Question 1

Which payment gateways can my online store use?

Accepted Answer

Egypt: Fawaterak, Paymob, Kashier. Saudi Arabia: Moyasar, Tap, HyperPay with mada and STC Pay. UAE: Telr, Tap, PayTabs. You need a commercial registration and a business bank account, then test keys before live keys.

Question 2

How do I choose the right hosting for an online store?

Accepted Answer

Choose by database load and traffic pattern, not by disk space. A new store runs well on shared hosting with LiteSpeed, SSL and daily backups; move to a VPS when checkout slows during campaigns or the catalogue grows large. Card data is handled by the payment gateway, so your server never stores it.

Question 3

How do I build an online store step by step?

Accepted Answer

Build an online store in nine steps: choose a platform, register a domain, order hosting, add products and photos, connect a payment gateway, set shipping, publish policy pages, place a test order, then launch. Do the test order with a real payment and a cash-on-delivery order before you go public.

Question 4

How do I install WooCommerce on my hosting?

Accepted Answer

Install WordPress from Softaculous in cPanel, then add the WooCommerce plugin from Plugins > Add New and activate it. The setup wizard asks for your store address, currency, tax and shipping; finish it, set EGP, SAR or AED in Settings > General, add a shipping zone and publish your first product.

Question 5

How do I connect a payment gateway to my store?

Accepted Answer

Open a merchant account, paste the test API keys into your store, add the callback and webhook URL in the gateway dashboard, then run a test payment with the gateway's test cards. Only after a successful test do you switch to live keys and place one small real order.

Question 6

How do I set up shipping for my online store?

Accepted Answer

Create one shipping zone per delivery area, add a flat rate or weight-based rate to each zone, then connect a courier such as Aramex, Bosta, SMSA or J&T. Enable cash on delivery only in the zones where the courier collects cash, and put the COD fee inside the shipping price.

Question 7

Why are my store visitors not completing checkout?

Accepted Answer

Checkout abandonment usually comes from a slow page, forced registration, too many form fields, no cash on delivery, late shipping costs, weak trust signals, or a failing payment. Check your funnel numbers first, then fix the causes in that order and test each one on a real phone.

Question 8

How do I move my store to a new platform?

Accepted Answer

Export products, customers and orders, import them into the new platform, map every old URL to a 301 redirect, then test the new store on a temporary address before you switch DNS. Keep the old store running until the new one has taken real orders.

Question 9

How do I write product descriptions that sell?

Accepted Answer

Answer three things fast: what the product is, what it does for the buyer, and why this one. Use a one-line summary, three to five benefit bullets, then full specs, sizes and materials, written in your own words in both Arabic and English.

Question 10

How do I photograph my products without a studio?

Accepted Answer

Shoot next to a large window on an overcast day, put the product on a plain white or grey surface, and use your phone with the grid on and HDR off. Keep the same angle, distance and background for every product so the catalogue looks consistent.

Question 11

How do I handle returns and refunds in my store?

Accepted Answer

Publish one clear returns policy page that states the window, the condition of the goods, who pays the shipping and how the money comes back. Link it from the footer, the product page and the checkout, and follow it the same way for every customer.

Question 12

How do I reduce cash on delivery failed orders?

Accepted Answer

Verify the phone number at checkout, confirm every order by WhatsApp before dispatch, collect a clean address with a landmark, and pick a courier that calls before arriving. For repeat offenders and high value orders, ask for partial prepayment.

Question 13

How do I set up abandoned cart recovery?

Accepted Answer

Capture the email or phone early in checkout, then send a short reminder about an hour after the cart is left, a second the next day and a last one after a few days. Use WhatsApp where buyers reply on WhatsApp, and measure recovered revenue, not open rates.

Question 14

What legal pages does my online store need?

Accepted Answer

At minimum: terms and conditions, privacy policy, returns and refunds, shipping and delivery, and a contact page with a real address and phone. Publish them in Arabic and English, link them in the footer and at checkout, before you apply for a payment gateway.

