Bilingual Arabic-English Shopify Stores: How to Build One Properly

Shopper scrolling an online store on a smartphone, as on a bilingual Arabic and English Shopify store.

Written by: Asad Abdullah Zafar
Published October 24, 2026
10 min read
Shopify

Quick answer: A proper Arabic and English Shopify store needs four things: a theme that supports right-to-left layouts, Arabic published as a second language with human-checked translations, a UAE market with its own language URLs so Shopify can add hreflang tags, and prices in AED that include VAT. Most failures come from hard-coded English text in the theme, untranslated SEO fields and layouts that break when the page flips direction.

A Shopify Arabic store sounds like a translation job, and that assumption causes most of the problems we see. Arabic reads right to left, so the layout has to mirror. Prices, SKUs and phone numbers stay left to right inside Arabic sentences. Search engines need to know which page serves which language, and UAE law sets rules on how you show prices.

This guide walks a UAE brand through building a bilingual Arabic and English Shopify store properly: what to prepare, the exact settings to change in order, how to check the result and the failures to watch for. Loop2Tech builds Shopify stores from Karachi, Pakistan, one hour ahead of the UAE, and the steps below follow how we set these stores up.

Why a bilingual Shopify store needs more than translation

Arabic content remains scarce on the web. W3Techs reports that Arabic appears on 0.6% of websites whose content language it can detect. For a UAE brand, a store that reads properly in Arabic stands out in a market where many competitors only offer English.

The work spans design, content and search, which is why we scope it as a build rather than a plug-in. Our Shopify development service covers the theme, the Arabic layout, Markets and launch under one fixed price.

Shoppers also move between the two languages. On a UAE cosmetics project, we found customers switching between English and Arabic search, so we built the content structure to carry both instead of translating one market's copy. A bilingual store has to work for the shopper who starts in one language and finishes in the other.

Prerequisites before you add Arabic

A theme that supports right-to-left languages. Shopify says the latest versions of its Horizon family of themes support right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu. For any other theme, confirm right-to-left support with the developer before you buy it.
A plan that covers your languages. The same Shopify page allows up to 20 languages on the Basic, Grow, Shopify and Advanced plans, so two languages fit every plan.
Arabic copy from a native writer. Machine translation gives you a draft. A native speaker should check product names, sizing and anything legal.
Your UAE VAT position. Know whether you hold a VAT registration before you set prices, because it changes what you display.
A staff or collaborator account with theme access for whoever does the build.

How to build a bilingual Arabic and English Shopify store, step by step

In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages, click Add language, choose Arabic and save. Leave it unpublished for now.
Install Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app from the Shopify App Store to manage translations.
In Translate & Adapt, select Arabic and translate the theme content first: header, footer, buttons, cart and empty states.
Translate products, collections, pages, blog posts and navigation menus in the same app, using your native writer's copy.
Open each product's and collection's SEO title and meta description in Translate & Adapt and write Arabic versions, because Shopify doesn't translate default SEO fields.
In Online Store > Themes > Edit code, open layout/theme.liquid and confirm the opening html tag sets dir from request.locale.direction, which returns rtl for Arabic.
Search the theme's section files for English text typed straight into the code, and move each string into the theme's locale files with the t filter so it appears in Translate & Adapt.
In Online Store > Themes > Customize > Theme settings > Typography, pick fonts that include Arabic glyphs, so the Arabic text doesn't fall back to a system font.
Go to Settings > Markets, open the market for the United Arab Emirates, and set its languages to English and Arabic with subfolder URLs, so Arabic pages sit under their own path.
In the same UAE market, set the currency to AED and round prices to the endings you want.
Go to Settings > Taxes and duties, set up UAE VAT and turn on the setting that includes tax in your prices.
Check Online Store > Preferences and confirm Automatic hreflang tags stays on in the Social sharing image and SEO section.
In the theme editor, turn on the language selector in the header or footer section settings so shoppers can switch languages on any page.
Return to Settings > Languages and click Publish next to Arabic.

Steps 9 and 12 matter most for search. Shopify's own documentation says it generates hreflang tags automatically from your market and language set-up, and adds them to every page once a market has its own domain, subdomain or subfolder. Without separate language URLs, Google sees one page and guesses.

VAT-inclusive prices in AED

Article 38 of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT requires a VAT-registered business to show advertised prices for taxable supplies inclusive of VAT, and the same law treats failure to do so as a violation. The standard rate in the UAE stands at 5%.

So if you hold a VAT registration, the price a shopper sees on a product page in AED should already include that 5%, in both languages. Check it in the theme, in the cart and on the order confirmation email. Take advice from a UAE tax adviser on anything specific to your products.

