Lahore engineering hub, serving Dubai & the UAE
E-commerce Development CompanyDubai
10silicon is an e-commerce development company Dubai retailers, distributors and D2C brands work with when a template store stops being enough. We build Shopify and WooCommerce stores, custom storefronts and multi-vendor marketplaces for merchants selling across Dubai and the UAE, with design and engineering handled by our senior team in Lahore and delivery managed in Gulf business hours.
Over 7+ years and 100+ delivered projects we have seen what separates UAE stores that grow from those that stall: fast pages on mobile, a checkout that handles cash on delivery and cards without friction, Arabic and English that both read naturally, and inventory that is actually in sync with the warehouse. Those four things are where every project we take on begins.
Quick quote
Get a ballpark in one business day
Senior engineer replies, NDA on request, no sales pressure.
- 7+
- Years experience
- 100+
- Projects delivered
- GST
- UAE working hours
- Free
- First consultation
What we build
Services for Dubai businesses
Online store development UAE
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom storefronts with bilingual catalogues, UAE-friendly checkout, delivery slot selection and the speed scores Google rewards, launched with your products, taxes and shipping rules already configured.
Marketplace development Dubai
Multi-vendor platforms with seller onboarding, commission rules, per-vendor shipping and payouts, dispute handling and an operator console, built on a custom stack when off-the-shelf plugins run out of road.
Payments and cash on delivery
Card payments through UAE gateways, Apple Pay, BNPL providers and cash on delivery with reconciliation, plus fraud rules that cut COD rejections without turning away genuine buyers.
Delivery and fulfilment integration
Connections to UAE courier APIs and aggregators, automatic label generation, tracking updates sent over WhatsApp and SMS, and return flows that do not require a phone call.
Catalogue, inventory and ERP sync
Product information management, variant and bundle handling, stock sync with your ERP or POS, and product feeds to regional marketplaces and Google Shopping.
VAT invoicing and reporting
UAE VAT-compliant tax invoices with your TRN, credit notes for returns, and reports your accountant can file from, generated automatically for every order.
Tech stack we use
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
- Node.js
- Laravel
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- AWS
How we work
Our 3-step process
- 1
Strategic Discovery
We map your goals, users, constraints and success metrics into a scoped plan with a fixed first milestone before any code is written.
- 2
Agile Engineering
Two-week sprints with a demo at the end of each one. You see working software, not status reports, and can change direction early.
- 3
Deployment & Growth
Production launch with monitoring, documentation and a growth plan: performance, SEO, analytics and a maintenance retainer if you want one.
Why it works
An e-commerce development company for Dubai retailers, engineered in Lahore
E-commerce is a margin business, and the agency fee is part of the margin. A Dubai studio with Dubai overheads has to charge accordingly, and the usual alternative of a freelancer or a theme customiser leaves you with a store nobody can maintain when it breaks during a sale. 10silicon's designers, Shopify and WordPress developers, custom-stack engineers and QA are full-time employees in our Lahore hub, one hour behind Gulf Standard Time, so you pay for senior work without Dubai rent in the invoice and still get your project lead on a call in your working day.
Our team has launched stores and marketplaces in several markets, including ones where cash on delivery dominates and Arabic or Urdu storefronts are the norm, so the problems UAE merchants face are ones we have solved before. We do not have a Dubai office. We offer video consultation throughout and on-site consultation in Dubai for discovery, catalogue and photography workshops, and launch planning.
Agency vs offshore vs hybrid
Choosing a e-commerce partner: how the options compare
Rates are indicative 2026 market figures for senior work. The point is not the cheapest hour; it is senior engineers, full working-hours overlap and ownership of what you pay for.
| Criteria | Dubai agency | Offshore shop | 10silicon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indicative hourly rate | USD 60 - 120 | USD 15 - 35 | USD 25 - 45 |
| Working-hours overlap with GST | Full | Often 2 - 4 hours | Full (Lahore is GST minus 1) |
| Who you talk to | Account manager | Rotating contacts | Named engineer and project lead |
| Demos | Monthly or at milestones | Varies | Every two weeks on a staging URL |
| Code and accounts | Usually yours | Sometimes theirs | Always in your repos and cloud accounts |
| In-person meetings | At their office | Rare | Video any time; on-site in Dubai by arrangement |
| Arabic / RTL and UAE payments | Yes | Varies | Yes, standard on every build |
UAE-ready by default
Built for how business works in Dubai
Offshore teams often learn UAE requirements on your project. We treat them as standard scope, so Arabic, AED payments, VAT invoicing and data protection are designed in rather than bolted on.
