- What can be sold in Dubai?
- What should you keep in mind when promoting your company online?
- How to promote an e-commerce business?
- SEO
- What tasks do search engine promotion perform?
- SMM
- Selling your products in the UAE
Running a business in Dubai is an excellent option for both natives and immigrants, as this emirate and the entire kingdom are highly favorable for developing one’s own enterprise. Dubai is a unique business and trading hub, allowing you to sell various products on both domestic and global markets. All you need is a good website and digital marketing skills. Promoting an online store requires a comprehensive range of measures, and systematic actions that demand time and consistency, for success and competitive advantage can only be achieved in this way. The Regis Team is pleased to assist you in promoting your online business through various digital channels, as we have extensive experience managing projects in the UAE.
What can be sold in Dubai?
The United Arab Emirates is a kingdom where Islam is the state religion, and it dictates the rules for all spheres of life, including trade. Therefore, before promoting an online store or launching a similar business, it is necessary to understand which products to focus on and which ones are prohibited by law.
For example, websites containing alcohol are strictly prohibited, and even access to such resources is completely blocked. Attempts to access them through a VPN are detected and punished with fines and, in some cases, imprisonment. To avoid administrative or criminal prosecution and ensure the success of your online store promotion, choose only legal niches.
Based on the experience of our clients, the most popular products in Dubai are:
- Jewelry
- Incense and perfumes
- Carpets, pillows, and other household items
- Smoking accessories – hookahs, tobacco, pipes
- Sweets
- Coffee
- Clothing
- Household appliances, etc.
They are often bought in large quantities by both local residents and tourists, which will ensure you a good profit. Of course, the high popularity of the products entails the same high competition in the niche, so professional promotion of the online store is necessary if you are interested in business development. However, it should be noted that the level of local digital marketing in the UAE is an order of magnitude lower than worldwide. Therefore, our team uses the best practices developed over the years of promoting store websites in the CIS and Western countries, thereby making your resource more attractive to the target audience.
What should you keep in mind when promoting your company online?
At first glance, it seems that the algorithm for promoting a project is approximately the same regardless of the country. However, in practice, everything is a little different and more complicated. There are some points to keep in mind at the stage of website development and at the very beginning of the promotion. Let’s briefly outline the main ones.
Language versions of the website:
The official language of the kingdom is Arabic, so your website must be implemented in it, especially if the target audience is directly residents of Dubai or the UAE as a whole. However, there are many citizens from other countries living here, and the number of tourists per year (who may also be interested in your products) in Dubai alone is several million people. Therefore, the second language of the website logically should be English – it is international.
There are many migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. If your products are intended for citizens of these countries, it would be a good idea to also present the resource in their native languages to make the coverage even wider.
Is it possible to not worry about language versions and rely on automatic page translation? We do not recommend doing so, as machine translation is not always accurate and can sometimes fail, which can deter potential clients. It is better to study the target audience in advance and create multiple language versions.
Among search engines, Google holds a leading position. However, it is not the only search engine used by citizens of the UAE. Other popular ones include AME Info and Alkhaleej. When deciding how to promote an online store, we always take into account the peculiarities of ranking in local search engines to provide you with a good result.
As we mentioned before, the state regulates the digital space here much more strictly than in Western countries or the CIS. Therefore, before launching any business, online or otherwise, we recommend carefully studying local legislation.
Regarding the target audience, determine who you are targeting: local residents or citizens of another country, or perhaps you will have delivery of goods worldwide. This will determine which methods to choose to promote the online store.
The promotion of any business in the network is impossible without content preparation – descriptions, articles, product cards, advertising texts, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to take care in advance to have someone who can immediately write in the target language (a copywriter-native speaker), or a translator with a high level of language proficiency. This is one of the reasons why it is better to collaborate with an experienced agency rather than trying to do everything independently or relying on the help of freelancers. Companies specializing in website promotion have either in-house copywriters or more opportunities to find a professional specifically for your niche.
How to promote an e-commerce business?
There are three main ways to promote an online store for clothing or any other e-commerce business: SEO, PPC, and SMM. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of actions aimed at increasing the website’s position in the search results for specific queries in Google (or any other search engine). The higher the website is displayed in the search, the more chances that potential customers will click on it and place an order with you. SEO involves quality work on the website so that it meets the requirements of search engines and responds to user requests.
