Best Payment Gateways for E-commerce Businesses in the UAE

As more and more consumers move online, businesses have typically had to follow suit, enabling a gradual development of their digital ecosystems in areas such as digital marketing and e-commerce. In MENA, and the UAE specifically, the story is no different.

We’ve gradually started to see digital taking a more central role in business strategy over the last decade, despite people’s love in the middle east for shopping malls and brick-and-mortar. Increased also by the pandemic and the changing way that people behave and shop, this shift has been accelerated massively. 

Today, all types of businesses (small, medium and large) are grappling with the accelerated shift to e-commerce, and doing what they can to cater to their customers and make sure they are still maintaining the kind of sales volumes they need to survive and thrive.

As such, one of the biggest challenges is finding a robust and intuitive payment solutions provider that can offer the kind of services their customers need, including contactless payments, enhanced authorization, fraud and chargeback mitigation solutions, financing at point of sale, sub-merchant onboarding, and installment payment option.

In this article, we review some of the top payment providers in the Middle East who are already helping businesses go digital and capitalise on the huge changes that are already taking place, with more online shopping happening in the UAE than ever before! 

1. Amazon Payment Services

Formerly Payfort, Amazon Payment Services (APS) is now the leading payments service provider in the region offering an impressive range of features to its merchant partners. It continues to advocate for change in the payment industry, making it easier for small businesses to go digital and start making sales online. 

This payment gateway is arguably the most robust offering in the market today, with payment products ranging from Installment plans, repeat payments and short-term finance options for customers, to comprehensive security protocols and anti-fraud management. 

The new branding has also helped the company align its customer service efforts and provide merchants with a more intuitive and easy-to-use system that pretty much anyone can jump into, with added tech support from its merchant support team.

The biggest benefit offered by Amazon Payment Services is perhaps sophisticated monitoring and analytics features that allow merchants to look deeper into their payment performance and make important business decisions based on how customers are interacting with their ecommerce sites, to improve UX and conversions. APS is also proud to work with major brands in the UAE i.e. Air Arabia, Ounass, AXA Insurance and more…

2. Telr

Once known as Innovate Payments, Telr has been around for a while and is now one of the most well-known payment providers in the Middle East. It is an award-winning payment gateway provider, founded in 2014 as a small start-up, but now has offices in Singapore, the UAE, India, and Saudi Arabia. 

It offers several features and tools that enable businesses to accept and manage online payments via web, mobile and social media and claims it is committed to supporting and facilitating the wider e-commerce sector in emerging markets.

With a heavy focus on supporting start-ups in its earlier days, many of its features are designed to support businesses of this type. However, due to its growth and prominence, many medium and large enterprises also use the services and solutions of Telr today. 

Telr-hosted responsive payment pages can be customised with merchant logos and CSS to match the look and feel of merchant sites and the company also offers payment data capture and processing for repeat transactions, helping with subscription services.

3. CashU

CashU was established in 2002 to provide payment services in the UAE, however, it has since become a global brand that also offers its services in Europe. Its key selling point is the offer of a low cost barrier to entry with free account creation and a small annual maintenance cost.

The payment service is not accepted yet in all major jurisdictions, but it is accepted and used in countries such as the UAE, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, and others in the Levant region. 

Cashu accepts both Mastercard and Visa cards for funding accounts online. The company also partnered with Mastercard to offer the prepaid virtual credit card and a Cashu Majd joy card which is connected to the Cashu e-wallet.

Cashu’s popularity in the MENA online payment sector and its commitment to anti-fraud and money laundering make it a strong option for merchants in the UAE. The payment provider is accepted by major brands in several sectors and benefits from good market positioning. However, its support features and product offerings are not quite as sophisticated as other players on this list.

4. CCAvenue

Originating in India, CCAvenue is now a popular online payment gateway in UAE among several types of businesses. As an online payment gateway, it is used by businesses to streamline money collection for online services. 

It now works with a broad range of businesses from freelancers to large e-commerce companies and offers several integrations with tech partners to accept more payment methods and further improve the customer experience. 

One of the biggest draws for merchants is the platform's ability to customize software according to their personal requirements. Users can easily adapt the payment interface to include logos and other branding so that the user journey is seamless.

Currently, CCAvenue offers hundreds of payment options to its clients, including Debit Cards, ATM Cards, Bank EMI systems, and prepaid instruments.

5. CyberSource

Operating in more than 190 countries, CyberSource is a part of the global firm VISA. It is their initiative to offer multiple payment solutions and bring new transaction products and features to the world. It offers payment management services that help businesses to process online payments, simplify payment security, and streamline fraud management. 

Features offered by CyberSource include the secure acceptance of payments with additional payment verifications and security protocols, as well as proactive fraud management. For instance, its Tokenization technology helps to ensure transactions are secure with sensitive payment data stored safely for each online transaction.

Many merchants also enjoy the multiple payment options CyberSource provides, such as digital channels, payment links, mobile, web and even call centre payments.

Perhaps the biggest benefit is the association with a globally recognised payments provider and enterprise-level solutions that are built to solve worldwide payment problems. For businesses that want to expand beyond the UAE, this can be a great benefit. 

7. Checkout

Operating since 2010, Checkout started its service in UAE in 2014. Checkout.com offers unified payment technology to help companies accept more payments worldwide through one integration. They handle every step of the payment process on a proprietary technology platform, so merchants benefit from faster processing speeds, greater reliability, and full data visibility.

Checkout.com has direct access to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, all major international cards as well as popular alternative and local payment methods. It processes over 150 currencies and its global business clients include the likes of TransferWise and Deliveroo.

The challenge for Checkout is to bring the same level of confidence for its services internationally to the UAE, where homegrown platforms are often considered first by brands who originate from the region.

8. 2Checkout

Not associated with Checkout.com, 2Checkout is considered one of the leading payment gateway software around with a good international focus for brands who want to expand globally. It is also designed for ecommerce so many of its features are incredibly intuitive, however, while it does have an extensive offering, its technical depth and advanced processing capabilities are not as robust as other names on this list like Amazon Payment Services.

Nevertheless, the platform works with a wide array of payment methods and accepts payments via bank transfer, Apple Pay, Family Dollar, 7-Eleven, and more. Many merchants have noted the platform's easy useability and ability to jump in without the need for coding experience or specialist IT knowledge. 

9. Stripe 

Stripe is among the world’s most popular payment processing solutions available today. However, it has not also been available in the UAE and still struggles to convince local merchants it is the right service provider for their needs. 

Having said this, it provides excellent payment solutions within an integrated platform built for all types of businesses, big and small. The downside is the extra level of capacity offered by Stripe does require a certain amount of technical knowledge from your internal team to implement certain functions. That is partly because the people behind Stripe designed it for developers. 

Importantly, Stripe offers businesses the chance to expand their reach more globally and the platform can process transactions in more than 135 currencies, while still offering a decent amount of local services and a fast and user-friendly experience for merchant’s customers. 

Final Comments

As the number of devices, interfaces, payment options, and channels continues to increase, merchants not only need to cater to current demands, but also be aware of how things constantly change when it comes to online shopping and the world of payments.

The best payment providers will allow you to keep doing the great things you have in mind, while helping you to develop a customer journey-based view of payments that doesn’t compromise when it comes to user experience. 

Whether it's offering the right alternative payment options or allowing customers to take out finance at checkout, it’s now imperative to have a more robust and supportive payments service provider in your corner as you try to take on the UAE e-commerce market. 

We’ll let you make up your own mind about which provider is the right fit for you, but just remember to plan for the long-term, because ecommerce is here to stay!