Start an Online Store in Jordan in 2027: A 5-Step Launch Checklist

Starting an online store in Jordan in 2027 takes five pieces of work, and this guide takes them in order:

• Step 1: Register the business and its activities.
• Step 2: Price with 16% sales tax and issue a JoFotara invoice for every order.
• Step 3: Choose payment options: cards, CliQ, e-wallets and cash on delivery.
• Step 4: Set delivery and returns within the consumer protection rules.
• Step 5: Build Arabic and English product pages on one system for stock, orders and invoices.

Step 1 is registration. Selling online does not exempt you from it. Work through this list, as of November 2026:

• A sole proprietorship and trade name, registered online through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, or a company registered with the Companies Control Department.
• Registered activities that cover what you sell. The ministry's online inquiry shows each establishment's activities; confirm with the registry that selling online is covered.
• Selling from home? The ministry publishes awareness material on why home-based businesses must register, so ask about that route.
• A vocational licence for your office or warehouse: confirm with your municipality, which in Amman is the Greater Amman Municipality.
• An importer card from the ministry if you import stock yourself.
• Sales tax registration with ISTD once 12-month sales reach JOD 75,000 for goods or JOD 30,000 for services (step 2).
• A bank account in the business's name, which you will normally need for card acceptance and for receiving business CliQ payments.
• A privacy notice. Article 9 of the Personal Data Protection Law No. 24 of 2023 requires you to tell customers, before processing, what data you collect, why, for how long, who processes it with you, such as your courier or payment gateway, and how you protect it.
• Launch offers. The ministry issues approvals for promotional campaigns, clearance sales and prizes, so check whether yours needs one before you announce it.

Most goods and services in Jordan carry the 16% general sales tax, and Odoo's Jordan localization ships that rate with exempt and 0% export taxes. Registration becomes compulsory once sales reach JOD 75,000 within 12 months in trade and industry, or JOD 30,000 in services, according to ISTD's registration notice. Some products are exempt or taxed at other rates, so have your tax adviser confirm each product category before launch.

Online shoppers expect the final price, so show prices with tax included. A product at JOD 20.000 before tax sells at JOD 23.200, and the invoice shows JOD 20.000 plus JOD 3.200 of sales tax. In Odoo, set Display Product Prices to Tax Included in the website settings and switch on the tax indication on the product page. Store each price one way only, with or without tax, and let Odoo compute the other.

If ISTD requires your business to issue invoices through the national e-invoicing system, every online order's invoice goes through JoFotara. Odoo sends it in UBL 2.1, prints JoFotara's QR code on the PDF and records the result in a JoFotara State field. Four points matter for a store:

• Taxpayer type: Odoo offers unregistered, registered and special sales tax. Pick the one in your ISTD file.
• Business buyers: Odoo's JoFotara setup uses each customer's country and Tax ID, so switch on the B2B fields in the checkout's delivery step.
• Discounts: JoFotara rejects negative lines, so Odoo says discounts must be a percentage per line. A coupon that adds its own discount line can block the invoice; a promo code on a pricelist discounts each product line instead. Test one discounted order end to end.
• Returns: issue a credit note from the original invoice and send it to JoFotara, with a reason that fits ISTD's rules.

Each morning, filter yesterday's invoices by JoFotara State and resend any that failed.

Offer at least two ways to pay, one of them instant. As of November 2026:

• Cards: you sign with an acquirer, a bank or a company licensed by the Central Bank of Jordan under the Electronic Payment and Money Transfer Bylaw No. 111 of 2017. Ask for its licence and whether its gateway connects to Odoo.
• CliQ: customers transfer instantly to your business alias, in dinars and within Jordan. Our CliQ guide for businesses covers bank fees, limits and matching.
• E-wallets: mobile wallet users can already pay your CliQ alias. For a wallet button at checkout, ask wallet providers licensed by the Central Bank whether they offer website payments and connect to Odoo.
• Cash on delivery: no card or transfer fee, but cash stays with the courier until handed over, and a refused parcel costs you the delivery with no sale.

