Salla
Salla Store Design That Looks Like Your Brand
We design, set up and launch Salla stores for merchants in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf — a customised theme, a catalogue written properly in Arabic and English, and payments, shipping and tracking configured before your first order. From SAR 5,500.
SAR 5,500
store setup, from
Branded theme, 50 products in Arabic and English, payments tested
SAR 99
Salla Plus, per month
Paid by you to Salla. Pro is SAR 299 and unlocks custom CSS and staff accounts
2–4 wks
to launch
Most of it is product content, not development
550+
apps in Salla’s store
Payments, shipping, marketing and accounting integrations
What this page covers
Key takeaways
- Salla is the largest Saudi store platform, and the reason most Salla stores look alike is the work on top, not the platform underneath.
- The platform subscription is yours and modest: SAR 99 a month on Plus, SAR 299 on Pro. Our design and setup is separate, from SAR 5,500.
- Custom CSS and JavaScript need the Pro plan; a fully bespoke design means a custom theme on Salla’s Twilight framework.
- Payments cannot be switched on without a commercial registration or freelance document, ID and a matching Saudi bank account.
- Arabic product content is the biggest line in any honest quote — and the part that decides whether the store is findable.
- Maroof is no longer the route: e-store authentication moved to the Saudi Business Center in 2023.
What is on this page
Why so many Salla stores look the same
Salla made it possible for almost anyone in Saudi Arabia to open an online store in an afternoon. That is its great strength, and it is also the problem: tens of thousands of stores run on the same handful of themes, with the same banners, the same product grids and the same default settings. A shopper who has bought from a few Salla stores can often recognise the template before they recognise the brand.
The platform itself is not the limit. Salla’s theme engine, Twilight, is a full developer framework, the Pro plan opens custom CSS and JavaScript, and the app store covers almost every integration a Saudi merchant needs. What most stores lack is the work on top: a design that carries the brand, product pages that answer the questions customers actually ask, and a setup that has been tested with real payments and real shipments.
That is what we do. We work inside your own Salla account — you keep ownership of the store, the data and the subscription — and we hand it back to you ready to sell, with your team trained to run it.
What we do on Salla
Theme design and customisation
We start from the right base theme for your catalogue and customise it to your identity: colours, typography, homepage sections, banners and product-page layout. On the Pro plan we go further with custom CSS and JavaScript, and for brands that need it we build a custom theme on Salla’s Twilight framework.
Catalogue in Arabic and English
Product names, descriptions, options and categories written for how Saudi customers search, in natural Arabic and clear English. Not machine translation, and not a supplier’s spreadsheet pasted in as-is.
Payments
Mada, Visa and Mastercard, Apple Pay, STC Pay and bank transfer, plus buy-now-pay-later with Tabby or Tamara where it suits your average basket. Every method is tested with a live transaction before launch.
Shipping
Delivery zones, rates and free-shipping thresholds set up around your margins, using Salla’s own shipping labels or your existing courier contracts, with cash on delivery where you want it.
Tracking and marketing
Google Analytics, Google Merchant Center, and the Meta, Snapchat and TikTok pixels connected and verified, so every campaign you run after launch can be measured from the first riyal.
VAT and e-invoicing
Tax settings configured and Salla’s ZATCA e-invoicing app connected if you are VAT-registered, so invoices are issued correctly from the first order.
Which Salla plan do you need?
Salla’s subscription is paid by you directly to Salla; it is not part of our fee. These are the plans Salla publishes (checked September 2026 — Salla changes its plans from time to time, so confirm on salla.com before you subscribe).
| Plan | Price | What it adds | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | Unlimited products and orders, coupons, reviews | Fine for testing, but no custom domain and no electronic payments |
| Plus | SAR 99 / month or SAR 990 / year | Electronic payments, shipping, your own domain | The right start for most new stores |
| Pro | SAR 299 / month or SAR 2,990 / year | Custom CSS and JavaScript, staff accounts, ERP and accounting integrations | Choose it if you want deep design customisation or a team running the store |
| Special | On request | Large-business plan | For high-volume brands; talk to Salla directly |
We recommend Plus for most merchants starting out and moving to Pro when the design or the team needs it. Salla lets you pay an annual plan in three instalments, which spreads the cost of the first year.
Themes, Twilight and how far design can go
Salla builds its themes on Twilight, a developer framework with its own command-line tools and a partner portal. In practice there are three levels of design freedom, and knowing which one you need is the difference between a sensible quote and an expensive surprise.
- Theme settings only. Colours, fonts, banners, homepage blocks and product-page options, all inside the theme’s own controls. Fast, cheap, and enough for a first store — but your store will resemble every other store on that theme.
- Theme settings plus custom CSS and JavaScript. Requires the Pro plan. This is where a store starts to look like a brand: bespoke sections, a restyled header, custom product layouts, a checkout that carries your identity.
- A custom Twilight theme. Built from Salla’s starter theme and published through the partner portal. Full freedom, quoted separately, and worth it only when the brand genuinely demands it — usually for merchants already doing serious volume.
