shopify Plus
With Shopify Plus, you can blend both strategies; a shared backend with separate storefronts. This gives you the efficiency of centralized operations, along with the flexibility to localize content, design, and user journeys per market.
3. Create Region-Specific Landing Pages
One of the highest-ROI ways to geo-target your audience is by building focused landing pages for each country or market segment. In an article by Checkout Links, it was seen that while the average Shopify store converts at just 1.4%, the top 20% see rates as high as 3.2%. This gap isn’t accidental; it’s the result of relentless optimization. One of the high-impact levers of this are landing pages. Purpose-built and performance-driven, they often make the difference between a casual visitor and a high-intent buyer.
These pages serve two purposes.
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First, they help your SEO performance in each region.
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Second, they give you a structured way to speak to local needs, run localized campaigns, and build targeted ad funnels.
Each landing page should speak the language of the region it targets. When thoughtfully crafted, these pages don’t just support your store, they become the backbone of how you build trust, relevance, and momentum in each market.
4. Get Language and Layout Right
Arabic is read right-to-left (RTL), which means your entire storefront layout must shift: navigation menus need to move to the right, banners must flip direction, product carousels should scroll the opposite way, and fonts must support Arabic script without breaking the visual design.
It’s not just the layout; the language itself demands nuance. A button that says “Buy Now” in English might need a more culturally relevant phrase in Arabic to feel persuasive. Product descriptions, headlines, and even error messages should reflect how people actually speak, not just word-for-word translations.
According to Transphere, a CSA Research survey across 29 countries found that 40% of consumers never buy from websites that aren’t in their native language. For merchants expanding into the Middle East, investing in a proper bilingual, RTL-optimized Shopify setup isn’t optional, it’s the difference between looking local and feeling foreign.
5. Use Region-Specific Payment Gateways
Your checkout experience isn’t just the final step; it’s often the final filter. If customers don’t see a familiar or trusted way to pay, many will drop off, no matter how strong the product or offer. In global markets, trust in payment methods varies widely, and what feels seamless in one region can feel unfamiliar or even risky in another.
That’s why offering region-specific payment options is critical. It’s not just about convenience. It’s about reducing friction, building trust, and respecting local buying behavior. A payment gateway that matches your customer’s expectations increases the likelihood that they’ll complete the purchase, not abandon it.
According to the IMARC Group, the GCC payment gateway market size reached USD 3,461.4 Million in 2024 and expected to reach USD 9,771.3 Million by 2033, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 11.61% during 2025-2033.
Shopify gives merchants the flexibility to integrate and configure payment methods by region. When paired with smart development, your store can automatically present the most relevant options based on the customer’s location, turning payment into a strategic advantage, not a blocker.
6. Reflect Regional Fulfilment Expectations
Cross-border ecommerce success hinges on trust starting with clarity at checkout. Shoppers want to know exactly what to expect before they click “Buy.” If your store serves regions like Saudi Arabia or the UAE, generic delivery timelines and vague shipping info simply won’t cut it. Instead, show region-specific delivery estimates based on the shopper’s location, and if you offer local fulfillment in a market like KSA, call it out on the product page.
Another major point of friction is duties and taxes. If your pricing includes these charges or if they’re prepaid at checkout, say it clearly. If they’re not included, don’t bury the warning. Let customers know if they’ll be responsible for additional fees at delivery. Shoppers may still choose to proceed but they won’t feel misled, which is key in reducing cart abandonment.
According to Wisernotify, globally, 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned and over 50% of those drop-offs happen due to unexpected extra costs like shipping, duties, or taxes. Another 23% of shoppers abandon carts because delivery was too slow or uncertain. Solving these friction points is a direct lever for store success. A well-optimized global Shopify store doesn’t just offer fast fulfilment; it communicates clearly, manages expectations, and builds confidence at every step of the buying journey.
7. Structure SEO Around Regional Keywords
To attract inbound traffic from new regions, your Shopify store must reflect how local customers search, not just what they search for. This means targeting both English and Arabic keyword variations, especially in markets like the GCC where bilingual browsing is common. Use tools like Google Trends, Ahrefs, or Semrush to understand regional search intent, not just global volume.
Beyond keywords, think in content ecosystems. Support your landing pages with localized content pieces. These content clusters should focus on the questions, products, and cultural nuances that matter in each priority market, not just generic global SEO terms.
According to Digital Silk, while 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search, making SEO the top driver of web traffic, 25.02% of top-ranking pages are missing a meta description. When done right, this approach not only improves visibility, but builds deeper trust and relevance with new audiences.
8. Make Your Creative Regionally Relevant
Your customers can instantly tell when a website wasn’t designed for them. From the photography to the tone of voice, every visual and cultural detail sends a message; of relevance or disconnection. That’s why localization goes far beyond language.
Use imagery that reflects the climate, culture, and lifestyle of each region you’re targeting. Feature clothing suited to local weather, showcase relatable backdrops, and incorporate cultural cues that feel familiar. Build campaigns around regional events like Ramadan, Eid, or National Day, and adjust your messaging to reflect the tone and traditions of each market.
If you're managing multiple regions from a single storefront, use geo-targeting logic to dynamically display region-specific banners, collections, or product recommendations. According to DHL, the GCC e-commerce market size is projected to reach US$33.30bn in revenue by 2025. This kind of growth is only supplemented by the personalization and localization that you bring to your store, making it feel not just global, but genuinely local.
Build for Where You’re Going
GCC merchants aren’t just joining the global e-commerce movement; they’re shaping it. With strong digital infrastructure, a mobile-first consumer base, and rapidly growing online spending, the region is primed for breakout growth but that growth won’t come from translated templates or copy-paste strategies.
It comes from building with precision; storefronts that speak the language, reflect the culture, and perform across borders. From how your product is shown to how it’s paid for and delivered, every element should be engineered for relevance and conversion in the markets you're targeting.
Whether you're scaling within the GCC or planning your next global move, the merchants that win will be the ones that localize deeply, operate efficiently, and never treat regional expansion as an afterthought.
Ready to explore GCC expansion? Talk to us for a detailed commerce transformation pathway.