Your Guide to Making a Successful E-Commerce Website in UAE

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If you’re looking to launch an e-commerce website in the UAE, there are a few key things you’ll need to keep in mind to ensure your website is successful. Here’s a guide to making a successful e-commerce website in the UAE:

First, you’ll need to figure out a few things regarding what you’ll sell. Then, you can get to building your online store!

E-Commerce website Development Basic Requirements
Create your product.
Determine to price for your online store.
Figure out shipping options.
Choose your E-Commerce platform.
Pick a domain name and brand.
Build your E-Commerce website.
Set up your merchant account. (Payment Gateway )
Add an SSL certificate to your website.
SEO optimization
Start selling online!

WHAT IS A PAYMENT GATEWAY?
Before we go into the details first I’ll briefly explain what a payment gateway is and how it works.

 

Payment gateways play a crucial role in online transactions, as they ensure that customer payment information is processed safely and securely. Payment gateways also typically offer fraud detection and prevention services, as well as chargeback management to protect merchants from fraudulent transactions.

 

A payment gateway is an e-commerce service that processes credit and debit card payments for online purchases. It acts as a secure portal between a merchant’s website and the bank that processes the payment. Essentially, when a customer makes a purchase on an e-commerce website, the payment gateway securely collects and encrypts the customer’s payment information, verifies it with the bank, and then sends the funds to the merchant’s account.

 

Here are the key steps in the gateway’s role:

Collection: When a purchase is made on your site, the credit card details that the customer enters are sent to your payment gateway.
Authorization: You’ll then receive a notice that the sale has been approved. That’s your go-ahead to deliver the purchased service or product.
Settlement: Finally, the last part of the process (and the most crucial for an online business owner) is when the data from the transaction is verified by your bank and the money is deposited into your account.

 

HOW PAYMENT GATEWAY WORKS?
Customer places order. Merchant securely transfers order information to the payment gateway. The transaction is then routed to the issuing bank or the 3D secure page to request transaction authentication. After the authentication process is successful, the transaction is then authorized or declined (depending on funds available in the customer’s account) by the issuing bank or card (VISA, MASTER, MAESTRO, American Express). Payment gateway accordingly sends a message to the merchant. The banks settle the money with the payment gateway and then the payment gateways settle the money to the merchant.

 

AT A GLANCE:

A brief summary of all the important information regarding gateways are presented below:

Initially known as Innovate Innovate Payments, it was once considered as one of the best startups of UAE. Telr offers its service in more than 120 currencies worldwide. One of the unique features of Telr is that they offer their services in developing countries like Indonesia and Pakistan. Their yearly maintenance cost are $ 95 , $27 and $13.5 for entry, small and medium level accounts respectively. There is also no charges on the remittance to the merchant account for entry level plan. Their service charges are mentioned below:

CashU
CashU was established in 2002 with the sole purpose of serving customers in UAE but it has now become very popular in Europe as well. Interestingly CashU offers free account creation and has the maintenance charge of 1$ per year which is lowest in the market. There per transaction charges depends on the the amount of transaction. A complete list of all the charges can be found here. Quite recently CashU has also started their virtual credit card service with the collaboration of MasterCard. UAE residents with a registered CASHU account will be able to create their Virtual MasterCard Prepaid Card instantly, to make payments on e-commerce portals that accept MasterCard.

PayFort

Payfort is one of the most widely used payment gateways in UAE region. There is no setup fee for their starter packages. There is no monthly charges for the starter package but $27 per month for mid-tier account. Commission rates are 2.99% and 2.65% respectively. With the collaboration of SOUQ.com an online e-commerce giant in UAE, PayFort has also launched their Card-On-Delivery(COD) service. Basically, Card-on-delivery means that payment-on-delivery customers will now have a choice of paying by cash or by card. The delivery agents are able to process all major credit and debit cards using a mobile card machine.

CCAvenue

Started in India, CCAvennue is now a popular payment gateway option in UAE. They also offer zero setup fee option but that it comes with a large monthly maintenance fee of $54.45. They also charge 3% on every transaction. CCAvenue is quite certainly an expensive option but they also offer a couple of free services like fraud prevention and 24/7 on-call support. They also support all major e-commerce platforms.

CyberSource

CyberSource is a part of well known international firm VISA. They operate in more than 190 countries around the globe and offer multiple solutions. CS also supports digital payment methods such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, as well as regional digital wallets such as Alipay, and KCP. Below are the details of their service charges:

PayTabs

A Bahrain based service provider which topped the list of best business start-ups In 2016 compiled by Forbes.They are offering their services in 168 currencies. You can setup complete PayTabs system in less than 24 hours. There is a number of ways you can integrate PayTabs like Plug-in, iFrame, SDK or direct integration by use of API. Currently, they are charging 2.85 % + 1 AED per transaction.

The setup cost is $400 while each withdrawal costs up to $15. Paytabs is not charging any monthly or annual maintenance fee.

Checkout

Working since 2010 checkout started their service in UAE in 2014. They are charging 0.95% + 20 cents per transaction for European cards and 2.90% + 20 cents on non-European cards. They also charge $500 for one-time setup. They accept all the major credit cards around the world. They are also offering one the best fraud management system which they named as “Prism Risk Management System”.

2Checkout

While 2Checkout is a USA based service provider but it is very popular in MENA region. They are charging 3.9% + 45 cents per transaction while serving in 87 currencies. They are also charging 1.5% for the customers outside UAE and $25 for every chargeback. These costs may look high but at the same time, there is no set-up fee as well as no monthly maintenance fee.

 

HyperPay

Hyperpay is basically a Saudi Arabia based payment gateway but they offer their service in UAE as well. HyperPay has more than 100 partners from a wide variety of banks to well-known credit card companies. It also offers very easy integration with major e-commerce platforms i.e WordPress and Magento. HyperPay offers one of the best and highly secure fraud management system

Conclusion:

As there is a number of options available and each one has its own advantages and disadvantage but you have to decide what will work for you. One thing to keep in mind is that you might opt for a basic package for any of the gateway which might look lucrative now but as your e-commerce website in UAE grows you will have to go for the enterprise or the premium version of that gateway. You have no other option to buy that expensive package. So before choosing anyone, plan well for the future.