How to start a WooCommerce store in Pakistan

To start a WooCommerce store in Pakistan you need four things: a domain name, hosting that runs WordPress, the free WooCommerce plugin, and a way to get paid. Cash on delivery and bank transfer are built into WooCommerce, so you can take orders from the first day. Card payments need a gateway such as PayFast, which asks for an NTN and a one-time setup fee of Rs 20,000. A small store can open for the price of a domain and a year of hosting.

This guide covers what each part costs in rupees, how much space a store takes, how to set WooCommerce up for Pakistan, how customers will pay and what to test before you open.

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

Here is the full list. Each part is a separate decision, and you can buy them from different companies.

• A domain name. The address customers type, such as yourshop.pk or yourshop.com. Our guide to how a domain differs from hosting explains what you are buying.
• Hosting. The server that stores your WordPress files, your products and your orders, and sends the pages to visitors.
• WordPress and WooCommerce. WordPress runs the site. WooCommerce is a free plugin that adds products, a cart, a checkout and order management.
• A payment method. Cash on delivery, bank transfer, a card gateway, or a mix of them.
• A courier, if you sell physical products. You agree rates with a courier company and set your delivery charges in WooCommerce.
• Store policies. Pages for refunds, delivery, terms, privacy and contact details. Have them ready before you apply to a payment gateway.

How much does it cost to start a WooCommerce store in Pakistan?

These are the prices on the official pages for each part. Prices change, so check each page on the day you pay.

• A .pk domain. PKNIC charges registrants in Pakistan Rs 2,100 a year and bills two years at a time, so the first payment is Rs 4,200. Resellers add their own margin. Our guide to registering a .pk domain covers the rules and the steps.
• A .com domain. Each registrar sets its own price. Ask for the renewal price as well as the first-year price.
• Hosting. Usually billed yearly in Pakistan. Webstribe’s Starter plan, for example, costs Rs 4,999 a year and renews at the same price. Whoever you buy from, read our checklist on what to check before you buy hosting first.
• WordPress and WooCommerce. Both are free to download from WordPress.org. Some themes and extensions are paid, but a store can run on free ones.
• Cash on delivery and bank transfer. Both are built into WooCommerce at no charge.
• A card gateway. PayFast’s FAQ lists a one-time, non-refundable setup fee of Rs 20,000 with no monthly or annual charges, and does not print its per-transaction rate. Safepay’s pricing page lists no setup fee and 2.9% plus Rs 30 per successful domestic card charge.
• Delivery. Courier rates depend on weight and destination. Ask two or three couriers for their rate cards before you set your delivery charges.

Add those up for the first year and the smallest total is the domain plus the hosting. With a .pk domain from PKNIC and the plan above, that is Rs 4,200 plus Rs 4,999, so Rs 9,199. The domain payment covers two years, so the second year costs only the hosting renewal. A card gateway adds its own fees on top.

How much space does a WooCommerce store take?

We measured this ourselves. We downloaded WordPress 7.1.4 from WordPress.org and WooCommerce 11.3.0 from the WordPress.org plugin directory, unpacked both, and added up the files:

• WordPress came to 110.1 MB in 3,782 files.
• WooCommerce came to 56.5 MB in 5,452 files.
• Together, a fresh store is about 167 MB and 9,234 files.

That is before you add a theme, any other plugin, a single product photo or any email. Every photo you upload adds to it, so plan your storage around the number of products and photos you expect, not around the empty install.

The file count matters too. Some hosts limit the number of files per account, separately from disk space, and a fresh store already uses over 9,000. Ask your host for that limit before you buy.

What hosting does a WooCommerce store need?

WooCommerce publishes its server requirements. Your host should support:

• WordPress 6.9 or newer
• PHP 8.3 or newer
• MySQL 8.0 or newer, or MariaDB 10.6 or newer
• HTTPS
• a WordPress memory limit of 256 MB or more

Ask the host to confirm each one in writing before you pay. HTTPS matters more for a store than for a blog, because the checkout collects names, phone numbers and addresses. Our guide to getting a free SSL certificate shows how to set it up.

Speed matters as well. The distance between Pakistan and the server adds time to every page before WordPress does any work. Our guide on why WordPress is slow in Pakistan has the measurements.

How do you set up WooCommerce for Pakistan?

Once you have a domain and hosting, the setup takes these steps:

1. Point the domain at your hosting. Set the domain’s nameservers to the ones your host gives you. Our guide to changing nameservers covers .pk and .com domains.
2. Install WordPress. Most cPanel hosts have a one-click installer. Our help guide on installing WordPress walks through it.
3. Install WooCommerce. In WordPress, open Plugins, then Add New, search for WooCommerce, then click Install and Activate. Check that the author shown is Automattic, the publisher of the official plugin. The official listing is on the WordPress.org plugin page, which shows more than 7 million active installs.
4. Run the setup wizard. WooCommerce’s setup wizard documentation lists what it asks for. You say whether you are starting a business, already selling or building for a client. Then you enter your store name, the type of products you sell, your store location and your store email address.