Card fees are capped. Under the Central Bank's January 2026 circular on card acceptance fees, in force since March 2026, the merchant discount rate for e-commerce on cards issued in Jordan is between 0.70% and 1.50%. The acquirer may add up to JOD 21 a month and JOD 0.100 a transaction, and you may not surcharge customers for paying by card. Cards issued abroad fall outside these caps.

A worked example: 300 card orders a month averaging JOD 35, or JOD 10,500. The rate costs JOD 73.500 to JOD 157.500; with the maximum extras (JOD 21 plus 300 × JOD 0.100), the ceiling is JOD 208.500, about 2%.

In Odoo eCommerce, each method is a payment provider you publish at checkout, and Cash on Delivery is switched on per delivery method. For CliQ, duplicate the Wire Transfer method, rename it CliQ, and put your alias and the order number in its instructions. Those orders wait as Quotation Sent, without reserving stock, until you match the payment and confirm them, so check incoming CliQ transfers at least twice a day.

Jordan's Consumer Protection Law No. 7 of 2017 applies to online sales as it does to a shop, and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply enforces it. As published on the ministry's site, as of November 2026:

• Before buying, customers have the right to clear, complete and correct information about the product and the terms of sale, and about you and your address (Article 3).
• You must deliver within the agreed period, or the customary one, without delay (Article 4), and late delivery counts as a breach of contract (Article 6).
• Defective goods must be taken back and the price refunded at the customer's request, unless the customer agrees in writing to a repair (Article 7).
• Ads must not mislead, including on the total price and how to pay (Article 8).
• Any term that cancels or limits these rights is void (Article 21), and fines run from JOD 250 to JOD 10,000 (Article 25).

The law sets no general change-of-mind period, so your return window is a policy you choose and publish. The ministry has also published a legislative impact assessment on e-commerce, so watch for new rules. A policy to copy and adapt:

• Delivery: Amman within [2] working days, other governorates within [4], fee JOD [x], shown at checkout.
• Change of mind: return unused items in original packaging within [7] days of delivery; we refund the item price by the original payment method within [5] working days of receiving it.
• Defective or wrong item: we collect it and replace it or refund it in full, delivery included.
• Not returnable unless defective: [underwear, perishable food, made-to-order items].

Hand parcels to a courier licensed by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, which licenses private postal operators to carry items inside Jordan. In Odoo, create a delivery method per zone with its fee, estimated delivery days and tracking link, and switch on Allow Spontaneous Returns so customers request returns from their portal.

Write product pages in Arabic first, then in English for expatriates, visitors and buyers abroad. The law gives customers a right to clear information, and nothing is clearer than their own language. Each page should answer, in both languages:

• Name, main specifications, size or variant, and origin where it matters.
• Price in JOD with tax included, and any delivery fee.
• Stock status and expected delivery time.
• Return policy and warranty, linked from every page.
• Your registered name, address and contact details.

In Odoo, install Arabic, add it to the website and translate each page in translate mode. As Odoo's translation guide explains, the URL keeps its structure with a language prefix, so the Arabic pages live under /ar/, product names are translated, and image alt text and SEO keywords can be set per language.

The bigger gain is one system. In Odoo eCommerce, the website, stock, orders, invoices and payments share one database:

• A paid online order becomes a sales order and a delivery order; set the delivery reservation method to At Confirmation so the stock is held for that customer.
• With Automatic Invoice on, Odoo issues and emails the invoice once the payment is registered; then check it reached JoFotara.
• Show Available Qty and out-of-stock settings stop you selling what you don't have.
• Abandoned cart emails remind customers who left their contact details.
• Odoo connects your catalog to Google Merchant Center and to other platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

Odoo Online includes a free custom domain for one year, and customers who log in to track orders are portal users, not paying users. For the domain, design and hosting, see our web services.

METCH, an official Odoo partner serving Jordan, can set up Odoo eCommerce with JoFotara, your payment methods and delivery zones, and train your team in Arabic.