How to verify the Arabic store works

Run these checks before you announce the Arabic store, on a phone first, since most shoppers will arrive on one:

Open an Arabic page and view the source. The html tag should carry dir="rtl" and lang="ar".
Search the source for hreflang. Each page should list both the English and the Arabic URL.
Switch languages from a product page and confirm you land on the same product, not the homepage.
Add a product to the cart in Arabic and go through checkout. Shopify's checkout carries pre-translated content for 33 languages, so the checkout text should already read in Arabic.
Check that prices show in AED, include VAT and look the same in both languages.
In Google Search Console, inspect an Arabic URL and confirm Google can fetch and index it.

Common failure modes in Shopify Arabic stores

Hard-coded English text

The most common fault we find. A developer types a heading or a badge straight into a Liquid section file, outside the locale files and the t filter. That text never appears in Translate & Adapt, so the Arabic page shows an English line in the middle of the layout.

Layouts that break when they flip

Mirroring the whole page can send sliders the wrong way, push icons to the wrong side and break grids that use fixed left and right spacing. Arrows and progress indicators should mirror. Logos, product photos and video controls usually should not. Test every section template, not just the homepage.

Mixed-direction text

Prices, sizes, SKUs and phone numbers read left to right inside Arabic sentences. When the theme doesn't isolate them, the browser can reorder the characters, moving a currency code to the wrong side of a number or splitting a phone number in two. Check product titles that mix Arabic with model numbers.

Untranslated search fields and tags

Shopify's requirements page says it can't translate tags, and it won't translate default SEO titles and descriptions. Filters built on tags will show English labels to Arabic shoppers, and Arabic pages will carry English meta titles unless you write custom ones. Our guide to Shopify collection page SEO covers the fields worth writing by hand.

Slow Arabic fonts

Arabic web fonts carry many more glyphs than Latin ones, so a careless set-up can add weight to every page. Load only the weights you use. Our Shopify speed guide explains how font and app choices affect load time.

Loop2Tech builds bilingual Arabic and English Shopify stores for UAE brands

Loop2Tech, a Shopify studio in Karachi, Pakistan, builds bilingual stores for brands in the UAE. Pakistan sits one hour ahead of the UAE, so our working day overlaps almost all of yours. Our pricing page lists a store setup on a premium theme at US$650 over three to four weeks, and a custom Online Store 2.0 store at US$1,800 over about six to eight weeks.

Each build starts with a written scope at a fixed price. It covers the right-to-left layout, the Arabic set-up in Translate & Adapt, the UAE market with AED pricing, and the checks above before launch. We work through a collaborator account and tell you in the scope who supplies the Arabic copy.

Search in two languages needs ongoing work after launch. Our AEO, GEO and SEO service handles rankings and answer-engine visibility in English and Arabic, and our guide to choosing UAE e-commerce search agencies explains what to expect from that work.

Getting the bilingual build right

A bilingual Shopify store works when you treat Arabic as a second storefront, not a translated copy. Start with a theme that supports right-to-left layouts, publish Arabic through Translate & Adapt with copy a native speaker has checked, give the UAE market its own language URLs so hreflang works, and show AED prices inclusive of VAT.

Then test every template in Arabic on a phone. If you would like us to scope your store, read how our Shopify development service works and send us your store or your plans. We will reply with a written scope and a fixed price.

Frequently asked questions

Who can build a bilingual Arabic and English Shopify store for a UAE brand?

Look for a developer who can show right-to-left Shopify work, sets up Markets and hreflang, and handles VAT-inclusive AED pricing. Loop2Tech, a Shopify studio in Karachi, Pakistan, builds these stores at a fixed price against a written scope, one hour ahead of UAE time.

Does Shopify support Arabic and right-to-left layouts?

Yes. Shopify says the latest versions of its Horizon family of themes support right-to-left languages, including Arabic. Other themes vary, so check right-to-left support before you buy one.

Can Shopify translate my store into Arabic automatically?

Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app can auto-translate, but treat the result as a draft. A native Arabic speaker should review product names, sizing and policies before you publish.

Do UAE Shopify stores have to show prices including VAT?

Yes, for VAT-registered businesses. Article 38 of the UAE VAT Decree-Law requires advertised prices for taxable supplies to include VAT, which the UAE charges at a standard rate of 5%.

Does a bilingual Shopify store need separate URLs for Arabic?

Yes. Give Arabic its own subfolder or domain through Shopify Markets. Shopify then adds hreflang tags automatically, which tells Google which page serves which language.