UAE e-commerce redesigns for brands moving from English-only to bilingual Arabic/English are not a translation project — they are a full RTL design system project

A bilingual Arabic/English Shopify store requires a translation app that supports RTL layout — Weglot and Langify are the most commonly used options for UAE bilingual stores on Shopify, each with different approaches to RTL handling. The theme must be built or adapted to support RTL CSS layout, meaning that the direction property in the stylesheet switches to rtl for the Arabic version and all layout elements — navigation, product cards, form fields, checkout steps — render correctly in right-to-left flow. Arabic web fonts must be loaded as custom fonts because Shopify's default font library does not include the Arabic typefaces needed for a professional Arabic store experience. The /ar/ subdirectory URL structure for Arabic pages must be configured correctly so that Shopify's canonical URL handling does not create duplicate content issues between the English and Arabic versions.

An Arabic RTL e-commerce redesign takes approximately 30 to 40 percent longer than an equivalent English-only redesign, primarily because the RTL design system requires a separate design phase and the bilingual QA process covers twice the number of page templates. A ten-week English-only redesign typically extends to thirteen to fourteen weeks when the RTL Arabic version is built in parallel. Brands that build the English version first and then add Arabic as a second phase typically experience a longer total timeline because the RTL requirements were not factored into the original design decisions, requiring rework at the design stage rather than parallel work from the start. Building both language versions from the same design phase is the more time-efficient approach for a brand that needs both.

COD requires a Shopify app or custom payment method configuration that enables the cash on delivery option in the checkout, along with a post-order workflow for flagging COD orders for the fulfilment team. Tabby and Tamara are both available as Shopify payment gateway integrations through their respective official Shopify apps, and both require a merchant account with the provider before integration can begin. The redesign brief should specify: which payment options are to be included, the placement of Tabby and Tamara badges on the product page (equivalent to the Afterpay placement in the Australian market, above the fold at the price line), and the COD workflow requirements for the store's operations team. All three payment methods should be in a merchant testing environment before the redesign development begins so that integration can be completed and tested within the development timeline rather than being delayed by merchant onboarding.

Arabic SEO built from a redesign requires four elements established at the development phase: an /ar/ subdirectory URL structure for all Arabic pages (not a subdomain, which creates additional crawl budget and authority splitting considerations); hreflang tags on every page specifying the English version and Arabic version as alternate language targets for ar-AE; Arabic meta titles and descriptions written from Arabic keyword research rather than machine-translated from English meta data; and an Arabic XML sitemap submitted separately to Google Search Console under the same property as the English site. Retrofitting these elements after launch on a store that launched without them requires a URL migration (with 301 redirects from any Arabic pages that were indexed under incorrect URLs), a resubmission to Google Search Console, and a waiting period of three to six months before the corrected structure is fully indexed. Building it correctly from the redesign phase avoids this delay.

Shopify is the more practical platform for UAE bilingual stores because the available translation apps — Weglot and Langify — are built and maintained specifically for Shopify's architecture, and the checkout customisation options for COD and BNPL integrations are well-supported through the Shopify App Store. WooCommerce supports bilingual operation through WPML or Polylang, but RTL layout support requires additional theme development work and the COD and BNPL integrations for the UAE market are less mature in the WooCommerce ecosystem than in the Shopify ecosystem. For a UAE brand investing in a bilingual redesign, Shopify reduces the ongoing maintenance overhead and provides more stable integrations for the payment methods that matter in the UAE market. The platform assessment at the start of the redesign process should confirm this recommendation or identify any specific requirements that make WooCommerce the better choice for the brand's particular catalogue or operational setup.