Recommended Payment Tools for Middle East

When doing business in the Middle East, choosing the right payment collection tool requires a combination of considerationsLocalised payment habits, religious culture, compliancetooMobile Internet penetrationand other factors. The following are recommended programmes for the Middle East market:

I. Mainstream international payment instruments

  1. PayPal

    • Applicable scenarios: cross-border e-commerce, B2C small transactions
    • Advantage: Covering some Middle East countries (e.g. UAE, Saudi Arabia) and supporting multi-currency settlement.
    • Note: Subject to Islamic finance principles (avoidance of interest clauses) and restricted use in some areas.

  2. Stripe

    • Scenario: online subscription-based services or SaaS enterprises
    • Advantage: support markets such as UAE and Saudi Arabia with easy integration.

II. Localised payment solutions

Gulf States (GCC focus market)

  1. Benefit (Bahrain) / KNET (Kuwait)

    • Scenario: Local bank transfers in Gulf countries
    • Features: government-supported instant bank transfer system covering 80%+ local users.

  2. Mada (Saudi Arabia)

    • KEY DATA: Saudi Arabia's 90%'s bank card-bound Mada system.
    • Recommendation: access is mandatory to operate in Saudi Arabia or lose most of your customers.

  3. Fawry (Egypt)

    • Model: "Cash-to-electronic" offline point-of-sale payments, reaching 60 million unbanked users in Egypt.

  4. QPay (Qatar), STC Pay (owned by Saudi Telecom)
    -Trend: digital wallets for Islamic finance compliance, growing rapidly.

III. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Popular Options

  • Tabby (UAE/Saudi Arabia) : Allows payment in 4 interest-free instalments, in compliance with Islamic finance law.
  • Cashew (GCC region) : Deep co-operation with local e-commerce platforms.
  • Suitable industries : High-unit-price e-commerce (electronics, luxury goods).

IV. Mobile wallets and emerging payment methods

Mobile payment penetration in the Middle East is increasing rapidly, especially with the "Vision 2030" policy in Saudi Arabia and the "Cashless Society" policy in Egypt, and the following tools are of interest:

  1. Apple Pay / Google Pay (gradually gaining popularity)

    • Applicable scenarios: high-end users, cross-border consumption
    • Countries covered: UAE, Saudi Arabia already support, other Gulf countries gradually opening up.

  2. Local e-wallet

    • STC Pay (Saudi Arabia) - Operated by Saudi Telecom, it has more than 8 million users and supports sweep payments and P2P transfers.
    • Beam (UAE) - A super app that integrates local bank accounts for offline retail scenarios.
    • FawryPay (Egypt) - Egypt's largest electronic payment platform covering bill payments, e-commerce payments and more.

  3. Islamic Finance Compliance Programme

    • issues: Traditional credit card interest (Riba) is against the Shariah.
    • prescription: Selection of the products that are in line withSharia-compliant Financeof service providers:
      • Alinma Bank (Saudi Arabia) - Provision of interest-free instalments (Tawarruq model).
      • Dubai Islamic Bank Pay - Halal certified digital wallet.

V. Cash and alternative payments

There is still a large demand for cash transactions in the Middle East (especially in Egypt and Iraq), which needs to be paired with the following:

  1. Cash on Delivery (COD)
    • numbers: Middle East e-commerce 30%-60% still relies on COD (Statista).
    • exposures: High return rate (about 35%), need to optimise logistics control.
  2. Prepaid Card/Voucher Recharge Code
    Such as UAE'sAafaq CardsSadad System, Saudi.

6 Enterprise-level recommendations

(1) Selection of instrument mix by market

nations Mandatory programme Supplementary programmes
abbr. for Saudi Arabia Mada + STC Pay + Tabby Apple Pay
UAE Benefit + Beam + BNPL PayPal
Egypt Fawry + Cash COD Vodafone Cash

(2) Technology Docking Strategy

  • Preferred API integrations: Checkout.com, HyperPay (supports multi-gateway aggregation).
  • SaaS Website Building Platform: Shopify Pluginable Access to Mada/Fawry.

(3) Guide to Avoiding Pitfalls

  • ⚠️ Religion-sensitive words: Avoid "Interest" or "Loan", use "Fee-based" instead.
  • ⚠️ LICENSE REQUIREMENTS: The DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) has a strict vetting process for PSPs.

If you need more specific industry examples (e.g. how to charge for in-game purchases? How to reduce COD rejection for luxury indie sites?) , it can be explored further!