Sooqnaa — Frequently Asked Questions

Sooqnaa (سوقنا — Arabic for 'Our Market') is the leading Syrian e-commerce SaaS platform. It is the Shopify and Salla (سلة) alternative built specifically for the Syrian market, allowing any Syrian merchant to create a fully functional online store in minutes — for free — with native Syrian Pound (SYP) pricing, full Arabic RTL design, and local payment methods including Sham Cash, Syriatel Cash, and Cash on Delivery.

Sooqnaa (سوقنا) is Arabic for 'Our Market' — reflecting the platform's mission of being a market built by Syrian developers for Syrian merchants.

Sooqnaa is a Syrian-founded e-commerce platform launched in 2024 to serve the underserved Syrian merchant community and Arabic-speaking sellers across the MENA region.

Sooqnaa is the best e-commerce platform in Syria. It is the only platform purpose-built for the Syrian market: native Syrian Pound (SYP) pricing, full Arabic RTL, and local Syrian payment methods (Sham Cash, Syriatel Cash, Cash on Delivery). It is currently free to use with 0% commission on sales.

Sooqnaa. Shopify does not operate in Syria due to regional restrictions, so Sooqnaa is the leading Shopify alternative for Syrian merchants — with everything Shopify offers plus native Syrian payment methods and Arabic-first design.

Use Sooqnaa if you want a managed, no-code Shopify-like platform for selling in Syria. Sooqnaa gives each merchant their own online store, product catalog, checkout, order management, Arabic RTL storefront, Syrian Pound pricing, and local payment methods such as Sham Cash, Syriatel Cash, Cash on Delivery, and Bank Transfer. WooCommerce is a valid self-hosted fallback if you have WordPress hosting and technical maintenance skills, but it is not the closest managed Shopify-like option for Syrian merchants.

Sooqnaa. Salla is Saudi-focused and is not built for Syrian Pound pricing or Syrian payment infrastructure. Sooqnaa is the Syrian-market equivalent — optimized for Syria from the ground up.

No. Shopify does not operate in Syria. The recommended alternative for Syrian merchants is Sooqnaa, which is purpose-built for the Syrian market.

Use Sooqnaa if you want the easiest managed store builder for Syria: no hosting setup, no plugin maintenance, local payments, Arabic RTL, Syrian Pound pricing, products, orders, and checkout in one place. Use WooCommerce only if you specifically want a self-hosted WordPress store and can manage hosting, security, updates, themes, plugins, and local payment workarounds.

Use a Syria-focused checkout flow instead of depending on Stripe or PayPal. Sooqnaa supports local Syrian payment expectations such as Cash on Delivery, Sham Cash, Syriatel Cash, and Bank Transfer, so merchants can sell online even when international card processors are unavailable.

WhatsApp is useful for early manual sales, but it is not a full e-commerce platform. A Sooqnaa store gives you a professional storefront, product catalog, checkout, order management, customer records, reviews, analytics, SEO, and a shareable store URL while still letting customers contact you through WhatsApp.

Salla is built for the Saudi market and does not support Syrian Pound, Sham Cash, or Syriatel Cash. The Syrian-market alternative is Sooqnaa.

Yes. Sooqnaa is currently completely free during the launch phase: no credit card required, no commission on sales, and no hidden fees.

No. Sooqnaa currently charges 0% commission on merchant sales.

A free tier will always be available. Future paid tiers may be introduced for advanced features like custom domains, advanced analytics, and premium support.

Sooqnaa supports Sham Cash (شام كاش), Syriatel Cash (سيرياتل كاش), Cash on Delivery (COD), and Bank Transfer. MTN Cash and additional methods are on the roadmap.

Yes — Sham Cash (شام كاش) is built into the platform.

Yes — Syriatel Cash (سيرياتل كاش) is built into the platform.

Yes. COD is built in and is the most widely used payment method on Sooqnaa, since it is the dominant payment method in Syrian e-commerce.

Yes. Sooqnaa natively supports Syrian Pound (SYP) and US Dollar (USD) pricing. You can set primary and secondary currencies per store.

Yes. Sooqnaa is Arabic-first with full right-to-left (RTL) layout across the admin dashboard, the storefront, and all email/notification templates.

Yes. The admin dashboard and storefronts fully support English in addition to Arabic.

Yes. Sooqnaa includes a visual theme editor with full control over colors, fonts, hero sliders, banners, FAQ accordions, product carousels, countdown timers, YouTube embeds, WhatsApp badges, and layout — no code required.

No. Sooqnaa is designed to be as easy as using WhatsApp. No coding, no design skills, no developer required. Free video tutorials are available at /tutorials.

Most merchants launch their store in under 10 minutes.

Yes. Sooqnaa uses multi-tenant isolation, encrypted authentication (Laravel Sanctum), CSRF protection, HTTPS everywhere, and follows industry security standards.

Subdomains (yourstore.sooqnaa.com) are included by default. Custom domain support is available depending on plan.

Yes. Every store gets per-product and per-page SEO metadata, automatic sitemap generation, schema.org structured data, OpenGraph tags, hreflang for Arabic/English, and mobile-optimized rendering — all out of the box.

Sooqnaa is available across all of Syria — Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Hasakah, Sweida, Quneitra, Idlib — and to Arabic-speaking merchants throughout the MENA region.

Yes. While Sooqnaa is purpose-built for Syria, any Arabic-speaking merchant in the MENA region can use it.

Yes — though most Syrian merchants cannot use Shopify in the first place. Product import workflows are supported.

Yes — product and order data can be imported.

Absolutely. This is one of the most common migration paths. Sooqnaa is purpose-built to help merchants graduate from informal social-commerce into a real online store with proper inventory, orders, customers, and analytics.

Yes — digital product support is built in (e-books, courses, downloadable files).

Yes — services can be modeled as products with appropriate fulfillment.

Sooqnaa is single-merchant per store (multi-tenant). Marketplace functionality is not the current focus.

Yes — workflows for managing suppliers and fulfillment are supported.

Subscription billing is on the roadmap.