If you sell online in the UAE, an Arabic version of your Shopify store is not just a nice extra. Arabic is the country’s official language, many of your shoppers search in it, and a store that reads naturally in Arabic feels local in a way an English-only store never will. The catch is that Arabic is a right-to-left (RTL) language, so a good Arabic store needs more than translated text. The layout, the typography, the URLs and the checkout all need attention.
This guide walks through how Shopify handles Arabic today, which parts work out of the box, where stores usually break, and how to set up the Arabic version so it can rank in Google for UAE searches.
How Shopify handles languages
Shopify supports multiple languages natively. You add a language in Settings, translate your content, then publish it. According to Shopify’s requirements for selling in multiple languages, you can sell in up to 20 languages on the Basic, Grow, Shopify and Advanced plans, and up to 30 on Shopify Plus. For a UAE store, English and Arabic are the obvious pair, and both fit comfortably within any plan.
A few requirements matter before you start:
- Your theme must support multiple languages. Custom themes need to build internal links with the routes Liquid object, otherwise links can send Arabic shoppers back to English pages.
- You need translations ready before you publish. If you publish Arabic with nothing translated, shoppers only see the default theme and checkout text, which looks unfinished.
Choosing an RTL-capable theme
This is the decision that saves or costs you the most time. Shopify states that the latest versions of themes in its Horizon family support right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu. For any other theme, free or paid, you need to check that RTL layouts actually work before you commit.
Do not rely on a theme listing or a vendor’s marketing claim. Install the theme on a development store, add Arabic, and look at every template: home page, collection, product, cart, search, blog article, contact page and the account pages. Things to check:
- The whole page flips direction, not just the paragraph text.
- Menus, drawers and the cart slide in from the correct side.
- Rich text and custom sections follow the page direction instead of a hard-coded alignment.
- Third-party app widgets, such as reviews, upsells and WhatsApp buttons, do not stay stuck in left-to-right.
If you are on an older or heavily customised theme, RTL support is usually added by setting the page direction based on the active language and then fixing the CSS. Writing styles with logical properties (start and end rather than left and right) makes this far easier to maintain, because the same rules then work in both directions.
Translating content: Translate & Adapt and beyond
Shopify’s free Translate & Adapt app lets you translate content manually in a side-by-side editor, or automatically with Shopify’s AI translation. The listing says automatic translation is free for up to two languages, while manual translations have no stated cap. For an English and Arabic store, that is usually enough.
Automatic translation is a reasonable first draft, not a finished product. Arabic has its own conventions for tone, product naming and marketing language, and literal translation of English copy often reads stiffly. A practical workflow looks like this:
- Run automatic translation to fill every field quickly.
- Have a native Arabic speaker, ideally familiar with Gulf shoppers, edit product titles, descriptions, collection pages and key landing pages.
- Review the less visible text too: navigation, filters, size guides, shipping and returns policies, email notifications and error messages.
- Decide how you handle brand and product names. Some brands keep them in Latin script, others transliterate. Pick one rule and apply it everywhere.
Keep in mind that some content cannot be translated. Shopify notes that product, article and blog tags cannot be translated, so avoid showing raw tags to shoppers as filter labels in your Arabic storefront.
URL structure and Markets
Each published language gets its own URLs, and you manage language and country combinations through Shopify Markets. The structure depends on whether the market is your primary one. Shopify’s guide to international domains explains that language-only subfolders such as /ar can only exist on your primary market, while secondary markets need a language and country pair such as /ar-sa.
For a UAE-first brand, that typically means the UAE is your primary market, English sits on the root domain and Arabic lives under /ar. If you later expand to Saudi Arabia or other GCC countries as separate markets, those get their own combined subfolders. Subfolders keep everything on one domain, which is simpler to manage.
Two details are worth knowing:
- URL handles for products and collections can be translated into Arabic, but the word products in the path cannot.
- Shopify automatically creates hreflang tags for every international domain or subfolder you set up. These tell Google which page is the English version and which is the Arabic version. You can switch this off in your online store preferences, but if you do, you must add correct hreflang tags to your theme yourself. For most stores, leave it on.
