A UAE-based merchant faces payment processing challenges due to PayPal’s inability to accept dirhams and local regulations requiring business/trade licenses for third-party payment gateways. The seller is currently limited to UAE-only sales and cannot ship products yet, but customers are unable to complete purchases.
Key Issues:
PayPal doesn’t support dirham transactions in UAE
Most UAE-approved payment gateways require business licenses
Shopify Payments is not available in UAE
Customers cannot pay, blocking sales from day one
Proposed Solutions:
Research alternative payment gateways from Shopify’s UAE-approved list
Currency converter apps (though clarified these don’t actually process checkout in different currencies)
Third-party solutions like Stripe-based checkout apps that support multiple payment methods
Status: The discussion remains unresolved with multiple users (including merchants in KSA) reporting identical struggles. Participants express frustration that Shopify Payments isn’t available in UAE despite it being a major business hub. No definitive solution has been confirmed as working without proper licensing.
Summarized with AI on October 27.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
As it stands I can only ship and sell within the UAE as this is where I am based and also can’t ship my products (YET), but I have come across a massive hurdle as I was hoping to use PayPal mainly but this isn’t possible as people can’t pay with dirhams so a lot of people have said they can’t PAY!!! ALSO I don’t currently hold a business license for this brand yet or a trade license it is a massive hurdle and I don’t know what to do as each third party payment that is allowed in the UAE requires this yet people all round the world have Shopify accounts and makes sales day 1!!! now I am struggling to get customers to pay!!!
I absolutely understand that setting up payment gateways can feel like a struggle, especially when you are being limited by large gateways like PayPal. I’d love to work through this with you! This link provides a full list of every payment available for you as a merchant in UAE - I would advise researching each one thoroughly to find one that best meets your needs.
You mentioned you wish to offer checkout in different currencies - this is a great idea! Did you know we offer apps in our Shopify App store that offer this feature? Here is an example of one which may suit your needs. May I ask how long your store has been trading? How do you feel things are going at the minute for your store? Is there anything you’d like to improve or change?
@Ivy_4 The app you are talking about is just a currency converter, it has nothing to do with processing the checkout in a different currency than the one defined as standard in the shop, correct or not ? The request of the guy is to proceed with checkout in other currency, AED in that case. Shopify Payments is also NOT available in UAE and the guy mentioned he is in UAE…The only way for him is to install a payment gateway where the customer can choose afterwards on the gateway the currency he wants to use.
If you have any Stripe account, you can use the third party checkout solution Easy⇣Pie Shopify Stripe Checkout that supports most payment methods supported by your Stripe account.