How do I start an online store in Saudi Arabia, and what do I decide before the platform?

Someone types "how to open an online store" into Google. Three ads come back, each from a platform promising a store in minutes, and one says "free". Ten minutes later they're choosing between two theme colors, and they still haven't asked the question that decides whether the store makes money: after shipping, what's left from one order?

That's the wrong way round. If you want to start an online store in Saudi Arabia, my view is that the platform is the fourth decision, not the first. I work with stores on Salla and Zid, and neither can answer the three questions that come before it: what each order leaves you, where you sell first, and the legal form you sell under.

Are you starting in the wrong order?

If two of these describe you, you're building the store backwards:

• You've picked the colors but don't know what an order leaves you after product cost, shipping and payment fees.
• Someone asks, "How much with delivery to Jeddah?" and you answer, "Let me check."
• You've paid for a plan before deciding between your own store and Amazon.sa or Noon.
• You've uploaded dozens of products and don't know which of them can carry the cost of an ad.
• Customers pay by transfer to your personal account, and you haven't started on a freelance document or a commercial registration.

Why do most people start with the platform?

Because the platform is the part you can see. The theme changes in front of you, the preview goes to friends, and it feels like progress. Margin doesn't show up in a screenshot.

The search itself also gets answered by ads. The first results are platforms selling themselves, each answering with its own product. That's understandable, but it means the first advice you hear comes from a vendor.

Then there's the word "free". A free plan lowers what it costs to get in, not what an order costs you. Profit is decided by product cost, shipping, payment fees, returns, cash-on-delivery orders refused at the door, and ads. None of that appears on a pricing page.

What are the six decisions, and in what order?

The order comes from the path I work on: market, offer, the ad, the lead and follow-up, the sale, then revenue. A store starts at the beginning of that path, not halfway along it.

1. What you sell, and what each order leaves you

For each product, write down the price, the cost, shipping and payment fees. A hypothetical example with round numbers: a product sells for SAR 150, costs SAR 60, ships for SAR 20 and carries about SAR 5 in payment fees. That leaves SAR 65, the most an ad can cost per order before you lose money, and that's before returns and refused cash orders. Run your own numbers in the campaign profit calculator.

What bad looks like: a price copied from a competitor, and "profit" worked out before shipping. If your number comes out small, the problem is the offer, not the ad you haven't run yet.

2. Where you sell first

There are three routes, and each has a price. Your own store gives you the customer's data and control of price and offer, but you bring in every visitor yourself. A marketplace such as Amazon.sa or Noon has buyers already searching, but its rules and fees aren't yours to set, and the buyer relationship runs through it. Selling only on Instagram and WhatsApp is the fastest start, but it stops growing at the number of messages you can answer by hand.

I don't rank them from best to worst. At Argan Package in Saudi Arabia, I managed the listing of the company's products on Amazon.sa and built a plan to turn it into a real sales channel. It added revenue equal to 22% for the company within the channel's first two months. But that was an extra channel for an established brand, not a start from zero.

What bad looks like: opening all three in the first month.

3. Freelance document or commercial registration, and where the store is verified

Start this one this week. It takes time that design can't shorten.

Salla's merchant obligations page says someone without a commercial registration (CR) can sell online only after getting a freelance document from the government's freelance platform. If you hold a CR, you add the store to it through an online application on the Ministry of Commerce website within 30 days of creating the store.

Salla also says the freelance document is free and spares an individual from needing a CR, that for an individual it's open to Saudi citizens only, and that people employed in the government or private sector may get one.

Then verification. In March 2023 the Ministry of Commerce asked online store owners to register on the Business platform instead of Maroof, the service that used to verify stores. The Saudi Business Center runs the platform, and both the Ministry and Salla describe it as the only approved place to verify online stores. Salla's verification page lists the requirements: a valid CR or freelance document, a commercial bank account, an active Absher account (the government's online services login), age 18 or over, Saudi nationality, a launched store that's out of maintenance mode, and a verified domain.

The worst thing I see here is a store asking customers to transfer money to a personal account. The Ministry itself advises consumers to avoid that.

4. The platform

Only now do you open the pricing pages. Choose the platform that serves the three decisions above: the payment methods you'll accept, the courier you'll use, and marketplace selling if you've chosen it. The side-by-side numbers are in Salla vs Zid, so I won't repeat them here.

And don't pay for a higher plan or a paid theme before you need a specific feature.

5. Payments and shipping

Decide before the first order: whether you offer cash on delivery and to whom, how you confirm a cash order on WhatsApp before it ships, and which courier you'll use, with times and fees per group of cities. Salla's obligations page says the contract shown before the sale must state the total price, taxes and delivery fees included, so the delivery fee is settled before order one. The details are in before you open a Salla store, and refusals at the door in cash-on-delivery refusals.

6. First visitors, first month

One channel, a small test, and a stop rule written before launch. A hypothetical example with round numbers: SAR 500 on one channel over two weeks. If it ends without a single order in your sales sheet, stop and rework the offer before trying a second channel.

My rule here: read the sales sheet before the ad report. The report tells you what the ad platform credited to itself; the sheet tells you what sold, got delivered and got paid for. If you start with Snapchat, the steps are in your store's first Snapchat campaign.

The first-decision table: where do you start?

Find the row closest to your situation and act on its first decision.

Your situation	First decision	Why	Where to check
One product, no CR, Saudi citizen trading alone	Freelance document	Free per Salla; without it or a CR you can't sell online	The freelance platform
You sell on Instagram, orders come by DM, payment goes to your personal account	Freelance document or CR, then a commercial bank account, then verification	Verification needs both; the Ministry warns consumers off personal-account transfers	The Business platform (business.sa)
You hold a CR and are opening a new store	Add the store to your CR within 30 days, then verify	Required, per Salla's merchant obligations page	Ministry of Commerce website
Little is left from an order after shipping and payment fees	The offer: a new price, a bundle or a different lead product	Ads will take what's left and more	Campaign profit calculator
People search for your product by name or brand	A test on Amazon.sa or Noon, before your own store or alongside it	Buyers already search there	The marketplace's seller fees
A new product that needs explaining	Your own store, one ad channel	You need a page you control and the customer's data	Your first month's sales sheet
Your company is in Jordan, selling into Saudi Arabia	Which document is accepted for your case, before you build anything	Salla lists Saudi nationality among the Business platform requirements	The Business platform (business.sa), in writing; Saudi market entry
You're stuck between Salla and Zid	Nothing yet: work through the rows above first	The platform is decision four	Salla vs Zid

What should you do this week, and what should you leave alone?

Make three decisions before the week is out. Work out what your first three products leave you after cost, shipping and payment fees. Decide where you'll sell first, and write your reason in one line. Then start the freelance document or the application to add the store to your CR, and open a commercial bank account if you don't have one.

Leave the rest alone. Don't buy a paid theme: it doesn't answer the question about delivery to Jeddah. Don't spend a riyal on ads until a test order shows up in your ad account once, at the right value. And don't upload 40 products. Three whose margin and delivery you know will do more than 40 half-finished pages.

When do you need help?

When the first three decisions are settled on paper and the store still doesn't sell, or when the ad report says one thing and the sales sheet says another. At that point the problem isn't setting up the store. It's the offer, the channel and the follow-up.

That's the work I do in e-commerce growth: I start with the market, the offer and what each order leaves you, then the ad, and I measure the result in the sales sheet, not the platform dashboard.