Ecommerce App Development Cost in UAE vs Saudi Arabia vs Qatar- A Complete Breakdown

Retail eCommerce Market Overview in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar

The eCommerce market in UAE, KSA, and Qatar is booming. This is driven by high internet penetration, digital transformation, and changing consumer behaviors. This makes entrepreneurs, business owners, and individuals with a strong vision of selling products or services online look for eCommerce mobile app development.

Let’s examine the ecommerce market in these three top Middle Eastern countries to understand the future market potential.

eCommerce Market Overview - United Arab Emirates

• With a population of 11.3 million, the UAE is the 43rd largest retail eCommerce market in the world.
• The retail eCommerce market of the UAE is projected to have an estimated revenue of $8 billion by the end of 2025.
• The UAE’s eCommerce market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 6.02% between 2025 and 2029.
• In the UAE, the retail eCommerce market is expected to generate a revenue of $10.11 billion by 2029.
• The number of online shoppers is expected to reach 5.7 million with a user penetration of 58% by 2029.

Market Overview - Saudi Arabia

• Saudi Arabia’s eCommerce market is projected to generate a revenue of $16.53 billion by the end of 2025.
• With a CAGR of 9.91%, the eCommerce market of KSA will reach a projected market volume of $24.13 billion by 2029.
• The number of active users in the eCommerce market will reach 19.3 million by 2029.
  The user penetration rate is expected to hit 49.4% by 2029 in KSA.
• In Saudi Arabia, the average revenue per user is expected to amount to $1,300 by the financial year of 2029.

eCommerce Market Overview - Qatar

• Compared to the UAE and KSA, Qatar is a small but growing market for eCommerce that ranks at 96th position worldwide.
• Qatar’s eCommerce market is projected to generate a revenue of $3.72 billion in 2025.
• Qatar is expected to show an annual growth rate of 8.01% in eCommerce between the 2025 and 2029 financial years.
• The country will reach a higher average revenue per user (ARPU) than the UAE and KSA of over $3,000 by 2029.
• In 2029, Qatar will have 1.6 million active online shoppers.

3 Reasons to Build eCommerce App in UAE, KSA & Qatar

Businesses are investing in app development to stay competitive in today’s market with increasing preference for mobile shopping. eCommerce app development in the UAE, KSA, and Qatar region offers immense growth opportunities and enhances customer engagement and sales.

Let’s examine the 3 reasons why to build an ecommerce app for your business:

1Increased Sales and Revenue

Businesses in the UAE, KSA, and Qatar have been experiencing a surge in online shopping, with customers preferring eCommerce apps. Such a digital solution gives a seamless shopping experience and allows businesses to offer personalized deals. Additionally, the push notifications and smoother checkout process increase conversions and boost overall sales and revenue.

2Enhanced Customer Experience

When an eCommerce app is well designed, it provides a user-friendly interface, faster navigation, and secure payment options that ensure a hassle-free shopping experience. A well-designed ecommerce app comes with features like AI-driven recommendations, real-time order tracking, and multiple payment gateways. This helps businesses enhance customer satisfaction and build long-term brand loyalty in these competitive markets.

3Direct Marketing Reach

A well-designed eCommerce app allows businesses to engage customers directly through push notifications, personalized promotions, and in-app advertisements. The application works as a direct communication channel between businesses and customers. This helps businesses drive higher engagement, improve customer retention, and increase conversion rates. Eventually, eCommerce app development becomes a cost-effective and efficient way to market the products and services.

Also Read: How To Promote Your E-commerce App?

Top 15 Features for an eCommerce App

It is essential to incorporate the right features into your ecommerce mobile app development. Integrating the right features enhances user experience and helps businesses generate more revenue. The features that you must integrate into your ecommerce app are as follows:

1Simple Authorization

A seamless login process improves user experience and retention. Implement social media logins, email authentication, or OTP-based verification to make sign-ups and logins quick, secure, and hassle-free.

2User Profile

A personalized user profile allows customers to manage their details, track orders, save payment methods, and view purchase history. It enhances engagement by enabling customized recommendations and a seamless shopping experience.

3Search & Filter

An advanced search and filter system helps users quickly find desired products. Features like category-based filters, price range selection, and keyword suggestions improve product discovery and boost conversions.

4Push Notifications

Timely push notifications keep users engaged by informing them about discounts, new arrivals, and order updates. Personalized notifications based on browsing behavior encourage repeat visits and enhance customer retention.

5Shopping Cart

A well-optimized shopping cart ensures a smooth buying journey. It should allow users to add, remove, and modify items easily while providing a clear price breakdown and estimated delivery details.

