Starting an Online Shop in Pakistan on a Small Budget

What it actually costs to start selling online in Pakistan, what you can skip in the first six months, and the order to spend money in.

The advice you will find online assumes a budget you do not have. Domain, hosting, Shopify subscription, paid ads, a photographer. None of that is where a small seller in Pakistan should start.

Here is the order that actually works, cheapest first.

Month one: sell something before you build anything

The most expensive mistake is building a shop for products nobody has asked for.

Pick five products. Post them. Take orders in DMs, by hand, badly. If five strangers pay you money, you have a business worth setting up properly. If nobody does, you have saved yourself the setup.

Cost: nothing.

Month one, still: fix your photographs

This is the highest-return money you will spend, and it is usually zero.

You do not need a camera. You need daylight and a plain background. Shoot next to a window in the morning, product on a white sheet or a plain wall, phone held steady. Take ten, keep two.

Bad photographs cost you more sales in Pakistan than bad pricing does, because you are competing with sellers who also shoot on phones — and the one with the cleaner photo wins.

Cost: nothing, plus a Rs 300 white sheet if you want one.

Month two: give people somewhere to land

Once you are answering the same three questions repeatedly, put the answers on a page: what you sell, what it costs, what delivery costs, how to order.

This does not need to be a website. A link-in-bio page with your products on it does the job, and it is the thing your Instagram traffic is already trying to reach.

What it must have: prices in rupees, delivery charge stated, and an order button that goes somewhere you check.

Cost: free on most services, including Lonecto.

Month two: sort out delivery

Talk to two couriers before you commit to one. Rates for the same parcel vary more than you would expect, and the difference compounds.

Ask specifically about:

• COD remittance time. How many days until you actually get the money.
• Return charges. What a refused parcel costs you.
• Coverage. Whether they deliver to the smaller cities your customers are in.

The cheapest per-parcel rate with a 21-day remittance can be worse for your cash flow than a slightly dearer one that pays weekly.

Cost: nothing to ask.

Month three: start writing things down

By now you will have lost an order. Everybody does.

You need three records: what was ordered, who ordered it, and whether it has been paid for. A spreadsheet is fine. An order tool is better because it does it without you remembering.

The reason this matters is not tidiness. It is that in month six somebody will ask "do you still have that green one in medium?" and the answer should take five seconds, not five minutes.

Cost: free.

What to skip in the first six months

A custom domain. It changes nothing about whether people buy. Later.

Paid ads. You will spend money learning what your organic posts would have told you for free. Get to consistent organic orders first.

A logo designer. Set your name in a clean typeface and move on.

Inventory you have not sold. Buy in small batches even when the per-unit price is worse. Unsold stock is money you cannot use, and in Pakistan's fashion cycles it goes stale fast.

A photographer. Once you are past a hundred orders a month, yes. Before that, the window and the sheet.

Where to spend when you have money

In this order:

1. Better packaging. It is the only physical brand experience your customer has, and it drives repeat orders and unboxing posts.
2. More stock of what already sells. Not new products — more of the one that works.
3. A photographer, for your top five products only.
4. Then ads, once you know your margin per order well enough to know what a customer is worth.

Frequently asked questions

How much do I need to start an online shop in Pakistan? Enough to buy your first small batch of stock and post a few parcels. Many sellers start under Rs 20,000. The tools can be free.

Do I need to register a business? Not to begin. Register when you need a business bank account, want to invoice companies, or your volume makes it sensible. Speak to an accountant at that point.

Should I sell on Daraz as well? It is a different channel with different economics — more reach, thinner margins, and their rules. Plenty of sellers do both. Do not make it your only channel, because you do not own the customer relationship there.

What is the biggest mistake new sellers make? Buying stock before proving anyone wants it. The second biggest is hiding prices.

Lonecto gives you the page, the products and the orders for free — prices in rupees, checkout by WhatsApp, Instagram or cash on delivery. Start your shop.