Arabic typography and font choices
Many Latin-script fonts have no Arabic glyphs at all. When that happens, the browser falls back to a system font, so your Arabic pages end up with a different look on every device. Choose a typeface that supports Arabic properly and load it only for the Arabic version.
- Pick a family designed for Arabic. The Arabic filter on Google Fonts is a good starting point, with options such as Noto Naskh Arabic, Noto Kufi Arabic and IBM Plex Sans Arabic. Naskh styles read well in body text, while Kufi styles suit headings and bold brand moments.
- Pair it with your English font. Match weight, contrast and overall feel so both versions look like the same brand.
- Adjust size and line height. Arabic letterforms often look smaller than Latin text at the same size and need more vertical space. Test at small sizes on mobile, especially prices and buttons.
- Avoid letter spacing on Arabic text. Arabic is a connected script, and tracking that looks stylish in English can break the joins between letters.
- Do not use all-caps styling as emphasis. Arabic has no capital letters, so rely on weight or colour instead.
Mirrored UI pitfalls
Flipping a layout is not the same as mirroring everything. These are the most common issues on Arabic storefronts:
Icons
Directional icons, such as back and forward arrows, chevrons on menus and progress indicators, should be mirrored. Icons that represent real objects should not. A shopping bag, a search magnifying glass, a play button or a logo should look the same in both languages.
Carousels and sliders
In an RTL layout, the first slide should sit on the right and the next arrow should point left. Many slider libraries need an explicit RTL setting, and swipe gestures can end up reversed. Test product image galleries and featured collection sliders on a real phone.
Numerals, prices and mixed text
Decide whether your Arabic pages show Western digits (1, 2, 3) or Eastern Arabic digits, and keep it consistent across prices, sizes, phone numbers and order references. Watch mixed-direction strings closely. A price with a currency code, a product name in English or a phone number inside an Arabic sentence can render in the wrong order if the markup is not handled carefully.
Forms and inputs
Fields such as email addresses, URLs and phone numbers are entered left to right even on an Arabic page. Make sure those inputs keep that direction, and that labels and error messages align correctly.
Arabic SEO keyword research
Translating your English keywords is not keyword research. Arabic shoppers in the UAE may search in Arabic, in English, or in a mix, and the words they use do not always match a dictionary translation. Some search in Modern Standard Arabic, some use Gulf terms, and many use transliterated English brand and product names.
- Research Arabic search terms directly in your keyword tool, set to the UAE, rather than translating an English list.
- Look at the Arabic search results for your main categories to see which terms competitors and marketplaces use in titles.
- Write unique Arabic page titles and meta descriptions for your key collections and products. Do not leave them as automatic translations.
- Keep one language per page. Google’s guidance on multi-regional and multilingual sites recommends a single language for content and navigation on each page and advises against side-by-side translations.
- Do not automatically redirect visitors based on their perceived language. Google advises against this because it can stop users and search engines from seeing all versions. Offer a clear language switcher instead.
Checkout in Arabic
Once you publish Arabic, Shopify shows the checkout and email notifications in the shopper’s language. However, Arabic is not one of the languages that Shopify lists as having professional, pre-translated checkout content, and Shopify notes that further checkout language changes need third-party apps.
In practice, that means you should place a full test order in Arabic before launch. Check every step: contact details, address fields, delivery options, payment, error messages, the order confirmation page and the confirmation email. Look at text direction as well as wording, and confirm that payment methods popular with your customers display correctly. If the new customer accounts pages are part of your journey, test those too, because they are controlled by Shopify rather than your theme.
Getting help with your Arabic Shopify store
An Arabic storefront touches design, development, content and SEO at the same time, which is why it is easy to get mostly right and still leave rough edges. ConversionsKing builds and adapts Shopify and Shopify Plus stores for UAE brands, including RTL layouts and bilingual setups. If you want a second pair of eyes on your theme or a full bilingual build, see our custom store design service or learn more about working with our Shopify agency in Dubai.