Most merchants belong in the middle. We are direct about this: if your catalogue is fifty products and your budget is finite, spend it on photography and Arabic copy before a bespoke theme. Design differentiates a store; content is what makes it findable, and an invisible store cannot be differentiated at all. You can read the framework documentation on Salla’s developer site if you want to see what is involved.
The payment methods a Saudi store needs
Payment setup is an approval process, not a switch. Each method has its own onboarding, and each one needs testing with a real order before you announce anything.
Mada is not optional: a store that only accepts international cards will lose a large share of Saudi checkouts. Buy-now-pay-later matters most when your average basket is high enough for instalments to change the decision.
What you need before your store can take payments
You can open a Salla store and build it without any documents, which means we can start designing while your paperwork is in progress. Before electronic payments can be switched on, Salla asks for:
- A commercial registration (CR), or a freelance document (وثيقة العمل الحر) if you sell as an individual
- The national ID of the owner or authorised person
- A Saudi bank account (IBAN) in the same name
- VAT registration if your taxable sales pass SAR 375,000 in 12 months (voluntary from SAR 187,500)
A note on Maroof: many older guides still say you need a Maroof listing. The Ministry of Commerce moved e-store authentication to the Saudi Business Center’s Business Platform in 2023, so Maroof is no longer the route. We will point you to the current steps during setup.
The part everyone underestimates: product content
Ask ten merchants what a store build costs and they will describe design. Ask ten agencies which part overruns and they will all say content. For a Salla store with fifty products, product content is routinely a third of the work.
Every product needs a name that matches how Saudi shoppers actually search — which is often not the manufacturer’s name and often not Modern Standard Arabic. It needs a description that answers the questions that would otherwise arrive by WhatsApp: sizing, material, origin, warranty, delivery time. It needs options and variants configured so that a colour choice does not create twelve near-identical listings. It needs images that are consistent in framing and background, because a grid of mismatched photographs reads as untrustworthy however good the theme is.
Multiply that by fifty and you have the real project. This is why our package states “up to 50 products written and uploaded in Arabic and English” rather than leaving it vague, and why a clean spreadsheet from you reduces the quote more than any negotiation over design.
It is also why we push back on merchants who want to launch with four hundred products. Launch with the fifty that sell, write them properly, and add the rest once the store is earning. A store with fifty good listings outperforms one with four hundred thin ones, in search and in conversion.
Where a store build actually goes
Merchants budget for design and are surprised by content. This is how the hours divide on a typical fifty-product Salla store.
If you arrive with a clean product spreadsheet and consistent photography, the largest bar shrinks and the quote follows it down. That is the single most useful thing a merchant can do before commissioning a store.
The Salla store package
One clear package for most merchants. Larger catalogues, custom themes and migrations are quoted in writing before work starts.
Salla store setup
from SAR 5,500
AED 5,500 · QAR 5,400 · KWD 460 · $1,490
Everything a new or existing Salla store needs to look like a brand and sell from day one.
- Theme customised to your brand identity
- Up to 50 products written and uploaded in Arabic and English
- Payments, shipping and store settings configured and tested
- Google, Meta, Snap and TikTok tracking connected
- Staff training and step-by-step videos
- Delivered in 2–4 weeks
Also available
Services that are quoted separately because they vary so much from store to store:
- Custom theme built on Salla's Twilight framework
- Migration from Shopify, WooCommerce or Zid, keeping your products and customers
- Catalogues above 50 products
- Product photography direction and Arabic copywriting
- Monthly SEO and advertising management
Salla, Zid or Shopify?
We build on all three, so we have no reason to push one. For a merchant based in Saudi Arabia, this is how they compare in practice:
| Salla | Zid | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Saudi merchants who want the largest local ecosystem | Merchants who want built-in payments and logistics, and GCC reach | Brands selling internationally or through a UAE company |
| Entry paid plan | SAR 99 / month | SAR 99 / month | Billed in USD |
| Local payments | Mada, Apple Pay, STC Pay, Tabby, Tamara | Zid Pay with Mada and Apple Pay; Tabby, Tamara | Shopify Payments is not available in Saudi Arabia, so a third-party gateway is needed |
| Apps | 550+ in the Salla app store | 400+ in the Zid app market | The largest global app ecosystem |
| Design freedom | High on Pro or with a custom Twilight theme | High with a custom Vitrin theme | Very high |
| Arabic-first | Yes | Yes | Possible, needs careful setup |
If you are unsure, tell us what you sell, where your customers are and how many orders you expect, and we will recommend a platform in writing — including when the answer is not the one we would earn most from. Read more about Zid store design.
How a Salla store build runs
01
Plan
We agree the plan, the theme direction, the catalogue structure and the payment methods. You start your documents in parallel if they are not ready.
02
Design
We customise the theme on your brand and show you the homepage and a product page before anything else is built.
03
Catalogue and setup
Products written and uploaded, payments, shipping, VAT and tracking configured, and every payment method tested live.
