Shopify Payment Gateways in Saudi Arabia, UAE and the Gulf

Shopify payment gateways in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the rest of the Gulf follow a clear model: you contract with a gateway licensed in your country, connect it to your store from the payment settings, enable the methods your customers actually use such as mada, Apple Pay and instalments, then add cash on delivery as a built-in manual method where needed. This guide reviews the options for every country from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, how real fees are calculated, and the setup and testing steps we follow in our clients’ stores.

How payments work on Shopify for Gulf stores

Shopify has its own payment system, Shopify Payments, available in a defined list of countries published in its documentation. In most markets of our region merchants rely on third-party providers licensed by their central bank that offer an official Shopify integration. Alongside these, the platform provides built-in manual methods such as cash on delivery and bank transfer.

An important point for the arithmetic: when you use a third-party gateway, Shopify adds a transaction fee on every order at a rate that depends on your plan, on top of the gateway’s own fees. We explain those rates in Shopify pricing plans and real cost.

Payment options country by country

The table summarises the payment methods customers expect in each market and examples of gateways known in the region that integrate with Shopify. Availability and integrations change, so verify the current integration status in your payment settings before contracting:

Country	Methods customers expect	Examples of regional gateways
Saudi Arabia	mada, cards, Apple Pay, Tabby and Tamara, STC Pay, cash on delivery	Moyasar, HyperPay, PayTabs, Tap, Checkout.com
UAE	Cards, Apple Pay, Tabby and Tamara, cash on delivery	Telr, PayTabs, Tap, Checkout.com, Network International, Stripe
Kuwait	KNET, cards, Apple Pay	Tap, MyFatoorah, HyperPay
Qatar	Cards, Apple Pay, cash on delivery	Tap, MyFatoorah, PayTabs
Oman	Cards, cash on delivery, local wallets	Thawani, MyFatoorah, PayTabs
Bahrain	Benefit, cards, Apple Pay	Tap, MyFatoorah, PayTabs
Jordan	CliQ, cards, cash on delivery	PayTabs, HyperPay, Tap, a custom CliQ app
Iraq	Mainly cash on delivery, e-wallets and local cards	Local solutions and e-wallets
Egypt	Cards, wallets, cash on delivery, instalments	Paymob, Fawry, Kashier

The rule: do not pick the best-known gateway; pick the one that covers the most important methods in your market with the lowest fees and the best integration.

Saudi Arabia: mada and Apple Pay are the foundation

In the Saudi market, mada is the most widespread payment method, and Apple Pay noticeably lifts mobile checkout completion based on what we see across stores. Any gateway you choose must offer both. Add credit cards, and consider instalments through Tabby or Tamara if your average order justifies it. Cash on delivery is still requested by a segment of customers, but you can limit it with an order cap or an extra fee to reduce returns; details are in cash on delivery on Shopify in the Gulf.

UAE: a wider range of gateways

The UAE market offers a broad choice of licensed gateways, some global and some regional. Cards and Apple Pay are the foundation, with strong demand for instalments. Although cash on delivery is common, high-value stores tend to reduce it. If you sell in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, look for one gateway licensed in both countries to simplify accounting.

Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain

Each country has a local network customers trust: KNET in Kuwait and Benefit in Bahrain, both essential for any store targeting those markets. In Qatar and Oman cards dominate alongside cash on delivery. Regional gateways such as Tap and MyFatoorah cover several Gulf countries from one account, a practical option for stores selling in more than one country from a single store through Shopify Markets.

Jordan: CliQ and cash on delivery

In Jordan many customers rely on instant transfers through CliQ and on cash on delivery alongside cards. There was no ready option connecting CliQ to Shopify in the way a large store needed, so we developed a custom CliQ payment app (Bank al Etihad) for Xmart, which sells thousands of electronics products. Details are in CliQ payment on Shopify in Jordan, and it is an example of what our custom apps service delivers when no ready solution exists.

Iraq and Egypt: cash on delivery leads

In Iraq cash on delivery remains the dominant method, with e-wallets growing. Toolmart, Iraq’s largest industrial tools store, runs on Shopify with this model across thousands of products. In Egypt strong local gateways offer cards, wallets and instalments, while cash on delivery remains common. In these two markets the quality of the courier and order confirmation before shipping become part of the payment strategy itself, which is why we use automatic WhatsApp order confirmation through WhatsApp Pilot (whatsapppilot.esafqa.com) to reduce fake orders.

Fees: how to calculate the real cost of every payment method

Payment cost has three layers:

1. Gateway fees: a percentage of the transaction and usually a fixed fee, differing between mada, credit cards and instalments.
2. Shopify transaction fees: an extra percentage when using a third-party gateway, reduced by upgrading the plan.
3. Cash on delivery cost: the courier’s collection fee plus the cost of returns and undelivered orders.

A practical rule: request the current fee table from two or three gateways and calculate the cost on your average order value, not on an abstract percentage, because the fixed fee weighs heavily on small orders. Instalments take a higher percentage, so make sure the lift in average order compensates for it.

Setup and testing steps

1. Prepare the documents: commercial registration, ID, bank account and policy pages on the store.
2. Contract with the gateway and obtain activation credentials.
3. Install the gateway’s app from Shopify’s payment settings and enable the required methods.
4. Enable cash on delivery as a manual method and restrict it to suitable regions.
5. Set the currency for each market in Shopify Markets.
6. Test a complete purchase with every method from a phone, then test a refund.
7. Confirm the purchase event reaches Meta Pixel and GA4 after returning from the gateway page.

These steps are part of how to create a Shopify store step by step, complemented by shipping setup in Shopify shipping setup and Gulf couriers.

From our experience: in every store we build within our Shopify store development service we treat payments, shipping and tracking as one unit. The DealzGate electronics store, for example, launched with payments, shipping and tracking configured together, and its first Advantage+ campaign returned 9x on initial spend. Had one payment method been missing or the purchase event not recorded, that number would not have been possible.

Conclusion

Shopify payment gateways in the Gulf are not an obstacle but a choice to make consciously: the gateway that covers what your customers use, with fees calculated on your average order, cash on delivery wisely restricted, and a complete test before launch. If you want us to review your store’s payment setup or suggest the right gateway for your market, message us on WhatsApp for a quick audit.