How to start an online store in Pakistan: a step-by-step guide

Most online shops in Pakistan start the same way: a phone, a WhatsApp group, and photos taken on a bedsheet. That works, right up until it doesn't — you lose track of orders, you retype the same price twenty times a day, and there is nothing to send someone who asks "where can I see everything?"

This guide covers the move from that to a real storefront. It is written for someone selling their first product, not for a company with a development budget.

Step 1: Be specific about what you sell

The most common mistake is starting too broad. "Ladies' fashion" is not a shop, it is a category — and it puts you in direct competition with every marketplace in the country on day one. "Unstitched lawn, three-piece, under Rs. 5,000" is a shop. It tells a customer instantly whether they are in the right place, and it tells you exactly which twelve products to photograph first.

You do not need a large catalogue to open. Ten products you can actually deliver beats a hundred you are still sourcing.

Step 2: Get a name and a link people can open

Two separate things, often confused:

• Your store name — what customers call you.
• Your store link — the address you send them to.

You can start on a free subdomain (something like yourshop.example.com) and move to your own .pk or .com domain later. Starting free is the right call for most people: a domain you bought before you knew your positioning is a domain you will want to change. If and when you do move, make sure your platform keeps the old links working with redirects, or every link you have ever shared breaks at once.

Step 3: Decide how you get paid

In Pakistan the answer is usually cash on delivery, at least to begin with. A large share of first-time buyers will not pay in advance to a shop they have not heard of, and asking them to is the fastest way to lose a sale you had already won.

COD has its own economics — courier fees, remittance timing, and the return rate that eats margin quietly. We wrote a separate guide on how cash on delivery actually works and how to cut returns, because it is the single biggest operational decision on this list.

Bank transfer as a second option costs you nothing to offer and some customers prefer it. Card and wallet payments can come later, once you have order volume worth the paperwork.

Step 4: Build the storefront

What a storefront has to do is short: show your products clearly, let someone add to a cart, and take an order without confusing them. Everything else is decoration.

Three routes, honestly compared:

If you are not a developer and you do not have one, a hosted platform is almost always the right first move. You can always export and leave; you cannot get back the six weeks spent debugging a plugin conflict.

On LaunchLancer this step is picking a theme — there are dozens, grouped by trade, and each one comes with a live demo store you can click through before you commit. Choosing one seeds your store with a full sample catalogue you then edit into your own.

Step 5: Photograph and write your product pages

This is where most stores are won or lost, and it is the part no platform can do for you.

• Photos: daylight, plain background, same framing on every product. Consistency reads as professional more than expensive equipment does.
• Titles: write what a customer would type. "Blue embroidered lawn kurta" beats "Design #4".
• Descriptions: answer the questions you get on WhatsApp. Fabric, sizing, wash care, delivery time. Every question answered on the page is a message you do not have to reply to at 11pm.
• Alt text: describe each image in a few words. It helps blind shoppers and it is one of the few image signals search engines can read.

Step 6: Sort out delivery before you launch

Open an account with a courier that does COD before your first order, not after. Ask specifically about: per-parcel rates for your typical weight and destinations, the COD service charge, how often they remit collected cash, and what happens to a refused parcel.

Then set one honest delivery promise on your site and keep it. "Delivered in 3–5 working days" that you hit is worth more than "next day" that you miss.

Step 7: Make sure people can find you

A new store gets its first customers from people who already know you — your contacts, your Instagram, your WhatsApp status. Search traffic comes later, and only if the basics are in place: unique page titles, real descriptions, a sitemap, fast pages on a phone. Our ecommerce SEO checklist covers what genuinely moves the needle for a small store and what is a waste of a weekend.

What it costs to start

Realistically, for a first store:

• Storefront: free to a few thousand rupees a month, depending on plan.
• Domain: optional at first; roughly the price of a couple of deliveries per year.
• Photos: free if you shoot them yourself near a window.
• Stock: the only genuinely large number, and the one to keep small until you know what sells.

You can see our own plans and limits on the pricing page — the free tier exists so you can have a working store before you spend anything.

The launch checklist

1. Ten products, photographed consistently, with real descriptions
2. Delivery charges and timelines stated on the site
3. A return policy in plain language
4. A working phone number or WhatsApp link
5. One test order placed by you, start to finish
6. The store opened on a phone, because that is what your customers use

That last one catches more problems than any other single check.

Where to go next

If you want to see what a finished store looks like before you build yours, our case studies walk through complete storefronts — theme, catalogue, checkout and all — and each one links to the live store so you can click around it. Or if you have questions about plans, domains or what happens after a trial, the FAQ answers the common ones.