What does WooCommerce set when you choose Pakistan?

We read WooCommerce’s own country data in the plugin’s code to see what it holds for Pakistan. It sets:

• the currency to the Pakistani rupee (PKR)
• the currency symbol before the price, with a space
• a comma between thousands and a full stop for decimals
• zero decimal places, so prices show as whole rupees
• kilograms for weight and centimetres for size

WooCommerce’s setup code uses this data to fill in your currency settings when you pick the country. Check the result under WooCommerce, Settings, General, in the currency options.

The code also lists eight regions for Pakistani addresses: Azad Kashmir, Balochistan, FATA, Gilgit Baltistan, Islamabad Capital Territory, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. Customers pick one at checkout, and you can use them for delivery charges, as the shipping section below shows.

One detail surprises people. WooCommerce’s currency list gives PKR the single rupee sign character (₨), not the letters Rs. If you want prices to read “Rs”, a developer can change the symbol with WooCommerce’s woocommerce_currency_symbol filter.

What is left after the wizard?

The wizard ends on a setup checklist. According to the WooCommerce documentation, it starts with these tasks: add your products, set up payments, customise your store, collect sales tax, select your shipping options when that task appears, and launch your store. The next three sections cover the ones that need Pakistani answers.

How will customers pay you?

Start with what works on the first day, then add more as the store grows.

• Cash on delivery. Built into WooCommerce. Turn it on under WooCommerce, Settings, Payments. Our guide to setting up cash on delivery covers the settings and the common problems.
• Bank transfer. Also built in. You enter your account name, bank and IBAN, and check each deposit by hand before you ship.
• Cards and wallets. These need a gateway. PayFast’s FAQ lists Visa and Mastercard, UnionPay, PayPak, bank transfers, JazzCash, Easypaisa and Raast. It also says an NTN is mandatory for every merchant, individuals included. Our guide on whether you need an NTN for a payment gateway covers the paperwork.

Our full guide to accepting online payments on WooCommerce in Pakistan compares the gateways, their fees and how to test them.

How do you set delivery charges for Pakistan?

WooCommerce uses shipping zones. The shipping zones documentation gives the steps:

1. Go to WooCommerce, Settings, Shipping, Shipping zones.
2. Click Add zone and give it a name.
3. Choose the zone regions. A region can be a country or a province.
4. Add a shipping method, such as a flat rate, and enter the charge.
5. Save the changes.

Because WooCommerce knows Pakistan’s regions, you can charge different rates by province. For example, a shop in Lahore could make one zone for Punjab at one rate and a second zone for the rest of Pakistan at a higher rate. Base each rate on your courier’s rate card, so delivery does not eat your margin.

What pages and emails does the store need before launch?

Write these pages before you open, and link them from the footer:

• a refund and return policy, with the number of days and who pays for the return delivery
• delivery information, with the cities you deliver to, how long it takes and what it costs
• terms and conditions
• a privacy policy, because the checkout collects personal details
• a contact page with an email address and a postal address

WooCommerce also sends emails for every order, to you and to the customer. Set the sender under WooCommerce, Settings, Emails, in the email sender options, and use an address on your own domain, such as [email protected]. Our guide to business email on your own domain shows how to create one. If order emails do not arrive, read why WooCommerce order emails go missing.

What should you test before you open the store?

WooCommerce’s checklist treats a store as ready to launch once you have completed a test order, confirmed payment and email notifications, and decided whether to keep Coming soon mode on. Coming soon mode, under WooCommerce, Settings, Site visibility, hides the store from visitors while you work on it.

Before you switch the store to Live, do this on your own phone:

1. Place a cash on delivery order with an address in your own city.
2. Place a second order with an address in another province, and check that the delivery charge changes.
3. Check that prices show in rupees, with no decimals.
4. Check that the order email reaches both you and the customer address, and look in the spam folder too.
5. If you have a gateway, pay a small real order, check that it moves to Processing, then refund it.
6. Cancel and delete the test orders, then switch the store to Live.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start a WooCommerce store without an NTN?

Yes, with cash on delivery and bank transfer, which are built into WooCommerce. You need an NTN later if you add PayFast, whose FAQ says it is mandatory for every merchant.

Is WooCommerce free?

Yes. The plugin is free to download from the WordPress.org plugin directory. You pay for the domain and the hosting, and for any paid theme or extension you choose to add.

How much hosting space does a new WooCommerce store need?

The software alone is about 167 MB in 9,234 files, from our own measurement of WordPress 7.1.4 and WooCommerce 11.3.0. Product photos, other plugins and email come on top, so choose a plan with room to grow.

Does WooCommerce support Pakistani rupees?

Yes. PKR is in WooCommerce’s currency list, and when you choose Pakistan as the store location, its setup code sets whole-rupee prices with no decimals.

Do I need a .pk domain for a store in Pakistan?

No. A .com works just as well. A .pk domain costs Rs 2,100 a year at PKNIC, billed two years at a time, and shows customers that the store is in Pakistan.