How to Start an Online Business in Pakistan: 9 Steps

What do you need to start an online business in Pakistan?

Less than most people think, and more than a Shopify subscription. You need a product or service that a specific group of people already want, a way to take payment (including cash on delivery for most physical products), a reliable courier, a CNIC-linked bank account and, before long, an NTN from the FBR. A website or store comes later than most first-time founders expect.

The nine steps below are the order we recommend to founders who come to us asking for a store. Following it means you spend money only once you have evidence, and you avoid the two common failures: a beautiful store nobody visits, and an ad budget burned on a product with no margin.

1. Pick a niche you can win

A niche is a specific customer with a specific problem. "Fashion" is a market; "modest activewear for women who train at home" is a niche. "Food" is a market; "ready-to-cook spice mixes for Pakistani families abroad" is a niche. Narrow enough that you can be the obvious choice, wide enough that there are thousands of buyers.

Good niches usually come from something you already know: a trade your family is in, a product you have struggled to buy, or a skill you can sell as a service. If you are still choosing, our list of freelance business ideas you can start from Pakistan covers service-based options that need no stock.

2. Write a one-page plan

Skip the forty-page business plan. One page answers what matters:

• Who is the customer, and what do they buy today instead?
• What exactly are you selling, and at what price?
• How will customers find you: search, Instagram, Daraz, WhatsApp groups, referrals?
• What does each sale cost you: product, packaging, delivery, payment fees, returns and advertising?
• How many sales a month do you need to cover your costs?

Revise it every month. The last two lines matter most, because they tell you whether the business can work at all before you spend on a store.

3. Check demand before you spend

Use free tools first. Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends show whether people search for what you sell, and how that changes across the year. Look at competitors on Daraz, Instagram and Google: what they charge, what their reviews complain about, how long they have been selling.

Then talk to ten potential customers. Ask what they buy now, what annoys them about it and what they paid last time. Do not ask whether they would buy your product; almost everyone says yes to be polite. Ask about what they already do.

4. Launch a landing page first

Before building a full store, put up one page: what you sell, who it is for, the price, real photos and a button to pre-order, join a waitlist or message you on WhatsApp. Send a small ad budget or your own social following to it. If nobody clicks, you have learned something important for very little money. If people do, you have your first customers and the words they use, which you can reuse in the store.

Most of your visitors in Pakistan will arrive on a phone, often on a mid-range Android device and mobile data, so the page has to load fast and work with one thumb. Our guide to mobile-friendly website development in Pakistan covers what that means in practice.

5. Set up payments and finances

Open a separate bank account for the business from day one. Mixing personal and business money is the fastest way to lose track of whether you are making a profit.

Then decide how customers will pay. Cash on delivery is still what many Pakistani shoppers expect, but it brings refused parcels and slow cash, so offer prepaid options alongside it: bank transfer, Raast, JazzCash, Easypaisa and cards through a local payment gateway such as PayFast or Safepay. Gateways ask for documents before they let you take live payments; Safepay, for example, lists a CNIC, an NTN and a bank account in the business's or proprietor's name. Shopify Payments is not available in Pakistan, so a Shopify store connects a local gateway through an app.

Finally, track every sale and cost from the start. A spreadsheet works; accounting tools such as Zoho Books, QuickBooks or Xero save time once orders pick up. Our guide on why small businesses do not make enough money explains how to check margin per order.

6. Register the business: FBR, SECP and tax

You do not need a company to start selling online, but you will need to be on the FBR's books quickly. In outline:

• NTN: individuals register on the FBR's IRIS portal with their CNIC. As a sole proprietor, your business runs under your own NTN. Most payment gateways ask for it.
• Business structure: a sole proprietorship needs no SECP filing. A partnership registers with the provincial Registrar of Firms. A private limited or single-member company is incorporated online with the SECP, which is worth doing when you take on partners or investors or want to separate personal liability.
• Tax on online sales: since the Finance Act 2025, tax is withheld on payments for online sales by the payment gateway, bank or, for cash-on-delivery orders, the courier. Expect it in your settlements and keep the records.
• Sales tax: depending on what you sell and your turnover, you may need sales tax registration with the FBR for goods or with your provincial revenue authority for services.

Tax rules in Pakistan change with each budget, so confirm the current position on fbr.gov.pk or with a tax adviser before your first filing. Also publish clear terms, privacy and returns policies on your site. If you sell abroad, the buyer's country's consumer rules apply as well.

7. Source the product and pick a courier

Whether you manufacture locally, import, resell or offer a service, order samples and test them as a customer would. Check how the product survives a courier journey, because returns from damaged parcels eat margin quickly.

Choose a courier early and compare them on more than price: cash-on-delivery remittance speed, how they handle refused parcels and returns, coverage outside the big cities and whether they connect to your store for booking and tracking. In Pakistan the courier is part of your customer experience, and a reliable one is worth paying a little more for.

8. Launch the store, or sell on Daraz first

There are two sensible routes. Selling on Daraz first gives you a marketplace's traffic and buyer trust, at the cost of commission, price competition and little control over your brand. Your own store on Shopify or WooCommerce gives you control, customer data and better margins, but you have to bring every visitor yourself. Many sellers do both: Daraz for reach, their own store for repeat customers.

Whichever platform you choose, build it to sell: mobile first, fast pages, real product photos, delivery times and charges stated before checkout, cash on delivery plus prepaid options, a WhatsApp button and tracking installed (GA4 and the Meta Pixel). Our ecommerce website design tips go into each of these. Launch to your landing-page list and WhatsApp contacts first, then widen.

9. Scale what works

Once orders arrive, measure cost per order by channel, including returns. Put more money into the channel with the best margin rather than the most clicks. Improve the store's conversion rate before buying more traffic, because every percentage point there makes every rupee of advertising work harder.

Then add the long-term channels: search engine optimisation so customers find you without ads, email and WhatsApp broadcasts to past buyers, and a CRM so no enquiry goes unanswered. Automate the repetitive parts, such as order confirmations, delivery updates and COD verification messages, before you hire someone to do them by hand.

Tools for each step