Websites built for Jeddah's trade and visitor economy

Jeddah's economy runs through its gateways. Jeddah Islamic Port is the Kingdom's main import and export port and the principal port serving Makkah and Madinah, and the city is the main air entry point for visitors heading to the Grand Mosque in Makkah. That shapes what a website here has to do. The brief usually starts with who is arriving: cargo, visitors or shoppers.

A freight forwarder, customs broker or importer working around the port is usually selling to other businesses. Its site needs service coverage, cargo types, certifications and a quote request that reaches the right desk, laid out so a procurement officer can confirm fit in a minute. A hotel, transport operator or Umrah service company is often selling to travellers who book from abroad, many of them on a phone. A retailer or restaurant group is competing for local shoppers who expect Arabic first, familiar payment methods and delivery to their National Address.

Place-making adds another layer. Historic Jeddah was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2014 and has been under a government rejuvenation project since 2021, while Jeddah Central, developed by a PIF company, combines housing, hotels and landmarks such as an opera house, a museum and a stadium. Businesses tied to projects like these need to present places, not just products: galleries, maps, floor plans, availability and enquiry flows that work in more than one language.

Saudi Arabia's National Policy for the Arabic Language, approved by the Council of Ministers on 3 February 2026, covers private and non-profit organisations as well as government bodies. It promotes Arabic in contracts, invoices, commercial signage and advertising. For private companies it is framed largely as encouragement rather than a strict mandate, and other languages can sit alongside Arabic where needed. For a consumer-facing site in Jeddah the direction is clear: Arabic should be the primary experience, not a translation bolted onto an English build.

We deliver Arabic and multilingual websites with proper right-to-left layouts: mirrored navigation and icons, Arabic typefaces chosen for reading on small screens, forms that accept Arabic input and both numeral styles, and a separate URL for each language so search engines can index each version. We settle at kickoff who writes and approves the Arabic copy, because real text length drives the layout.

Businesses that serve pilgrims often need more than two languages. Nusuk Umrah, the official platform supervised by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, is offered in seven languages, a fair guide to the range of visitors a Jeddah hotel or transport company is addressing. We structure the site so a third or fourth language can be added later without a rebuild.

The Personal Data Protection Law has been fully enforceable since 14 September 2024, and it applies to any organisation processing the personal data of people living in the Kingdom, wherever that organisation sits. Every enquiry form, booking request and newsletter sign-up falls under it. We keep forms to the fields you actually use, place consent and privacy-notice links in both languages, and document where submitted data goes so your legal adviser can review it.

If you sell online, the E-commerce Law requires your store name, address, contact details and commercial registration number to be shown. Its regulations give shoppers seven days to cancel and get a refund on goods they have not used, and the right to cancel if delivery takes more than 15 days from the date of the agreement, unless the parties agreed otherwise. Those rules belong in the checkout, order emails and policy pages from the first design, not added the week before launch.

Invoicing is the third constraint. ZATCA has been moving VAT taxpayers into the integration phase of e-invoicing in waves since January 2023. Wave 25 covers taxpayers whose VAT-taxable revenue exceeded SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025, with integration with the Fatoora platform due by 1 February 2027. The VAT regulations also require tax invoices to be issued in Arabic, with any other language treated as a translation, and the VAT amount stated in Saudi riyals. We choose a store platform and invoicing connection that fit this, and keep product, customer and VAT data clean in the order records so invoices come out right.

Xsofty is based in Islamabad and works with Jeddah businesses remotely; we have no office in Saudi Arabia. Islamabad is two hours ahead of Jeddah all year, so a 10:00 review in Jeddah is noon in Islamabad and a 15:00 call is 17:00. We schedule discovery calls and design reviews inside Jeddah working hours and record decisions in writing between sessions.

Our closest proof comes from the Gulf and from property. The Closet, a fashion e-commerce store, and GWC Directory, a directory platform that makes a large logistics ecosystem easier to search, were both built for clients in Qatar. They are the nearest match to what Jeddah's retailers and freight businesses need. Serene Tower, a launch site for a mixed-use DHA Multan development spanning residences, commerce and hospitality, was built for a Pakistani developer and shows how we turn a large development into a clear sales journey.

Packages start at USD 1,490 for a focused Launch website, USD 2,950 for Growth and USD 4,900 for a Commerce storefront. Booking tools, supplier directories and customer portals are scoped and priced by proposal. After launch, care plans start at USD 39 a month for updates, monitoring and backups; the USD 79 and USD 149 plans add small edits and checks on lead forms, checkout and order emails.