What tasks do search engine promotion perform?
Improves the brand reputation, and increases user trust. After all, if the website occupies one of the top positions in the search results, it means that it is being taken care of and interested in development, so it’s worth paying attention to it.
Increases organic traffic, which means the number of visitors who came to the site directly from the search by entering a specific query. Proper promotion, along with a quality and convenient website, as well as a high level of customer service (this already depends only on the business owner), guarantees positive results.
Increases return on investment and business stability. With the help of SEO, you can promote an online store conditionally for free – you do not pay for every click or completed transaction. However, you will have expenses for the work of an SEO specialist, a programmer for implementing technical changes, and a copywriter for creating content. Yes, it is impossible to do without expenses, but they work for the future if you work with the website regularly.
Provides an advantage over competitors. Here, too, regularity is important: continuous work with the website, and implementation of changes in accordance with user requests and the requirements of search engines, which are constantly changing, will allow you to maintain the first positions, and competitors will not be able to squeeze you out.
How quickly will there be a result? SEO is a long-term job, the first results become noticeable after several months, and the exact terms depend on the niche and competition. However, the main feature of search engine promotion is not speed but the stability of organic traffic and, as a result, orders.
Our company provides professional SEO services – we have extensive experience in promoting projects on various topics in different countries, including the UAE. We start work with a site audit, develop a strategy, then compile and cluster the semantic core, conduct internal and external optimization, adjust the approach if necessary, and keep the resource at the top. When promoting and collecting analytics, we use modern tools, such as Google Analytics, and can automate your business with an effective CRM system.
This is all paid advertising but primarily refers to contextual advertising – ads that appear in search results above the search results in response to a specific user query, as well as being placed on third-party platforms. Its advantages include the ability to get results right away, immediately after launching a campaign, without waiting several months; attracting a wide audience through placement in prominent search results, thematic websites, and other platforms; high campaign launch speed – creating and placing attractive ads much faster than comprehensive work on the site as part of SEO promotion; flexibility in settings – you can adjust the advertising budget according to your needs, and all expenses are recorded by the analytics system; hitting the target accurately – there are many filters that can be used to “draw” a portrait of the potential buyer that is as close to reality as possible, to only target your audience.
Advertising for an e-commerce website works well in tandem with SEO promotion, especially in the early stages of promotion. For example, at the very beginning, we recommend developing an effective PPC advertising strategy and gradually working on internal and external optimization of the resource, fixing technical errors, and generally making it attractive to search engines and visitors.
SMM
Social media marketing is another way to promote your online store. Its use is similar to contextual advertising – it works best in conjunction with other promotion methods, as part of comprehensive actions. However, remember that not all social networks are available in the United Arab Emirates. For example, VK is banned here, as this platform is often used to distribute pornography, which is strictly prohibited in this Muslim country. Local residents mainly use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – these social networks are the ones to focus on if you want to promote your business in Dubai. Of course, before choosing a specific platform, we conduct a detailed analysis to identify which social network your target audience uses more frequently.
Selling your products in the UAE
Regardless of which online marketing strategies your company chooses, we follow a clear algorithm. We take into account the specifics of your business and the peculiarities of the local mentality in order to comply with legislation and provide you with the best results.
Five steps to promote e-commerce:
Niche analysis, business analysis, and competitor analysis. This helps to understand how far your competitors have gone, identify growth points for the project, identify errors, and outline ways to eliminate them.
Strategy development. In the second stage, we create a specific plan of action to achieve our goals. Online marketing offers many ways to promote your company, and we choose the most effective ones.
Internal website optimization. This includes auditing, technical error correction, usability improvement, content improvement, and more. In this case, programmers may be involved if serious changes are required.
External optimization of the resource. Involves working with the link mass, particularly external links. We find donors with a good reputation and write and post thematic articles on them, which improves the link profile of your website.
Analytics gathering and strategy correction. Analytical data is necessary to understand which methods used are most effective and which ones should be abandoned. Based on this information, we make changes to the strategy, optimizing the work on promotion.
We provide reports that show clearly what results have been achieved. They are transparent and understandable, and for additional clarification, you can contact your personal manager.
Now you know how to advertise an e-commerce store in the UAE and what steps are needed to achieve your goal. If you are ready to start promoting your business, leave a request to discuss the project.
