A UK and UAE consultancy working with Shopify Plus operators across Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. Three things, all in-house: Shopify development, ecommerce SEO, and custom AI engineering using Claude agents and MCP servers we built ourselves. Fixed scope, no retainers, real engineering.
There are plenty of agencies in Dubai. What's harder to find is a consultancy that ships production-grade work in Shopify themes, technical SEO, and AI engineering — without outsourcing any of it. That's the gap we fill.
We work with stores based in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Ras Al Khaimah, plus operators based outside the UAE who sell into the GCC market. Most of our UAE clients sell across borders — into the UK, EU, KSA, or wider MENA — and the technical setup for cross-border ecommerce is a separate discipline that we know well.
Custom theme work, app development, headless builds, Shopify Plus migrations. Our team writes Liquid daily. We don’t farm work out — what we sell is what we build. For UAE stores: AED multi-currency, Arabic/RTL handling where relevant, integration with local payment processors (Telr, Network International, Tabby, Tamara), and shipping integrations with Aramex, DHL UAE, and other GCC carriers.
Technical SEO, content strategy, and link building for ecommerce. Most “SEO agency Dubai” results compete on local search for service businesses — we focus specifically on ecommerce and Shopify, which is a different discipline. We know how Shopify generates duplicate URLs that dilute rankings, which schema markup actually triggers rich results, and how to handle multi-currency without splitting authority. For cross-border stores we also handle hreflang properly — the single most common technical SEO mistake we see on stores selling into both GCC and Western markets.
Where we differ most from the typical Dubai agency. We design and ship production AI systems for Shopify Plus operators — custom Claude agents, MCP servers, automation workflows — built on the same stack we use to run our own multi-£m store. Variant-level merchandising agents, bulk operation engines for catalogue maintenance, custom MCP servers for Shopify Admin GraphQL, content sub-agents for collection page generation. Fixed scope, 8–12 week engagements; you own the systems we build. Full brief →
We operate across both. UK is the day-to-day base right now — the founder is back working out of the UK and that's where the bulk of delivery happens. RAK is one of our chosen long-term locations and where we expect to be operating from increasingly as the region develops.
The UK side gives you depth on Western market SEO, consumer behaviour data, and exposure to mature UK and EU ecommerce trends that often hit GCC markets two years later. We’ve worked on Shopify Plus stores that ship to both regions, which means we know what doesn’t translate (UK-flavoured content tone tends to land oddly in GCC markets) and what does (technical SEO is universal).
The UAE side gives you local context and an understanding of the operational realities — VAT setup, free zone vs mainland trade considerations, customer service expectations during Ramadan and Eid trading peaks, the mix of Arabic and English audiences most stores manage.
We're a small consultancy. There isn't a Dubai office full of account managers. There's the team that does the work, and that's who you'll deal with.
A specific note on RAK because it's worth one. Right now most ecommerce conversation in the UAE happens in Dubai, and most agencies behave like RAK doesn't exist. That's about to age badly.
Wynn Resorts is building one of the largest integrated casino resorts in the world on Al Marjan Island in RAK — the first regulated casino in the UAE, opening in 2027. The infrastructure spend, the tourism inflows, and the secondary economic impact on Northern Emirates retail and ecommerce are going to reshape the region in the next five years.
Beyond Wynn, RAK has been quietly setting up as one of the more business-friendly free-zone jurisdictions in the GCC, with RAKEZ licences attracting ecommerce operators who want UAE access without Dubai costs.
If you're an operator using RAK Free Zone or RAKEZ for your trading licence, we understand the setup and can speak to it from direct experience. If you're a Dubai-based operator, RAK presence isn't relevant to how we work with you — we deliver remote-first regardless. The reason RAK matters in this section is that we genuinely believe in it as a region, and most consultancies you'll talk to don't.
→2027: Wynn Al Marjan Island opens→First regulated UAE casino (GGR + tourism)→RAKEZ — business-friendly free zone→Lower op cost than Dubai equivalents+Northern Emirates retail compounding
A first call to understand what you’re building or fixing. If we’re a fit, a paid discovery (1–2 weeks) gets us into your systems with read access, audits what’s there, and produces a written scope: what we’ll build, what success looks like, what it costs, how long. The scope document is the contract.
Most engagements run 4–12 weeks. You see weekly progress, not monthly status reports. SEO: fixes implemented in your theme and reporting on rankings as they move. Development: code shipped to staging or production. AI engineering: working agents and MCP servers running on your data.
When the engagement ends, you own everything we built. Code, prompts, schemas, runbooks. We train your team to operate the systems. Optional ongoing optimisation available, but never a lock-in.
We don't publish fixed prices because the work varies too much. Rough ranges to set expectations:
VAT applies on UAE-billed work where relevant. We can invoice in GBP or AED. Payment is typically split 50/50 — half on engagement start, half on hand-off.
→Ecommerce SEO — retainersfrom £2,500 / AED 11,500 / month→Ecommerce SEO — one-off audit + fixesfrom £3,500 / AED 16,000→Shopify development — fixed scopefrom £5,000 / AED 23,000→Plus build — larger fixed scopefrom £25,000+ / AED 115,000+→AI engineering — 8–12wk embeddedfrom £30,000 / AED 138,000
Hollow Point is UK-registered with a UAE presence. We invoice from the UK entity for international clients and can work with UAE clients via standard cross-border consultancy arrangements. If you specifically need a UAE-registered supplier for procurement reasons, mention it on the call and we'll work out the right structure.
No. We focus on Shopify, ecommerce SEO, and AI engineering. We can recommend specialists for paid media, social, or general branding work. The reason we're narrow is the same reason a good cardiologist isn't also a dermatologist — it's how we stay genuinely good at what we do.
Yes for technical work — Shopify themes, RTL handling, hreflang, schema, performance optimisation. For Arabic content writing we partner with native-speaker writers when a project needs it; we don't pretend to write Arabic copy ourselves.
Two main differences. First, scope: most Dubai agencies offer everything from logo design to social media. We do three specific things. Second, model: most local agencies sell ongoing retainers; we sell fixed-scope engagements with defined deliverables. Both models have their place. If you want everything in one place and a long-term relationship, a generalist agency is probably the right call. If you want specific work shipped on a defined timeline, that's us.
Usually 2 to 4 weeks from a first call to engagement start, depending on what we have on at the time. We typically have one or two slots opening per month. If you're on a hard deadline, mention it on the call.
We have a base in Ras Al Khaimah, not a public office. For UAE clients we typically meet at your office or somewhere central in Dubai. For RAK-based clients we can meet locally. Day-to-day work is mostly remote regardless — most of the engineering and SEO work happens against your systems and data, not in meetings.
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If you run a Shopify Plus store in the UAE and you're considering any of these — a development project, an SEO overhaul, an AI engineering build — start with a conversation. No pressure, no pitch.