6Shipping Options

Offering multiple shipping methods, including standard, express, and same-day delivery, enhances flexibility. Integration with reliable courier services ensures timely deliveries and improves customer satisfaction.

7Payment Systems

A secure and diverse payment system supports multiple options like credit/debit cards, digital wallets, UPI, and BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later). Integrating multiple payment systems while eCommerce app development ensures seamless transactions and builds trust among users.

8Simple Checkout

A streamlined checkout process reduces cart abandonment. Features like guest checkout, auto-fill address options, and multiple payment choices enhance convenience and speed up the purchase process.

9Product Reviews

User-generated reviews and ratings help build credibility and influence purchasing decisions. Verified customer feedback ensures transparency, fosters trust, and helps businesses improve their product offerings.

10Order Tracking

Real-time order tracking enhances transparency and customer confidence. Integration with logistics partners provides live updates, estimated delivery times, and notifications about shipping status.

11Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots provide 24/7 assistance, resolving customer queries instantly. They enhance user engagement, reduce response time, and improve customer satisfaction by offering automated support and personalized recommendations.

12Analytics and Reporting

A robust analytics system helps businesses track sales, customer behavior, and product performance. Detailed insights enable data-driven decisions, optimizing marketing strategies and improving overall business growth.

13Inventory Management

Effective inventory management prevents stockouts and overstocking. Automated tracking of stock levels, product availability, and supplier management ensures smooth operations and better customer satisfaction.

14Wishlist and Favorite

A wishlist feature allows users to save desired products for future purchases. It enhances user engagement, encourages return visits, and increases conversions by reminding customers about their saved items.

15Multi-Language and Currency Support

Providing multilingual and multi-currency support helps businesses cater to a global audience. Localization improves accessibility, enhances user experience, and boosts international sales in diverse markets.

These are the 15 features that your eCommerce app should incorporate. The type and number of features decide the overall eCommerce app development cost. However, several more reasons affect the app cost. Let’s examine them all.

Also Read: Create an Ecommerce App Like Namshi!

6 Key Factors That Influence eCommerce App Development Cost

Before assessing the real cost of development, it is imperative to evaluate the elements that influence the cost. Well, the factors that influence eCommerce app development costs in UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are as follows:

1App Complexity & Features

App complexity is the biggest factor that affects overall app development cost. It refers to the level of difficulty in designing, developing, and maintaining a mobile application. The complexity is determined by factors like the number of features, user interactions, data processing needs, integrations with other systems, and architecture. The features that you integrate into your ecommerce app, for example, AI-based recommendations, push notifications, and search filters, require time for coding, testing, and optimizing, which affects the cost.

Let’s understand the factors that determine the complexity of your eCommerce app:

• The number of basic, medium, or advanced features you integrate.
• Your business needs, requirements, or logic complexity.
• The number of screens, functions, buttons, etc., is incorporated.
• Complexity of the architecture of the app and customer support, like live chat.

Analyze the complexity or features that you get in the basic, medium, and advanced apps.

2Development Approach

Device makers use a variety of operating systems, each with its own set of languages and frameworks. This leads businesses or development teams to know for which operating system they’re building the application, for example, iOS, Android, or hybrid. An app created for iOS can’t run on an Android phone. It is essential to follow the development approach according to your business demand, target audience, and budget. The development approaches you get are native, cross-platform, and hybrid, which of course have different price ranges.

Let’s analyze the eCommerce mobile app development approaches and their development costs one by one:

• Native App

Native apps are built for a single platform, including iOS or Android, using platform-specific languages like Swift or Kotlin. They offer the best performance, seamless user experience, and full access to device features. However, development costs are higher since separate apps must be built for each platform, increasing both time and resources.

• Cross Platform App

Cross-platform apps use frameworks like Flutter or React Native to create a single codebase that runs on both iOS and Android. Building this type of app reduces development time and costs while maintaining near-native performance. Cross-platform apps offer efficiency, but they may not fully leverage all device-specific capabilities, potentially leading to performance limitations compared to native apps.

• Hybrid App

Using frameworks like Ionic or Cordova, hybrid apps blend native components with web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). Because they are cross-platform compatible, they are quicker and less expensive to develop. However, they rely on web views, which can affect performance and user experience, making them less suitable for high-performance applications.

3User Experience Design

The design and usability of an app are vital for retaining customers and offering a seamless experience. A well-designed app that provides smooth navigation, easy checkout, and personalized features can be more costly but will add significant value. The cost of designing the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) will increase with the level of complexity and custom design.

4Testing and Quality Assurance

Every eCommerce app needs rigorous testing to ensure its functionality, performance, and security are top-notch. This includes unit testing, integration testing, usability testing, and performance testing. The more complex the app and the more features it has, the higher the testing cost will be, especially if you need extensive quality assurance and bug fixes post-launch.