- 01
Arabic & RTL interfaces
Bilingual English-Arabic layouts planned from the first wireframe, with right-to-left mirroring and Arabic typography that holds up on mobile.
- 02
UAE payment gateways
Integration with Network International, Telr, PayTabs, Stripe and bank gateways, plus Tabby and Tamara instalments and cash on delivery flows.
- 03
VAT and e-invoicing
FTA-compliant tax invoices with TRN, 5% VAT handling, credit notes and exports your accountant can reconcile.
- 04
Data protection by design
Built with the UAE Personal Data Protection Law in mind: consent records, access control, encryption and data residency in Gulf cloud regions when required.
- 05
Sector rules designed in
For fintech, healthcare and education builds we design for regulator expectations such as CBUAE, DHA and MOHAP requirements; compliance sign-off stays with your advisers.
- 06
WhatsApp-first customer flows
Click-to-chat, WhatsApp Business API notifications and lead capture, because that is how UAE customers actually get in touch.
Compliance sign-off for regulated sectors stays with your legal and regulatory advisers; we build to the requirements they specify.
Platform
Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom build?
The honest answer depends on your catalogue, your operations and how much you need to control. Shopify is the fastest route to a reliable store for a single brand with a standard catalogue, and its hosting, security and checkout are hard to beat for the money. WooCommerce on WordPress suits merchants who want content and commerce together, a lower running cost and full control over the code, at the price of looking after updates and hosting. A custom build on Next.js with Node.js or Laravel makes sense when you run a marketplace, have complex pricing or B2B ordering, need deep ERP integration or expect traffic and catalogue sizes that strain plugins.
We build on all three and we will recommend the cheapest option that fits, not the one with the biggest invoice. Many of our Dubai clients start on Shopify or WooCommerce and move specific pieces, such as a custom checkout or a vendor portal, to a bespoke service later as volume justifies it.
- Shopify: fastest launch, predictable cost, best for single-brand D2C
- WooCommerce: content plus commerce, lower fees, more maintenance
- Custom: marketplaces, B2B pricing, heavy integrations, full ownership
Conversion
Speed, Arabic storefronts and a checkout that converts
A UAE shopper on a mid-range Android phone in a mall car park will leave a store that takes four seconds to load. We set performance budgets at the design stage, serve images in modern formats, keep third-party scripts under control and measure Core Web Vitals on real devices before launch. The same attention goes into the checkout: guest checkout by default, phone number as the primary identifier, address fields that match how people actually describe locations in Dubai, and cash on delivery alongside cards and Apple Pay.
Arabic is not a translation plugin. Right-to-left layout, Arabic typography, mirrored icons and product content that reads naturally all need design and QA time, and we plan for them from the first wireframe even when you launch in English first. Because 10silicon also runs SEO engagements, the technical foundations for ranking in Google UAE, including structured product data, clean category URLs and server-rendered pages, are built in rather than fixed later.
Operations
Inventory, delivery and VAT without manual work
The store is the visible part; the operations behind it decide whether you make money. We connect catalogue and stock to your ERP, POS or warehouse system so a sale in-store and a sale online draw from the same inventory, and we build the rules for pre-orders, bundles and low-stock behaviour your merchandisers need. Orders flow to couriers automatically with labels generated, and customers receive tracking links over WhatsApp.
Every order produces a VAT-compliant tax invoice with your TRN, with credit notes issued on returns and reports exported in the format your accountant uses. Our three-step process covers all of this: Strategic Discovery maps your operations end to end, Agile Engineering builds in two-week sprints with staging demos, and Deployment & Growth supports your first sale season with monitoring and a retainer for the changes that follow.
Case study
Case study: UAE online store
Client name to be confirmed · Retail / E-commerce
Placeholder. Replace with a real e-commerce project from Dubai or the Gulf: the platform chosen and why, payments and delivery integrations, the stack, the timeline and measurable results such as conversion rate or order volume agreed with the client.
- Result metric 1 (to be supplied)
- Result metric 2 (to be supplied)
- Result metric 3 (to be supplied)
FAQ
E-commerce: common questions
Start a project
Get a quote for your Dubai project
Tell us what you need and we will reply within one UAE business day with questions, a rough budget range and a proposed first milestone. Video or on-site consultation in Dubai.
- WhatsApp / call: +971 56 639 0908
- Email: contact@10silicon.com
- Lahore HQ · Serving Dubai, Abu Dhabi & the UAE