Start a project
Start a project Book a call
eCommerce

Checkout design for Gulf shoppers: addresses, phone numbers and payment choices

A screen-by-screen review of a checkout for shoppers in the Gulf: phone numbers, addresses, Arabic forms, error messages and payment choices, with a checklist you can run on a real phone.

ESTASOFT
12 min read
Pink cover with a payment card, form fields and a Pay button, with the title Checkout built for the Gulf
On this page
    On this page

      Picture a shopper in Dubai, Riyadh or Kuwait City at your checkout on a phone. If the form asks for an address in a shape that does not fit, mangles a phone number or offers payment choices the shopper does not use, the shopper may leave. A checkout built for another market can fail in all three ways. Checkout is as much a UI/UX design job as a technical one.

      This article walks through the checkout the way a shopper meets it: contact details, address, language and errors, then payment. For each step it gives a test you can run on a real phone and questions for your courier and payment provider. Facts about Shopify, W3C and noon were read on 4 November 2026. Test every change on your own store.

      What you can change in Shopify checkout

      Know the limits before you plan changes. Shopify's checkout form options include these four settings:

      • Name. First and last name are separate fields by default on new stores. You can choose the option called Only require last name instead.
      • Company name. Don't include, optional or required. Remove it if you do not sell to businesses.
      • Address line 2. Don't include, optional or required. Shopify warns that making it required, or removing it, may stop some customers from buying, depending on their type of home.
      • Shipping address phone number. Optional is the default on new stores. Shopify says to make it required when a payment provider or carrier needs a phone number.

      Shopify's address page adds that you cannot change which regional address fields appear or whether they are required. Checks on format and length are always on. State, province and postal code matching can be switched off only on Shopify Plus. So one form has to work for every country you sell to.

      Contact details and phone numbers

      Treat the phone number as part of delivery. Make it required if your courier or a cash on delivery order needs it, and say why in a short line under the field. The cash on delivery guide for Iraq covers that setting in more depth.

      Then test the field with a number typed three ways: with the country code, in the local style with a zero at the start, and with spaces. Check what checkout accepts, what is saved on the order and what reaches your courier and your messaging tool. Ask those tools which format they expect, then store one format.

      Test digits too. W3C's Arabic layout requirements, a Group Draft Note dated 2 October 2025, list European digits and Arabic-Indic digits as different families that behave differently in bidirectional text. Switch a phone keyboard to Arabic, type a number with Arabic-Indic digits and see whether checkout accepts it, converts it or rejects it with an unhelpful error. Our guide to Arabic layout, fonts and search covers digit style for the whole store.

      Finally, test direction. W3C lists phone numbers, email addresses and street addresses among phrases that can display wrongly inside right-to-left text unless you mark them up, usually with a left-to-right wrapper. For input fields, W3C says setting the dir attribute to auto lets the field take its direction from what the shopper types, and notes some corner cases where it may not give the result you want. Ask your developer to set direction on purpose for the phone and email fields, then check them on a phone in Arabic.

      Addresses

      Run one test order for every country you ship to. Write down which fields appear and which are required. Shopify's address page gives these facts:

      • Regional fields. They appear only for Brazil, Kuwait, Panama, Peru and the Philippines. For Kuwait, the page's table shows a district field labelled Block and a field labelled Apartment, suite, etc., and no street name or building number. Our Kuwait store guide covers this. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Iraq are not named, so run a test order for each to see which fields appear.
      • Autocomplete. The page lists 23 countries. Saudi Arabia is the only one from this group on it. The UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Iraq are not. Test whether address suggestions appear in each country you sell to.
      • Address checks before dispatch. When we read it, the page listed 20 countries for shipping address validation, and none of them was in the Gulf or Iraq. Shopify can change these lists, so check the current list in Shopify's help centre.
      • Apple Pay. Regional address components are not shown with certain accelerated checkouts, such as Apple Pay. Test the card route and the wallet route separately.

      So, as the lists stood when we read them, plan for typed addresses with no automatic check. Ask your courier what a driver needs in each country, and whether it accepts a map location or a landmark. Ask whether a Saudi short address is used, and where a shopper should type it: our Saudi Arabia store guide describes it. Add a confirmation step before dispatch, by call or message, for orders where the address looks thin. Keep address line 2 optional, and try an address without a postal code to see which error appears.

      Arabic, direction and error messages

      Shopify's help page says checkout appears in the language the customer browses in, and that checkout has default translations for some languages. It does not list the languages and does not mention Arabic or right-to-left layout. So test the full Arabic checkout, including the payment step and the confirmation email, and see our test plan for a bilingual website. If you use an external payment provider, remember that Shopify says it sends customers to a checkout page hosted outside your store. Check the language and direction of that page too.

