Shopify Plus migration in the UAE and Saudi Arabia: 2026 guide

A Shopify Plus migration in the UAE or Saudi Arabia takes most mid-size stores 6 to 14 weeks. You move products, customers and order history, rebuild the theme with Arabic and right-to-left layouts, map every old URL to a 301 redirect, set up AED and SAR through Shopify Markets, connect Tabby, Tamara and cash on delivery, then cut over in one planned window. Shopify Plus starts from USD 2,300 a month on Shopify’s own pricing page, so it is only worth it once your volume, team or checkout needs outgrow the Advanced plan.

We are a Shopify and Shopify Plus agency in Dubai that plans and runs migrations, so this guide reflects how we do it, including the cases where we would tell you not to move yet. Payment and pricing details are general information at the time of writing (November 2026), not legal, tax or financial advice.

Key takeaways

• Plan redirects first. Every old URL needs a 301 to its new Shopify URL, or you lose rankings.
• Customer passwords never move. Shoppers sign in with a one-time code instead.
• Arabic is a theme question too. Confirm right-to-left support before translating.
• Charging in SAR depends on your gateway. Only Shopify Payments or Adyen as the primary gateway can charge in a customer’s local currency.
• Upgrading from Advanced is a plan change, not a migration. Your data stays put.
• Plus is not always the right step. Many GCC stores do well on Advanced for years.

What does Shopify Plus cost in 2026?

At the time of writing, Shopify’s UAE pricing page lists Plus “from $2,300/mo” in US dollars, sold on a 1-year or 3-year subscription. Shopify’s FAQ says a 3-year term comes with a monthly discount and lower online variable platform fees, and that you can cancel or downgrade when the term ends. Higher-volume stores pay a variable platform fee that Shopify does not publish, so get a written quote from Shopify.

The third-party gateway fee matters in the Gulf because Tabby, Tamara and most local card gateways count as third-party gateways. On a BNPL-heavy store, the drop from 0.6% to 0.2% offsets part of the subscription. Our guide to Shopify payment gateways in the UAE explains how those fees stack.

What moves to Shopify Plus, and what does not?

Each source platform exports data differently, but the pattern is the same. Shopify’s own WooCommerce migration guide is a good example: its free Store Migration app imports products and customers from CSV files, imported products arrive as drafts, product reviews are not in the export, orders cannot be imported by CSV, and customer passwords cannot be migrated.

How do you migrate to Shopify Plus, step by step?

1. Audit the current store. List pages that earn traffic, every plugin, integration and payment method. Export top landing pages from Search Console.
2. Decide what not to migrate. Discontinued products, thin tag pages and unused plugins.
3. Map the data. Agree how attributes become Shopify options, metafields or collections.
4. Build the theme in English and Arabic together, rather than flipping the English layout at the end.
5. Run test imports. Import a sample, check it, fix the mapping, then run the full import.
6. Set up Markets, payments, shipping and tax for each GCC country, including Tabby, Tamara, COD and couriers.
7. Build and test the redirect map. One row for every old URL, tested before launch.
8. Test real orders with cards, BNPL and COD, in both languages, on real phones.
9. Cut over using the checklist below.

Moving from WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most straightforward source because Shopify documents it directly. Watch for plugins that hold business logic, such as bundles or custom checkout fields. Products with four or more variation attributes import without variants.

Moving from Magento (Adobe Commerce)

Shopify’s help centre has no Magento-specific guide, so the usual route is a third-party migration app or a custom import through the Admin API. Store views and customer groups map to Shopify Markets, B2B and Functions, so budget more discovery time.

Moving from Salla or Zid

Many Saudi stores start on Salla or Zid. Shopify has no first-party importer for either platform, so check what your plan lets you export as spreadsheets and through each platform’s API, then import with a migration app or a script. Confirm that Arabic text survives export and import without encoding damage before the full run.

Upgrading from Shopify Advanced

Moving from Advanced to Plus happens on the same store. Products, customers, orders and URLs stay where they are, and there are no redirects to write. The work is in what Plus unlocks: checkout extensions, Shopify Functions, B2B and expansion stores. If you still relied on Shopify Scripts, note that Shopify stopped running them on June 30, 2026, so any logic they held must already be rebuilt as Functions or apps. Our Shopify Plus development team handles this kind of upgrade.

How do you keep your SEO when you migrate?

Shopify uses fixed URL patterns such as /products/ and /collections/, so almost every URL on a WooCommerce, Magento, Salla or Zid store will change. Shopify’s URL redirect documentation explains how to import redirects in bulk from a CSV. Standard stores can hold up to 100,000 redirects and Plus stores up to 20 million. A redirect only fires when the old URL no longer loads a live page.

• Redirect every URL with traffic or backlinks to its closest match, not the homepage.
• Keep Arabic and English URLs paired, so old /ar/ pages land on Arabic pages.
• Carry over titles, meta descriptions and alt text, and keep copy unchanged for the first weeks.
• Submit the sitemap on launch day and check 404s daily for two weeks.

