How to Set Up an Online Store in Lebanon From Scratch

Setting up an online store in Lebanon has become more practical than most people assume, even as the country works through its long economic crisis. A few hundred Lebanese merchants now sell through structured e-commerce platforms, and the tools for payments and delivery have caught up enough that a founder with limited capital can credibly launch in a few weeks. The work is mostly procedural: registration, platform choice, payment integration, and last-mile delivery, in that order.

Here is a step-by-step walk-through for anyone starting from zero.

Step 1: Register the Business

Any individual or company carrying out commercial activity in Lebanon must register with the Commercial Register at the Court of First Instance in the district where the business will operate. The registry sits under the Ministry of Justice, with company filings overseen alongside the Ministry of Economy and Trade.

Most online retailers choose between two legal forms. A Société à Responsabilité Limitée (SARL) is the standard limited liability company. A Société Anonyme (SA) is a public limited company, generally used by larger ventures. SARL is the more common pick for a single founder or a small team because it has lower capital and shareholder requirements.

The basic paperwork includes an application to the Ministry of Economy and Trade with the company name, registered head office, and capital, plus a certified copy of the memorandum of association, the by-laws, and statements about the capital structure. Sole traders can register as individuals and operate under their own name without setting up a separate legal entity, which is the cheapest route for very small stores.

Step 2: Sort Out the Tax File

Every business needs a Tax Identification Number from the Ministry of Finance. The Lebanese TIN covers income tax, VAT, customs, and real estate fees in a single number, which simplifies later filings.

VAT registration is mandatory only for businesses whose turnover exceeds LL 5 billion over one to four consecutive quarters, a threshold raised significantly in the 2024 Budget Law. Below that level, registering is optional. The standard VAT rate is 11 percent. Most newly launched online stores fall below the mandatory threshold in their first year, but it is worth modeling whether voluntary registration helps with suppliers and B2B clients.

Step 3: Choose the Platform

Two platforms dominate the Lebanese market. According to public store-tracking data, around 1,176 Lebanese stores run on WooCommerce and roughly 240 run on Shopify. WooCommerce leads because it is free, gives full control over hosting and SEO, and supports full right-to-left Arabic layouts. The trade-off is that it requires either technical skill or a developer to maintain.

Shopify is the faster route. It is hosted, costs from about 29 dollars per month for the Basic plan, and ships with templates, checkout, and an app store ready to use. A non-technical founder can put up a working storefront in days. Pricing scales with growth, and app fees can add up, but operationally there is less to manage.

If the priority is speed to launch, Shopify wins. If the priority is cost control and full ownership of the site, WooCommerce wins.

Step 4: Wire Up Payments

This is where Lebanon gets specific. Cash on Delivery still accounts for an estimated 60 to 70 percent of online transactions in the country, so the payment stack has to handle physical cash collection as carefully as online card payments.

For card payments, the established local gateways are Areeba, which is trusted across local banks and built for higher-volume merchants; NetCommerce, the Lebanese payment processor backed by major banks including Crédit Libanais and Fransabank, with direct Shopify and WooCommerce integrations; and PinPay, licensed by Banque du Liban and tied to Bank Audi and BankMed.

For mobile and unbanked customers, Whish Money has become a default. It operates more than 1,000 cash-in and cash-out points across the country and launched its Shopify payment gateway in 2025, which lets shoppers pay through their Whish wallet at checkout. Tap Payments, widely used across the Gulf, also supports Lebanese merchants and accepts Visa, Mastercard, and Apple Pay.

For Cash on Delivery, most Lebanese couriers will collect the cash from the customer at the door and remit it to the merchant on a schedule, which removes the need to build that flow separately.

Step 5: Pick a Delivery Partner

Lebanese e-commerce lives and dies on logistics. A few options dominate among online stores.

Wakilni is the most widely cited e-commerce courier for small and medium stores. It covers two zones: Beirut from Jnah to Dbayeh and up to Baabda with one to two working day delivery, and the rest of Lebanon at two to three working days. It also offers warehousing, shelving, and fulfillment, plus international shipping through its DHL partnership.

Aramex handles both domestic and international shipping and is the default if a store plans to sell into the Gulf or beyond.

LibanPost, the national postal operator, is the cheapest option for nationwide coverage and offers a cash collection service alongside delivery.

Most merchants pick one primary partner and add a second one for either international shipments or harder-to-reach regions.

Step 6: Launch and Market

Once the store, payments, and delivery are wired up, the launch playbook in Lebanon leans heavily on Instagram and WhatsApp. Instagram is where most Lebanese consumers discover smaller brands, and WhatsApp is where they ask questions before they buy. Building a presence on both before launch costs nothing and shortens the time to first sale.

Paid acquisition through Meta works, but the cheaper early levers are usually existing community, word of mouth, and influencer barters in the founder's niche. SEO is a slower play, but for stores running on WooCommerce, it tends to compound over a year.

The Real Cost of Launching

A bare-minimum launch in Lebanon (sole trader registration, a Shopify Basic plan, one payment gateway, and a single courier contract) can be done for a few hundred dollars in setup and a low monthly run rate. A more serious SARL setup with multiple gateways and warehousing through a third-party logistics partner like Wakilni costs more upfront, but it scales without rebuilding the stack later.

The hardest piece is rarely the technology. It is matching the product to a Lebanese audience that is price-sensitive, used to messaging brands before buying, and prefers cash at the door. Get that right, and the rest of the setup is execution.