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E-Commerce Business Setup in the UAE
Selling online is a method, not one activity. A shop that sells your own goods, a marketplace that connects other sellers, and a business that imports stock can need different activity names, and sometimes a product approval on top.
Which online model is it?
Own goods
You sell products you own through a site or a seller account. Meydan places a standard digital shopfront under 4790.00.
Marketplace
You connect other buyers and sellers, or you only list on someone else’s marketplace. The first is a platform question. The second can still be a seller activity.
Dropshipping
Meydan’s article places a defined-category dropshipping store under 4790.00. The supplier, the stock location and the product still matter.
Stock in the UAE
Importing and holding goods adds a trading activity and a warehouse question. The online code describes how you sell, not the warehouse.
Digital products
Meydan says some digital-delivery models can fit distance selling under 4791.00. A software subscription may instead be a software activity.
Regulated goods
The selling channel may not need an extra approval. The product might. Meydan names cosmetics, health goods, food and safety-certified electronics as product-side checks.
Meydan’s online-selling names
Meydan says these three codes describe how you sell, and that a product business usually pairs one of them with a trading or retail code for what you sell. Up to three activity groups can sit on one Meydan licence. That pairing rule is Meydan’s. It is not an IFZA rule and it is not a Dubai mainland rule.
Meydan Free Zone. Read 1 October 2026.
AuthorityMeydan
Activity nameE-commerce
Code4790.00
Approval noteNo third-party approval at the licence stage, on Meydan’s article. Product rules can still apply.
AuthorityMeydan
Activity nameRetail sale via mail order houses or via the Internet
Code4791.00
Approval noteDistance selling. Same licence-stage note as 4790.00.
AuthorityMeydan
Activity nameOther retail sale not in stores, stalls or markets
Code4799.00
Approval noteNon-store formats that are not a standard shopfront or ordinary distance selling.
This may require additional approval depending on the exact activity. Meydan’s article says cosmetics and health-related goods often need Dubai Municipality and Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology registration under the Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme, and that regulated food and safety-certified electronics have their own rules. Payment collection is a separate question from the selling code. This page does not treat a card checkout as a financial licence.
Routes worth comparing
Once the model is clear, these authorities have published something relevant. None of them is selected here.
- Meydan publishes the three codes above, with a flexi-desk package described on its profile.
- RAKEZ lists e-commerce among its licence categories. It does not publish 4790.00.
- SHAMS names e-commerce among activities it licenses, with up to five activities on one licence.
- Dubai South is relevant when the model needs a warehouse or logistics premises. Its commercial licence is not the Meydan e-commerce code.
- Dubai mainland is the route to compare when the buyers are in Dubai and the sale is not only inside a zone or abroad.