Building software for the GCC market
Localisation, payments, identity and mobile behaviour — what a product needs to feel native across Gulf markets.
Products that treat the Gulf as a translation target feel foreign in ways users notice immediately and rarely articulate. The differences are mostly small, numerous and cumulative.
RTL is a layout system, not a stylesheet toggle
Direction affects layout, iconography, progress and motion. Arrows reverse. Charts read the other way. Anything with a sense of forward and back needs reconsidering. Building with logical properties from the start makes this nearly free; retrofitting it does not.
Localisation beyond translation
Gets it right
- Logical CSS properties from the start, so RTL is nearly free
- Name fields that fit Arabic naming conventions
- Hijri alongside Gregorian where it appears officially
- Local card schemes and national identity verification
Reads as foreign
- Arrows and progress that still run left-to-right
- Fixed first-name / last-name fields
- Checkout offering only international cards
- Mobile as a narrowed version of the desktop view
Names, addresses and dates
Fixed first-name and last-name fields fit Arabic naming conventions poorly. Addresses follow national formats rather than Western ones. Hijri dates appear alongside Gregorian in official contexts. Each is small; together they decide whether a form feels written for the user.
Payments and identity are local
Local card schemes, bank transfer preferences and national identity verification are what people expect. A checkout offering only international cards signals that the product was not built for this market.
Mobile-first is literal
Smartphone penetration is very high and much of the audience will never see the desktop view. If the mobile experience is a narrowed version of the desktop one, you have built the secondary experience first.
Test with the actual audience
- 1
Native speakers from the target market
Not a translator reviewing screenshots.
- 2
In Arabic, throughout
Including error states, empty states and emails.
- 3
On a phone
Where most of the audience will only ever see it.
- 4
Watch, don't ask
Every team that has done this came back with a list nobody predicted.
Test with the actual audience
Have native Arabic speakers from the target market use the product, in Arabic, on a phone. Every team we have seen do this has come away with a list nobody internally had predicted.