04
Launch
We launch on your domain, train your team, and stay on hand for the first two weeks of real orders.
Migrating an existing store to Salla
Moving from Shopify, WooCommerce or Zid to Salla is routine, and it goes wrong in predictable ways. What we do:
- Export products, categories, customers and orders, and map the fields properly rather than accepting a lossy default import
- Rebuild the URL structure and set up redirects where the platforms allow it, so the traffic you already earn does not land on error pages
- Recreate the payment and shipping configuration and test each method with a real transaction before switching the domain
- Move or rebuild tracking — Google, Meta, Snap, TikTok — and verify the events fire, because a migration that loses attribution blinds your advertising
- Keep the old store live until the new one is verified, then switch the domain at a quiet hour
The piece that cannot be recovered afterwards is search rankings lost to broken URLs. If you take one thing from this page when choosing any supplier: ask how they will handle your existing addresses. If the answer is vague, the answer is that they will not.
“Design differentiates a store. Content is what makes it findable. An invisible store cannot be differentiated at all.”
Getting found after launch
A Salla store gets traffic from three places: paid ads on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Google; Google search; and people who already know your brand. The first two depend on the setup more than most merchants realise.
For ads, the pixels must fire correctly on product views, add-to-cart and purchase, otherwise the platforms cannot optimise and you pay more for every sale. We verify every event before launch. For Google, product titles and descriptions must be written the way Saudi shoppers search — usually in Arabic, often in dialect, sometimes in English for brand and technical terms — and each category needs its own descriptive text rather than an empty grid. Our SEO service and Google Ads management pick up from there if you want ongoing help.
Related reading
If you are still deciding, these go deeper:
- Zid store design — the other major Saudi platform, with its own payments, shipping and marketplace
- What a website costs in Saudi Arabia — SAR ranges, the three-year cost comparison and ZATCA e-invoicing
- E-commerce development — how we build stores on any platform
- Our published prices — fixed packages in SAR and the other Gulf currencies
- A multilingual case study — why Arabic content is written, not translated
- Get a fixed quote — send a product list and a launch date
Salla publishes its current plans and its help centre openly; both are worth reading before you subscribe, because plans change.
Salla questions
How much does Salla store design cost?
Our Salla store setup starts from SAR 5,500. It includes a theme customised to your brand, up to 50 products written and uploaded in Arabic and English, payments, shipping and tracking configured, and staff training. Custom themes, migrations and larger catalogues are quoted separately in writing.
Is the Salla subscription included?
No. You subscribe to Salla directly and pay Salla, so the store and the subscription are always in your name. Salla’s paid plans start at SAR 99 a month (checked September 2026).
Which Salla plan should I choose?
Plus suits most new stores because it adds electronic payments, shipping and your own domain. Pro is worth it if you want custom CSS and JavaScript, staff accounts or ERP integration.
Can you customise a Salla theme beyond its settings?
Yes. On the Pro plan we add custom CSS and JavaScript. For a fully bespoke design we build a custom theme on Salla’s Twilight framework, which is quoted separately.
Do I need a commercial registration?
To activate electronic payments, Salla requires a commercial registration or a freelance document, plus the owner’s ID and a matching Saudi bank account. You can start building the store before these are ready.
Do I still need Maroof?
No. E-store authentication moved from Maroof to the Saudi Business Center’s Business Platform in 2023. We guide you through the current steps.
Can customers pay with Tabby or Tamara?
Yes. Salla supports Tabby and Tamara alongside Mada, cards, Apple Pay, STC Pay, bank transfer and cash on delivery. Approval for buy-now-pay-later is between you and the provider.
Can you move my store from Shopify or WooCommerce to Salla?
Yes. We move your products, categories and customers, set up redirects from your old store’s addresses where possible, and test before switching the domain.
How long does it take?
Most Salla stores launch in two to four weeks, depending on how quickly product information and documents are ready.
Is my store only for Saudi Arabia?
No. Salla supports additional languages and currencies and shipping to other countries, so you can sell to the UAE and the wider Gulf from the same store.
Can I customise a Salla theme without the Pro plan?
Only within the theme’s own settings. Custom CSS and JavaScript require Pro (SAR 299 a month). For most merchants Plus plus careful use of the theme settings is enough to launch.
How many products should I launch with?
The ones that actually sell, written properly — often 30 to 50. A large catalogue of thin listings performs worse than a small catalogue of good ones, and it takes far longer to build.
Do you work inside my Salla account?
Yes. The store, the subscription and the data stay in your name throughout, and you keep full access during the build.
What happens after launch?
We stay on hand through the first orders, and we hand over training videos so your team can add products and run promotions without us. Ongoing SEO and advertising are optional monthly services.
Can you connect Salla to my accounting or ERP?
On the Pro plan, yes — through Salla’s app store or a custom integration, quoted separately once we know which system you use.
Ready to open a Salla store that sells?
Send us your brand, a few products and the stores you admire. We will reply with a plan, a fixed price and a launch date.