Are you wondering about how to start an online business in Pakistan?
Well, believe it or not, but starting an online business in Pakistan is a solid investment.
In this article, I will first explain what is the market size and current trends of internet business in Pakistan. After that, I’ll share some top reasons why should you invest in e-business and then lastly, I will guide you on how to start online business in Pakistan step by step for newbies along with useful resources.
So, let’s explore.
Market Size & Current Trends of Online Business in Pakistan
The online business in Pakistan is growing day by day. eCommercedb reports that the Pakistan is the 53rd largest eCommerce market in the world with a revenue of $2 billion in 2019, placing it ahead of Bangladesh and behind Qatar.
Further, if you look at freelance industry in Pakistan, it is already booming in the country. In 2019, Payoneer survey results indicate that freelancing in Pakistan has been tremendously increased with 47% annual growth rate. And this growth rate may increase in 2023 as well.
Furthermore, you can also look at some big eCommerce giants in Pakistan operating on online shopping in Pakistan, retailing, wholesaling, food industry and ride sharing business models. All these online businesses have great client base in Pakistan and all of them are successful.
All this happen because of some good initiatives took by Government of Pakistan and policy makers about promoting entrepreneurial culture, introducing skill based/technically oriented education, expanding 4G services across the country, and providing tax relief to online startups in Pakistan receiving foreign remittances.
Top Reasons Why Should You Invest in Online Business in Pakistan?
Well, there are various logical reasons that why should you invest in business online in Pakistan or increase your online presence of already existing startup. The major reasons are, Online business;
- Offers incredible scalability
- Provides limitless freedom
- Has low overheads & high profit margins
- Access to worldwide market
Similarly, with just online startup plan and digital marketing plan (including SEO, social media and PPC plans), your business can thrive.
You can have access to worldwide market at your fingertips. Moreover, the luxury choice of targeting specific cities, countries and regions gives you an upper hand in online based businesses.
7 Steps to Start an Online Business in Pakistan
I am going to list following proven ways to start a small business online in Pakistan. I’ve seen many people who start and grow successful businesses by following these steps;
1. Start a Need-Based Business
People usually focus on a product first and market second. But this is wrong approach.
If you want to run a successful business, you should focus on market first. You need to find out a group of people who are looking for solutions to the problems, but unfortunately they are not getting the desired results.
You can use internet to conduct online market research and find problems. For instance:
- You can visit internet forums or social media pages to find out what people are talking about and what they are looking for?
- Conduct internet keyword research and find out what are the keywords people searching for online. Find out competitive keywords which have low competition and resolve around your business idea. Check out this article on how to do keyword research.
- Visit competitors’ websites and see what they are offering and how. Take a notepad and note down everything, and then think how you can start an online business that fills need for Pakistanis.
2. Write a Copy That Sells
To start an online business and grow, you need to follow a proven sales copy formula. You need to find out ways and craft ideas on how to attract clients online. You need to enlist ideas on how they visit your business and the moment they make purchases.
Here are 9 tips to write a copy that sells:
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- Focus on compelling headlines. Try to arouse interest
- Explain how your product/service solves the problem
- Build your online credibility as problem solver
- Feature testimonials for increase online reputation
- Consistently talk about the product like how it is going to benefit the end user
- Make an offer
- Offer strong guarantee the user
- Create urgency by offer discounts of exclusive offers
- Ask for the sale
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Throughout your sales copy, you need to think about how it is going to uniquely solve the problem. Think like a customer like “what is in it for me”?
3# Build Your Online Presence
This is one of the most important step for starting a best online business in Pakistan. When you are done with market research and product selection, the third step is to go for small business web design.
You need to find a out good domain name that reflect your business or product idea. Read this article about choosing right domain name. It may be helpful for us.
Similarly, you need to buy a good web hosting to host your website. I have also published an article how to choose the best web hosting in 2023. Read it and purchase a good web hosting for your website.
Once, you are done with buying a domain name and hosting, you need to build a clean and simple website. Here is another helpful content pertaining to build a small business website in when you’ve tight budget.
Here are some useful tips for building your small business website:
- Make your web design simple, clean and easy to navigate as you’ll have only 5 seconds to grab your users attention.
