E-Commerce

Online businesses are coming to the Middle East region and the authorities are getting more flexible in terms of the licensing and registration of an e-commerce company.

E-commerce can be done in 2 different ways:

1. You sell your own goods or provide your own services through your website. This means to be the actual e-commerce as per UAE terms.

2. You act as online intermediary and provide your website as a trading platform to other sellers. This type of business is called «Portal» or «E-marketplace».

If you want to own the e-commerce business 100% as an expat, it should be registered in a free-zone. Depending on the type of business - trading, online services or portal - you may need to have a storage for your goods, a website with integrated payment collection system and a logistical solution.

Storage and logistics are quite easy to solve, but payment collection may take some efforts.

Large e-commerce businesses can easily get payment gateways from big companies in the market such as Network International or PayFort. It will be required for a company to have an office or a warehouse.

For smaller e-commerce setups we recommend to use PayPal or some international payment collection systems, since they are more open to smaller businesses.