      Shopify also lets you change default checkout wording, such as the message for a field left blank, under Settings, Checkout. Rewrite the messages you see most so each one names the field and says what to do. A message such as Enter your mobile number with the country code helps. A bare Invalid does not. Use the same tone in Arabic and English.

      WCAG 2.2, a W3C Recommendation dated 12 December 2024, includes success criterion 1.3.5 at level AA. It asks that the purpose of fields collecting information about the user can be determined by software. Ask your developer how the name, phone and address fields meet it.

      Payment choices

      noon's help page shows one way a retailer lists choices. It names cards (Visa, Mastercard and American Express), cash on delivery, Apple Pay in select countries, a wallet for noon credits, and a mix of wallet balance with cash or card. The page names no countries and says nothing about how often shoppers use each. Use your own order data for that.

      On Shopify, check these points:

      • Provider. The provider list depends on the store address in Settings, General. When we read Shopify's supported-countries list, the UAE was the only Gulf country on it. A changelog post dated 26 August 2026 says merchants in the UAE on the Advanced plan can now use Shopify Payments. Plans and countries can change, so check the current list. Elsewhere you use a third-party provider, and you can have only one credit card provider active at a time.
      • Local methods and pay later. Shopify files these under Additional payment methods. Availability depends on the market, and fees can apply.
      • Cash on delivery. It is a manual payment method. You can add details shown at checkout and instructions shown on the confirmation page, and the order stays unpaid until you mark it paid. Say what the shopper must have ready when the courier arrives. See connecting couriers and payment gateways.
      • Order of methods. Payment customization apps can sort, reorder, hide and rename methods on plans from Basic upwards, though credit card settings are limited on stores that are not on Plus. Put first the method your own orders show most.
      • Failed payments. Shopify's troubleshooting page lists causes of 3D Secure failures: closing the verification window, timeouts, and no push notification from the bank app. It also says a pending charge without an order is an authorization hold that may show on the bank statement for up to 30 days, depending on the bank. Write a support reply for both.

      Shopify's test orders page describes a test gateway, test mode for Shopify Payments, and the warning that live orders cannot be placed while a provider is in test mode. A real payment followed by a cancel and refund is possible, but the processor may charge fees.

      A checkout review checklist

      Run this on a real phone, once in Arabic and once in English, for each country you sell to.

      1. Only fields you use are shown. Company name is removed unless you sell to businesses.
      2. Phone is required if a courier or cash order needs it, and a line explains why.
      3. A number typed with country code, with a zero at the start and with spaces all work. One format is stored.
      4. A number typed with Arabic-Indic digits is accepted or converted.
      5. Phone and email values read in the right order inside an Arabic page.
      6. Every country's address fields were checked against what your courier needs.
      7. The Apple Pay route shows enough address detail to deliver.
      8. A thin address triggers a call or message before dispatch.
      9. Error messages name the field, say what to do and read well in both languages.
      10. The external payment page, if any, matches the language and direction.
      11. Payment methods are ordered by your own order data.
      12. Cash on delivery instructions appear at checkout and on the confirmation page.
      13. A failed 3D Secure payment shows a clear path to try again or pick another method.
      14. Confirmation emails arrive in the shopper's language.
      15. Test mode is off after testing.

      Questions for your courier and payment provider

      • What must the address contain in each country, and do you accept a map location or landmark?
      • Which phone format do you need, and do you call before delivery?
      • Which name and script go on the waybill?
      • Which methods will a shopper in each country see at my checkout, and in which currency?
      • What happens when a card payment fails at the bank step?
      • How does cash reach me, and what happens if the shopper refuses the parcel?

      A phone number and an address are personal data. Tell shoppers why you ask and who sees them, and ask a local adviser which data rules apply in each country. This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rules or ask a qualified adviser before you decide.

      Need a hand?

      ESTASOFT can help with UI/UX design for your store. To start, send a short brief on the contact page.

      Sources

      Written by
      ESTASOFT

      Need help with a project?

      Share a short brief. We reply with next steps.

      Start a project Book a call

      Book a call

      30 minutes. Free.

      Tell us about your project and we will suggest a time.

      Send a request

      Or email us at info@estasoft.com

      Cookie preferences

      Necessary

      Needed for the site to work. Always on.

      Always on

      Preferences

      Remember choices such as language and region.

      Analytics

      Help us understand which pages are useful.

      Marketing

      Used to measure and improve campaigns.