What happens to customer passwords?

Passwords are encrypted on the old platform and cannot be moved to Shopify. With Shopify’s current customer accounts, imported customers sign in with their email address and a one-time verification code, so they never need to set a password. Only stores still on legacy customer accounts need to invite customers to create one. Either way, send a bilingual email at launch explaining the new sign-in.

How do you handle Arabic and right-to-left content?

Shopify’s language requirements allow up to 20 languages on Basic to Advanced and up to 30 on Plus. They also state that the latest Horizon-family themes support right-to-left languages such as Arabic, and that with any other theme you should confirm RTL support so the layout is correct. Check mirrored layouts, Arabic fonts on phones and flipped arrows, translate notification emails as well as products, and have a native speaker review. Our Arabic Shopify store guide goes deeper.

How do you sell in AED and SAR with Shopify Markets?

Set up each GCC country as a market with its own currency, prices and shipping. The catch is payments. Shopify’s Markets payments documentation says only stores with Shopify Payments or Adyen as the primary gateway can charge customers in their local currency. With any other gateway, SAR is only a display price and the customer pays in your store currency. Shopify’s supported countries list includes the UAE but not Saudi Arabia or the other GCC states, so a Saudi-only entity cannot use Shopify Payments. Settle your entity and gateway plan before you design the Saudi market.

How do Tabby, Tamara and cash on delivery work after migration?

Both BNPL providers run their own merchant approval, so apply early. Tabby’s Shopify setup uses its payments app plus six webhooks. Tabby accepts AED and SAR, the currency must match the customer’s billing country, and Shopify order numbers reach Tabby only through those webhooks. Tamara’s Shopify payment app needs a Tamara merchant account and does not support test mode, so plan a small live test order. Cash on delivery is a manual payment method in Shopify. If you hid or reordered payment methods with Scripts on the old store, rebuild those rules with Functions-based apps. See Tabby and Tamara on Shopify and cash on delivery on Shopify for setup details.

How long does a Shopify Plus migration take?

These are typical ranges for planning, not a quote. Catalogue size, custom logic, integrations and how fast your team gives feedback all move them.

Some phases overlap. Avoid launching just before Ramadan or White Friday.

Cutover checklist for launch day

1. Freeze product and content changes on the old store 24 to 48 hours before launch.
2. Run the final delta import of orders and customers created since the full import.
3. Upload the redirect CSV and spot-check your top 50 URLs.
4. Lower DNS TTL in advance, then point the domain to Shopify and confirm SSL is active.
5. Place live test orders with cards, Apple Pay, Tabby, Tamara and COD, in Arabic and English, in AED and SAR.
6. Confirm order notifications, courier labels and ERP or accounting sync.
7. Check analytics, the Meta and Google pixels, and Search Console verification.
8. Submit the sitemap and send the bilingual “new store” email to customers.
9. Keep the old platform read-only for at least 30 days for reference and order lookups.

When is Shopify Plus not worth it yet?

Plus costs several times more than Advanced and only pays back when you use what it unlocks. Stay on Advanced if:

• Your checkout needs are covered by apps and standard settings, and you do not need checkout extensions or custom Functions.
• You sell in one or two countries from one store and do not need expansion stores.
• You have no B2B or wholesale channel, or three B2B catalogs are enough for it.
• Your team fits within 15 staff accounts.

Migrating to Advanced is the same project with a smaller bill, and upgrading later is a plan change.

When you do not need an agency

A store with a few hundred products, one language, no custom integrations and modest organic traffic can often move itself with Shopify’s Store Migration app, a Shopify theme that supports RTL and a careful redirect spreadsheet. Hire help when organic search drives much of your revenue, when you run two languages and currencies, or when an ERP is involved. Our migration and launch service covers that full scope, and our Shopify agency cost guide explains what drives the budget.

FAQ

How much does Shopify Plus cost in the UAE?

Shopify’s UAE pricing page lists Plus from USD 2,300 a month on a 1- or 3-year term at the time of writing, with online card rates from 2.5% + AED 1.00 through Shopify Payments. Larger stores pay a variable platform fee that Shopify quotes directly.

Will I lose my Google rankings when I migrate to Shopify?

Expect some movement for a few weeks. A complete redirect map and unchanged content keep the dip small. Missing redirects cause most lasting losses.

Can a Saudi company use Shopify Payments?

Not with a Saudi-only entity at the time of writing, because Saudi Arabia is not on Shopify’s supported countries list. Saudi stores usually combine a local card gateway, Tabby or Tamara, and COD.

How long does a Shopify migration with an agency in Dubai take?

For a typical WooCommerce, Salla or Zid store, 6 to 10 weeks from audit to launch. Magento stores and stores with ERP integrations take longer. An upgrade from Advanced to Plus usually takes 3 to 6 weeks.

If you are weighing a move to Shopify Plus, talk to us about your store. We will tell you whether Plus, Advanced or staying put makes most sense, and what a migration would really involve.