Plenty of small businesses in the UAE sell through Instagram and WhatsApp for years before they open a proper online store. The usual reason is that a store sounds like a big project: a developer, a payment gateway, plugins for delivery and invoices, and a monthly bill for each of them.
We built CPS eMart, the online store plan of our website builder, so that a shop owner can do it in an afternoon, with delivery, cash on delivery, VAT invoices and Makani addresses already part of the checkout. This guide walks through launching a store with it, step by step, in the order we would do it ourselves.
Before you start: what to have ready
- Your trade licence and VAT details. Check that your licence covers selling online. If you are registered for VAT, have your tax registration number (TRN) to hand for invoices.
- Product information. Names, descriptions, prices, sizes or colours, and good photos. Photos taken against a plain background in daylight go a long way.
- Delivery and pickup. Which areas you deliver to, what you charge for each, and whether customers can collect from a shop or warehouse.
- How you want to be paid. Cash on delivery, bank transfer, payment on pickup, PayPal, or a mix.
- Your policies. Returns, delivery times and privacy. Short and clear beats long and legal.
Step 1: Start the eMart free trial and pick the Store template
Sign up for the eMart plan at builder.cityprojectsolutions.com. The trial lasts 7 days, every feature is switched on, and you do not need a card to start. Choose the Store template: it gives you a finished starting point with a homepage, shop pages and navigation already in place, so you are replacing content rather than building from a blank page.
Step 2: Set your brand once
Open the theme settings and choose your colours, a font pair and a button style. These apply to every page and to the shop, so the store looks consistent without you styling each section. If you have a logo, add it now along with a favicon.
Step 3: Build the homepage with tiles
The homepage is where the tile layouts earn their keep. Pick a tile layout, then drop products, photos, text or video into each tile, the way big brands lay out their Amazon stores. A few ideas that work well for small shops:
- A large tile for your best seller next to smaller tiles for categories.
- A product selector section, so visitors can switch between a few hero products without leaving the page.
- A video reveal for a short clip of the product in use.
Every tile layout has its own phone arrangement. Switch the preview to Mobile before you move on, because most of your visitors will arrive from Instagram or WhatsApp on a phone.
Step 4: Add your products
Add each product with its photos, description and price. Use options and variants for sizes or colours, track stock for each variant, add bulk price breaks if you sell to trade customers, and categories and collections so people can browse. Give every image a short description of what it shows: it helps customers using screen readers and it helps search engines, and the builder reminds you before publishing if any are missing.
Step 5: Set up delivery, pickup and payments
In the shop settings:
- Delivery zones. Add the areas you deliver to, each with its own fee.
- Pickup. Turn it on if customers can collect.
- Delivery slots. Let customers choose a delivery window, so your driver is not calling to ask when someone will be home.
- Makani number. Ask for it at checkout to make UAE addresses easier to find.
- VAT. Set your rate, choose whether prices include it, and add your TRN so each order produces a proper VAT invoice.
- Payments. Turn on cash on delivery, bank transfer and pay on pickup as they suit you. PayPal payments go straight into your own PayPal account: paste in the details of your PayPal app and press Test connection. Customers can pay by card or with PayPal. Each payment gateway charges in your shop's currency when it supports that currency in your country. When it doesn't, for example PayPal with AED or SAR, checkout charges in US dollars at the official rate (3.6725 AED or 3.75 SAR to 1 USD), or at a rate you set for other currencies, and tells the shopper the dollar amount before they pay. Your prices and invoices stay in your own currency. Card payments through Stripe and Tap are coming soon.
Add a couple of discount codes while you are here. A launch code for your existing Instagram followers is an easy first promotion.
Step 6: Add the pages that build trust
People buying from a new store look for signs that a real business is behind it. Add an About page, a Delivery and Returns page, and a Contact page with a form. Form submissions arrive in your inbox in the builder, you get an email for each one, and you can export them to CSV. Turn on the cookie notice, and if you use Google Analytics 4 or a Meta Pixel, add their IDs; tracking waits until visitors agree.
Step 7: Take care of search
Give each page and product a clear title and description. The sitemap and robots.txt are generated for you. If you are moving from an older site, add redirects from the old addresses so existing links and search results still work; when you change a page's address in the builder, a redirect is added automatically.
Step 8: Connect your domain
Your store already has a free subdomain, which is fine for testing. When you are ready, connect a domain you own from the console. HTTPS is set up automatically, and the domain stays registered with whoever you bought it from.
Step 9: Preview, test and publish
Edits are saved as a draft, so nothing is public until you press Publish. Before you do:
- Send a preview link to a friend or colleague and ask them to try it on their phone.
- Place a test order with each payment method you have turned on.
- Check the order arrives in the orders console and that the invoice looks right.
Then publish. If something needs changing afterwards, earlier versions are kept, so you can roll back.
After launch
Day to day, the shop console is where you manage orders, returns and customers and follow sales in the reports. The built-in insights show page views, visitors, top pages and where people came from, without tracking cookies. Customers can track their orders, keep a wishlist and sign in to an optional account. When you have news to share, the blog lets you schedule posts and tag them by topic.
What it costs
CPS eMart is 60 USD a month after the 7-day free trial, billed automatically every month by card through PayPal, and you can cancel at any time. It includes everything in CPS Theme Builder, so the blog, forms, insights and team members come with the store. If you only need a website without a shop, CPS Theme Builder is 35 USD a month, and you can switch between the two plans at any time.
Start your eMart free trial, or look around the live demo first. If you need something the builder does not do, such as a custom feature or an integration with your other systems, CPS Custom adds our development team, or get in touch.