The making of A Heritage-Led Shopify Store for an Emirati Jewellery Brand

Lulwa designs jewellery, watches and handbags in Dubai. We built their Shopify store — named collections, gift sets, Tabby, COD, worldwide shipping. See how.

Client: Lulwa
Built with: Shopify, Liquid, Prestige Theme, Tabby, Judge.me, Klaviyo, Shopify Markets

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Challenges

The brand sells three categories — jewellery, watches and handbags — under sixteen collection names, most of them Arabic words that mean nothing to a first-time visitor, so the navigation had to work by name for the loyal customer and by product type for the newcomer without duplicating the catalogue
A large share of Gulf customers pay cash on delivery and many would rather split a premium purchase into instalments, so payment had to be solved on the product page — Tabby and COD stated beside the price — rather than left as a checkout surprise that costs the sale
The customer base reviews in Arabic and reads in English, or the other way round, which meant the social proof, the email capture and the product copy all had to carry both languages without running two separate storefronts

Solution

Lulwa is a Dubai-designed jewellery brand that reimagines traditional Arab adornment — fresh-water pearls, geometric edges, the starfish and the crescent — as contemporary 18k gold-plated and silver pieces, and has grown from jewellery into watches and leather handbags. Its customers are Emirati and Gulf women buying for themselves and, very often, as gifts, with a large share paying cash on delivery and reviewing in Arabic. We built the store on Shopify's Prestige theme and organised it the way the brand's customers actually shop: by named collection — Zeina, Qamar, Sadaf, Khazeina, Bushok, Diamond Starfish — and by product type at the same time, with gift sets that pair a handbag, a watch and a jewellery set as their own category. Around the catalogue sit the mechanics of selling premium gifts in the Gulf: Tabby interest-free instalments, cash on delivery, free gift wrapping on every order, a complimentary strap choice on watches, a two-year international warranty, free worldwide shipping with free returns, and Judge.me reviews that now number more than 350 five-star ratings, many of them written in Arabic.

Services provided

Design

The palette is sea and sand: a soft mint for the reassurance band under the hero and the section titles, a deeper Gulf teal for the collection banners and the signature gift box — the colour of the shallows the brand's starfish and pearl motifs come from — a warm taupe for the category icons and secondary text, and white for every page ground, so the gold plating and the burgundy leather do the colour work. The typography carries the heritage. Amphora, a calligraphic serif, sets every collection title and product name with the slight flourish of Arabic lettering rendered in Latin, while Jost, a clean geometric sans, takes body copy, prices and the uppercase buttons. Buttons are square-cornered and outlined rather than filled, which keeps the interface quiet beneath the photography, and the Arabic reviews are set in the same measure as the English so the carousel reads as one voice. Three smaller faces handle the edges — Futura on the product badges, Nunito Sans on the newsletter button, Helvetica Neue on the footer controls — so the two display faces are never asked to work at interface sizes.

Colors

#8AB8AE
#9BC3CA
#82756E
#5C5C5C
#FFFFFF

Typeface

Headings and product names
Amphora
A calligraphic serif on every collection title, section heading and product name. Its flowing strokes echo Arabic calligraphy without imitating it, which is exactly the register for a brand built on reinterpreting Emirati heritage.
Body copy and buttons
Jost
A geometric sans in the Futura lineage carrying descriptions, prices, the reassurance strip and every uppercase button. Its even circular forms stay neutral beneath the serif and hold up at the small sizes a product grid needs.
Product badges
Futura
Set at 12px in white on the mint NEW and BEST SELLER badges above each product tile. The classic geometric sans that Jost descends from, so the badge reads as kin to the body copy while standing apart from it.
Newsletter sign-up
Nunito Sans
On the Subscribe button of the Klaviyo email form in the footer, set at 24px in the brand teal on white. A rounded humanist sans with a softer, friendlier voice than Jost, reserved for the one place the store asks for something rather than sells.
Footer utilities
Helvetica Neue
On the currency selector in the footer — the AED label beside the flag — at 14px in white on the teal footer ground. A system face that needs no webfont, kept for the small interface controls where loading a display face would be wasted.

What we built

Shop by Collection and by Type

Sixteen named collections — Aura, Diamond Starfish, Reflection, Luna, Coral, Glow, Heritage, Zeina, Qamar and more — alongside sets, necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, watches and handbags, so a customer who knows the collection name and one who just wants a bracelet both find their way.

Gift Sets as a Category

Curated sets pairing a handbag with a watch, or a watch with a jewellery set — Mirage and Reflection, Luna and Sadaf, Aura and Glow — priced as one item at around AED 2,100, which turns three browsing decisions into a single gift purchase.

Tabby and Cash on Delivery

Four interest-free payments through Tabby shown under the price, and cash on delivery across the UAE and internationally — the two ways a Gulf customer expects to pay for a premium gift, both surfaced on the product page rather than discovered at checkout.

Complimentary Strap and Free Gift Wrapping

Every watch comes with a choice of complimentary strap colour selected on the product page, and every order carries free gift wrapping — small decisions that make the product feel like a gift before it has shipped.

Pair It With

A cross-sell row on each product page suggesting matching pieces from the same collection and a complementary handbag — a Diamond Starfish bracelet beside the Aura watch — so a single purchase becomes a coordinated look.

See It Styled

A styled-photography gallery on every product page showing the piece worn, alongside an Our Looks section on the homepage, because jewellery and handbags are bought on how they look on a person, not on a white background.

Reviews in Two Languages

Judge.me ratings on every product tile and a homepage carousel quoting customers in Arabic and English — more than 350 five-star reviews, with pride in buying Emirati a recurring theme.

A Reassurance Strip That Repeats

Free shipping worldwide, free returns, cash on delivery and the two-year warranty as a scrolling strip under the hero and a four-badge row on every product page, so the risk-reversal is never more than a glance away.

Worldwide Shipping With Duties Explained

Free express shipping on paid orders to the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, a published delivery-time table by country, and a plain explanation of DDP against DDU duties — the detail an international gift buyer needs before ordering from Dubai.

Bilingual Email Capture

A Klaviyo sign-up pop-up written in English and Arabic side by side, matching how the brand's customers switch between the two, and feeding a list that drives the gift-season campaigns.