- Choose one or maximum two fonts with white background
- Use easy to understand graphics, and videos if it increases your message
- Install some good plugins for opt in offers to collect users email
Useful Resources:
- 8 Easy Tips for More Effective Small Business Website Design
- 7 Attributes of a Profitable eCommerce Website in 2023
- Understanding the Role of UI and UX Design in Corporate Websites
4. Use Search Engine Marketing To Drive Traffic Toward Your Website
This is another important step to grow your online business in Pakistan. As I said earlier, you need to first start with SEO keyword research. This will help you to write SEO optimized content for your website.
Remember, you should write contents for people but also optimize it for search engines. Read this article, it will help you to craft SEO optimized content that can work for both.
Once, you fill your website with relevant and optimized content, the next step for you to start PPC ads to drive immediate traffic toward your website. The PPC ads will greatly help you to find out keywords that drive traffic and that don’t works. So, you will need to again optimize your website content with the keywords that drive traffic to your website via Pay per click ads.
Following these steps, will definitely help you to drive organic as well as paid traffic toward your business website.
You May Like To Read:
- 13 SEO Tips to Rally Your Organic Traffic
- The New Guide to SEO Optimization – Focusing on What Google Wants in 2023
- How to Optimize Your PPC Campaign Under a Tight Budget
5. Establish Your Online Expert Reputation Using Content Marketing
Someone said, starting a business easy but taking it to the next level is an art. Once you launch your website and optimize it, the next step is to establish you as an expert in your field.
You need to start content marketing to make you an expert your field and grow your business. For this, you need to write a interesting and informative contents at your website as people usually look for information on search engines. If you write it, most probably, people will start visiting your site and get free information from your blogs.
Similarly, you can also approach other websites and blogs and write your guest blog posts. Provide your expert opinion and share your experience with their audience. With this tip, people will start noticing you. They will start following you. And ultimately in future, they may become your potential customers.
Always remember that you should put your website link in your author bio. So, people can easily visit you. Further, distribute your articles as much as possible on social media platforms, social network sites, content curation sites, and online article directories. This will give you a chance to reach more audience online.
Here are some useful articles on content marketing:
- How Does SEO Impact Online Reputation?
- 10 Effective Content Marketing Ideas for Your eCommerce Business Every Marketer Needs To Know
- 7 Essential Tips for Writing Social Media Content Your Audience Will Love
6. Use Email Marketing
In third tip, I already discussed about installing a good plugin for collecting emails of your visitors.
If you become successful in getting good amount of users’ emails, then you should use the power of email marketing to turn your visitors into potential buyers. This will not require much investment to approach your customers and subscribers. Just install some good email marketing plugins and set wet go.
Regularly, engage your regular customers and subscribers by sharing latest contents, newsletters, updating them about your latest inventory in your stock or giving them exclusive discounts.
Check out this article on how you can triple your ROI via email marketing.
7. Use back-end sales and Upselling Tricks
Grabbing clients and closing first deal is the most difficult part in online business in Pakistan. But studies show that 36% of your existing customers most likely to buy again your products and services.
So, you should back-end sales and upselling strategies to convince them to buy again. Here are some general tips which maybe helpful for you.
- Regularly offer discounts and coupons to your loyal customers
- Offer products that compliments the original purchase
- Customize a “Thank you” web page and email when customers make their purchases
Wrapping Up
For each online business, there may be more steps involved but remember the steps mentioned above are the basic steps which are proven and followed by many successful entrepreneurs.
So, no matter, if you are looking for answers like how to start online store in Pakistan, how to make online business website in Pakistan, or how to start online clothing business in Pakistan, the aforementioned basic tips will greatly help you to start your online small business in Pakistan.
Similarly, if you are a student, women, housewife or an employee, you can follow these steps to easily get started without or with low investment.
Last but not least, always keep an eye on the latest internet trends and try to adopt it for your online business.
Hopefully, you find this list of ideas on how to start an online business in Pakistan useful. If you are confused about what business to start in Pakistan?, check my following articles:
- 60+ Best Small Business Ideas in Pakistan With Low Investment
- 7 Highly Profitable Small Business Ideas in Pakistan 2023
- 10 Home Based Business ideas for Women in Pakistan
Here is another article about how to register your business in Pakistan.
I hope you find this article and relevant resources useful for starting an online startup in Pakistan. If you want to recommend anything about small business in Pakistan, please don’t hesitate to write in the comment box.
Best of Luck 🙂