5Ongoing Maintenance & Updates

After the app is launched, continuous maintenance and updates are essential to keep the app running smoothly and to address issues like bugs, performance issues, and security vulnerabilities. Moreover, you’ll need to update the app regularly with new features, functionalities, and improvements, which also incur costs. The frequency of updates and the scale of the maintenance will directly affect the budget.

6Development Team & Location

An eCommerce app developer plays an essential role in influencing the overall eCommerce app development cost. The location of your development team plays a crucial role in determining the overall eCommerce app development cost. Development teams in regions like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar typically charge higher rates due to the cost of living and industry standards. However, outsourcing development to other regions may lower costs but can introduce challenges in communication, cultural differences, and time zones.

The size and expertise of the development team will also impact costs. A larger, highly experienced team may provide faster development but come with a higher price tag, while a smaller team might offer cost savings but require more time for development.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an eCommerce App?

eCommerce app development cost depends on several factors, including app complexity, features, development approach, and location of the development team. On average, building a basic eCommerce app can cost between $10,000 and $20,000. For medium apps, it can cost between $20,000 and $40,000. For more complex apps with advanced features like AI recommendations, live chat support, or AR/VR integration, the cost can range from $40,000 to $100,000 or more.

However, businesses looking to reduce costs, opting for a white-label or pre-built solution can significantly lower the price. These ready-made solutions often come with customizable features, allowing businesses to launch quickly and at a fraction of the cost of custom app development.

These affordable, high-quality on demand white-label eCommerce app solutions cater to UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar businesses. Whether you need a basic app with essential features or a highly specialized eCommerce platform, white-label solutions meet your business needs without breaking the bank.

Here’s a table that outlines the general eCommerce app development cost range for developing a basic, medium, and advanced eCommerce app, as well as the cost of a white-label eCommerce app:

How Long Does it Take to Develop an eCommerce App?

eCommerce app development can vary based on the complexity of the app, the development approach, and the features you wish to include. A basic app typically takes around 1 to 2 months to develop, while a medium-complexity app can take 2 to 4 months.

For highly advanced apps with custom UI/UX, advanced AI features, or integration with third-party platforms, the development timeline can extend to 4 to 8 months or longer. The timeline can also be shortened with white-label solutions, as these apps are pre-built and only require customization to meet specific business requirements.

These on demand pre-built solutions can help businesses launch their eCommerce apps within weeks. White label eCommerce app development process ensures that apps are optimized for user experience, security, and scalability while minimizing development time. Whether you're building from scratch or customizing a white-label eCommerce app, both will help you automate, streamline and scale your business.

Comparing Costs in UAE, Saudi Arabia & Qatar

The cost of eCommerce mobile app development varies significantly across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. This is due to differences in the tech ecosystem, labor costs, and the local market's demand for digital solutions.

In the UAE, development costs are generally higher than KSA and Qatar. The reasons behind this are advanced infrastructure, skilled workforce, and demand for cutting-edge features in the country. eCommerce app development cost in UAE can range from $20,000 to $150,000, depending on the complexity and customization.

However, businesses in the UAE have started investing in a more affordable alternative, a white-label solution. These on-demand pre-built solutions can be customized to fit the needs of UAE businesses at a reduced cost. Businesses are launching ecommerce apps by incorporating white label solutions for between $5,000 and $40,000, depending on customization and business requirements.

In Saudi Arabia, the app development costs are typically lower than in the UAE but still significant due to growing demand in the eCommerce space. Businesses pay between $15,000 and $120,000 for ecommerce solutions, depending on the app's complexity. To avoid the development time and to launch the app quickly, businesses choose a white-label eCommerce app. These cost-effective, scalable solutions allow Saudi businesses to save on development costs without compromising quality.

In Qatar, eCommerce app development is relatively new but growing rapidly. The eCommerce app development cost is comparable to Saudi Arabia, ranging from $12,000 to $100,000. White-label solutions offer businesses in Qatar an affordable, faster route to launching their eCommerce platforms.

Each region has its own cost factors, but white-label solutions ensure businesses in all three countries can achieve high-quality results at a competitive price.

5 Steps to Build an eCommerce App

Building a successful eCommerce app requires a strategic approach. This involves several phases to ensure the app meets user needs, business goals, and industry standards. Here are the 5 essential steps to develop an eCommerce app:

1Define Your Business Requirements & Target Audience

Before you begin development, it’s crucial to clearly define your business goals, target audience, and specific requirements for the eCommerce app. Ask yourself questions like:

• What types of products will you sell?
• What features do you need (for example, product search, shopping cart, payment gateway)
• Who is your target market (age, demographics, preferences)?