Question 15

How do I organise my product categories?

Accepted Answer

Keep the structure shallow, name categories the way customers name them, and use filters for attributes such as size, colour and price rather than creating a category for each. Every product should sit in one main category.

Question 16

How do I prepare my store for a sale season?

Accepted Answer

Start two to four weeks before the season: confirm stock, test speed under load, build a permanent offers page, agree shipping capacity, prepare customer messages, and run a full test purchase. Freeze risky changes in the final week.

Question 17

How do I speed up a slow WooCommerce store?

Accepted Answer

Measure the cart and checkout separately, because those pages cannot be page cached and are where a store loses its speed. Object caching, a clean database, lighter product images, fewer variations and fewer checkout scripts do more than any general speed tip.

Question 18

How do I set up taxes and invoices in my store?

Accepted Answer

Enable tax calculation, decide whether prices are entered inclusive or exclusive of tax, and whether tax follows your shop address or the customer's, then make the invoice show seller, buyer, a sequential number, date, items and the tax on its own line. Rates and requirements are set by each country's authority, so your accountant confirms the setup.

Question 19

How do I secure my online store and protect customer data?

Accepted Answer

Let the payment gateway hold card data so your store never does, keep admin accounts few and protected by two-step verification, update the platform and plugins on a schedule, and keep backups off the server. Treat the order export as sensitive customer data.

Question 20

How do I keep stock in sync across my store and marketplaces?

Accepted Answer

Perfect sync does not exist, because every channel updates on its own schedule. Let one system hold the true count, keep a buffer on fast moving lines, choose tools by sync frequency rather than feature count, and plan the response to an oversell before it happens.

Question 21

How do I connect my product catalogue to Google and Meta?

Accepted Answer

You need a product feed with the required fields, a verified domain, and a store page behind every item that matches the feed exactly on price, currency and availability. Let the store platform generate the feed, and keep delivery and returns information visible on the site.

Question 22

How do I sell digital products or subscriptions?

Accepted Answer

Delivery and entitlement are the real work: serve files through the store instead of a public folder, expire the download links, and keep a record of who owns what. For subscriptions, decide the failed renewal, cancellation and refund rules before launch.

Question 23

How do I sell in more than one currency or country?

Accepted Answer

Separate four things: the currency you display, the currency you settle in, the language of the store, and the country you ship to. Showing SAR while settling in EGP is normal, and shipping, duties and returns are the real cost of crossing a border.

Question 24

How do I collect and show product reviews?

Accepted Answer

Ask after delivery rather than after purchase, keep the request to a rating and one sentence, and send a single reminder. Publish everything you receive, answer the critical reviews publicly, and only mark up reviews that are genuinely visible on the page.

Question 25

Which numbers should I watch in my online store?

Accepted Answer

Traffic and revenue are the two numbers everyone watches and the two that hide the most. Watch conversion rate split by segment, average order value, margin after all costs, repeat purchases, checkout abandonment and returns instead.

Question 26

Shopify, WooCommerce or Zid: which should I choose?

Accepted Answer

Shopify and Zid host and maintain the store for you; WooCommerce gives you full control and full responsibility. Zid is Arabic first for the Gulf, Shopify the strongest international option.

Question 27

How do I connect my domain to Shopify or Zid?

Accepted Answer

Add the domain inside the store dashboard, then create the exact DNS records it shows you wherever your nameservers point. Leave your MX and mail TXT records alone so email keeps working.

Question 28

Why do my store's order emails not arrive?

Accepted Answer

Most missing order emails are unauthenticated: the store sends via PHP mail, the From line is a Gmail address, or SPF and DKIM do not cover the sender. Send from an authenticated mailbox on your domain.

Digitizing Your Business Growth

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Guides and answers from our Support Experts

Digitizing Your Business Growth

Start A Conversation With Us

Guides and answers from our Support Experts