Glossary

Social Commerce (Gulf)

التجارة الاجتماعية في الخليج

Selling products and services directly through social media platforms—Instagram Shopping, TikTok Shop, Snapchat Store, and WhatsApp catalogue—without redirecting users to a separate website. Gulf consumers, particularly in Saudi Arabia and UAE, have the highest social media usage rates globally and increasingly complete purchases natively within apps. Businesses need backend integrations between their social storefront, inventory, and operator console to automate order processing and bilingual customer responses.

Related terms

Tokenisation (Payments)Replacing a customer's actual card number with a secure, randomly generated token stored in the payment system. The real card data never touches your server—reducing PCI-DSS compliance scope and eliminating the risk of card data breaches. In Saudi Arabia and UAE, SAMA and CBUAE mandate tokenisation for saved-card and recurring-payment flows. E-commerce sites built by Lirevon integrate tokenisation through licensed Gulf gateways (HyperPay, Telr, PayTabs) as a standard security layer.
WhatsApp Business APIThe official Meta-managed API that lets businesses programmatically send and receive WhatsApp messages at scale, trigger automated sequences, verify phone numbers, and integrate with CRM and AI systems. Requires a Meta Business account and phone-number registration. In Saudi Arabia and UAE, WhatsApp is the dominant B2B and B2C communication channel — automating it with the API shortens response times from hours to seconds.
Mada Payment GatewaySaudi Arabia's national debit card network and payment gateway, operated by Saudi Payments. Mada is the most widely used payment method for online transactions in the Kingdom—more common than Visa or Mastercard among local consumers. Any e-commerce or service website targeting Saudi Arabia must integrate Mada to avoid losing the majority of local checkout completions. Integration requires a licensed Saudi payment processor such as HyperPay or Moyasar.
E-Commerce Localization (Gulf)Adapting an online store for Gulf markets beyond translation: displaying prices in SAR, AED, KWD, or QAR; integrating local payment methods (Mada, Apple Pay, SADAD, Telr); generating ZATCA-compliant invoices; showing VAT at 15% for Saudi and 5% for UAE; and applying Arabic product naming conventions. Localized stores convert 2–3x better than translated-only stores because the checkout feels native to the customer.

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