By understanding your audience and business needs, you can make informed decisions about the design and functionality of your app.

2Choose the Right Development Approach

Depending on your budget, timeline, and the desired user experience, you will need to choose an appropriate development approach. The main options are:

• Native Apps (iOS or Android-specific, offering the best performance but higher costs)
• Cross-Platform Apps (single codebase for both platforms, more cost-effective)
• Hybrid Apps (a mix of web technologies and native components, ideal for quick, cost-effective launches)

Each approach comes with its pros and cons, so carefully assess your needs and consult with a development team to choose the best option.

3Design the User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX)

The design of your eCommerce app plays a critical role in attracting and retaining customers. The UI and UX design should be intuitive, visually appealing, and optimized for mobile usage. Key elements include:

• Easy navigation and a simple, clean interface
• Fast loading times
• Seamless checkout process
• Personalization features like wishlists or saved preferences

A great design ensures a smooth and engaging user experience, which directly influences customer satisfaction and retention.

4Develop & Integrate Essential Features

This step involves building the app and integrating crucial eCommerce features:

Product Catalog: Display products with filtering, sorting, and search options.

Shopping Cart & Checkout: A simple and secure checkout flow with multiple payment options.

User Accounts: Allow customers to create and manage accounts for a personalized shopping experience.

Security: Implement SSL encryption, secure payment gateways, and data protection.

Push Notifications: Engage users with timely updates, offers, or order status notifications.

Collaborate closely with the development team to ensure these features are implemented effectively and securely.

5Test, Launch & Maintain the App

Once your app is developed, it must undergo rigorous testing to ensure it works smoothly on various devices and platforms. Testing should include:

Functional Testing: Ensure all features work as intended.

Usability Testing: Test the app’s user-friendliness and UI/UX.

Performance Testing: Check the app’s speed and responsiveness.

Security Testing: Ensure data and payment details are secure.

After testing, launch your app and monitor its performance. Post-launch, regularly update the app with new features, bug fixes, and maintenance to ensure the app stays relevant and functional.

By following these 5 steps, you can complete the eCommerce app development process that not only meets your business objectives but also delivers an exceptional experience for your customers. In case you can’t wait for months for the development, choose a white-label eCommerce app. A white-label app streamlines this process, allowing businesses to launch quickly and affordably.

Also Read: Create an eCommerce App Like Amazon!

Cost-Effective Tips to Build an eCommerce App

eCommerce mobile app development costs can be low when you follow some tips before app development. The tips that you must consider before eCommerce app development are as follows:

• Choose a White-Label Solution

Opt for a pre-built, customizable app solution to save time and money. White-label apps offer essential eCommerce features and can be branded to suit your business needs.

• Focus on Core Features

Start with essential features like product listings, shopping cart, and payment integration. Avoid unnecessary features in the initial launch and add advanced ones later.

• Leverage Cross-Platform Development

Instead of building separate apps for iOS and Android, use cross-platform frameworks like Flutter or React Native to reduce development costs and time.

• Use Open-Source Tools & Frameworks

Leverage free or open-source eCommerce platforms (for example, WooCommerce, Magento) to save on licensing and development costs.

• Outsource Development Wisely

Choose an experienced, cost-effective development team, possibly offshore, without compromising quality. Consider using local developers if your business operates regionally, like in UAE, Saudi Arabia, or Qatar.

• Iterative Development

Start with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and gather user feedback before scaling or adding advanced features.

Choose Quickworks for eCommerce App Development

Quickworks is an on-demand eCommerce app development company. We specialize in delivering on-demand eCommerce app development solutions that cater to businesses of all sizes. Whether you're looking for a custom-built app or an affordable white-label or pre-built app solution, we provide scalable, flexible, and cost-effective options that can be tailored to your specific needs. Our ready-made solutions are quick to deploy, saving you both time and money, while our custom app development ensures that your business stands out with unique features.

We’ve experienced developers who work closely with you to ensure that your app is not only functional but also optimized for a seamless user experience. We understand the importance of timely delivery, security, and performance in the competitive eCommerce market.

Reasons to Choose Quickworks:

Cost-Effective Solutions: Affordable white-label and pre-built eCommerce app options.

Quick Deployment: Fast setup and launch with minimal development time.

Customizable Features: Tailor the app to your business needs and branding.

Expert Developers: Highly experienced team with industry-specific knowledge.

Scalability: Solutions that grow with your business and traffic demands.

User-Centric Design: Focus on providing an intuitive and engaging user experience.

So what are you waiting for? Partner with us to elevate your eCommerce business. Drive the sales and revenue that you deserve with a powerful, scalable, and user-friendly eCommerce app!

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