How do people in the UAE pay online?
Cards come first. UAE residents hold Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards from local banks, American Express has a strong premium base, and a large share of card payments now happens inside Apple Pay and Google Pay rather than through a typed card form. The e-commerce market reached about AED 42.2 billion in 2025, around 15.7% of retail sales, according to the annual EZDubai and Euromonitor International report, with apparel, footwear and consumer electronics the largest categories.
Buy now, pay later is a normal checkout option. Tabby lets shoppers split a purchase into interest-free instalments and is widely offered by fashion, electronics and travel merchants, alongside Tamara and smaller providers. For higher baskets, showing a BNPL option next to cards increases conversion, and many shoppers check for it before paying.
Account-to-account payments are growing. Aani, the instant payments platform run by Al Etihad Payments for the Central Bank, passed 12.5 million registered users in April 2026, connects 74 licensed financial institutions and completes transfers in about three seconds. Cash on delivery still exists for some retail categories but is declining as card and wallet use spreads across the population, most of whom are expatriates paying with UAE-issued cards.
What rules shape online payments in the UAE?
VAT applies to foreign sellers from the first sale. The standard VAT rate is 5%. UAE businesses must register once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 a year, but no registration threshold applies to non-resident businesses making taxable supplies in the UAE, so a foreign seller of digital services to UAE consumers registers with the Federal Tax Authority before it starts charging VAT.
Consumer law reaches online sales. Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on consumer protection, with executive regulations in force since 14 October 2023, requires invoices, product information, advertisements and contract and warranty terms to be in Arabic, with other languages allowed alongside. Marketplaces are liable for defective products sold on their platforms by third parties. The law itself does not regulate e-commerce providers located outside the UAE, but platforms have been blocked from UAE internet addresses after complaints. Penalties run from notices to fines of AED 50,000 to AED 1 million and licence revocation.
The e-commerce law adds trader duties. Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2023 on trading by modern technology means took effect in September 2023, replacing the 2006 e-commerce law. It covers trading on websites and apps, including sales into the UAE from abroad, and requires digital traders to hold the necessary approvals, use secure technology and give consumers a clear way to resolve complaints. UAE data protection legislation applies to consumer data.
Payment providers need a Central Bank licence. Under the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation, in force since 15 July 2021, no entity can provide or promote any of nine retail payment services, including merchant acquiring and payment aggregation, without a CBUAE licence, unless it is an exempted bank. For merchants, that means collecting from UAE customers through a licensed acquirer or payment provider.
How does Omno route payments in the UAE?
Omno treats the UAE as a multi-acquirer card and wallet market. You connect once and set routing rules per method, card type and customer group:
- Card pay-ins in AED can be routed by BIN, so each local issuer’s cards go to the acquirer your rules set for that issuer, with cascading to the next acquirer in the rule until one accepts.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay are offered in the hosted checkout and Web SDK, and the underlying card is routed with the same rules as a typed card.
- Tabby is shown as an instalment option when the basket and customer qualify, so BNPL appears only where it makes sense.
- Payouts follow PSP eligibility rules by method, currency and payout support, so money only goes through licensed providers that support AED payouts to the recipient’s card or wallet.
Webhooks report the final status of every payment, which is the record your order system should trust for fulfilment. Tokenization supports repeat purchases, and card blocking rules let you stop known fraudulent cards before they reach an acquirer.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for wallets. A large share of UAE shoppers pay through Apple Pay, so a checkout that only offers a card form adds friction for them.
Plan for BNPL on higher baskets. Tabby and similar providers have their own approval decisions, so treat a BNPL decline as a prompt to offer cards rather than a failed order.
Plan for international cards. Many UAE customers are tourists or hold foreign-issued cards, and these behave differently from local cards on approval and authentication, which is where routing by BIN helps.
Plan for VAT, Arabic documents and reconciliation. Register for VAT before the first taxable sale, issue Arabic invoices and terms, and use the routing-decision log in Omno to reconcile AED settlements and fees by route.