Shopify in Pakistan: what to set up, and what to watch

Setting up a Shopify store in Pakistan

1. Store currency: PKR. Set it before you add products — prices, discounts and reports all follow it.
2. Plan billing. Shopify bills its plans in US dollars to a card; check current prices on Shopify's own pricing page, since they change.
3. Domain. A .pk or .com domain can be connected; customers trust a real domain more than a myshopify.com address.
4. Shipping rates. Most Pakistani stores charge a flat delivery fee nationwide. Set it as a flat rate in Shipping and delivery.

Payments: Shopify Payments, gateways and COD

Shopify Payments is not offered in Pakistan, so there is no built-in card processing. Stores that want to take cards connect a local third-party payment gateway from Shopify's payment settings.

In practice, cash on delivery is the payment method that matters. Turn it on under Settings → Payments → Manual payment methods → Cash on Delivery (COD). Expect it to carry most of your orders — and read how COD money actually moves before you plan cash flow around it.

Couriers: the part Shopify does not do

Shopify's built-in shipping labels do not cover Pakistani couriers. You either book each parcel in the courier's portal and paste the tracking number back into Shopify, or use an app that books from the order directly. See courier companies in Pakistan for how to choose one.

Kaarobar books PostEx and Trax parcels from Shopify orders and writes tracking and delivery status back to each order.

The number Shopify gets wrong for a Pakistani store

Shopify's dashboard counts a sale when an order is placed. Under cash on delivery, a large share of orders are refused at the door — 27.5% of parcels across the stores we measure — and every refused parcel still costs freight both ways. The courier then deducts its charges and 4% in withholding taxes before paying you. The result is a dashboard that is consistently higher than your bank balance; see why your Shopify dashboard and bank disagree.

What to track from day one

• Cost per item on every product in Shopify — without it no margin figure is real.
• Delivered versus returned, per courier and per city.
• Cash held by the courier — delivered but not yet paid.
• Net profit per delivered order after product cost, freight both ways, packaging, ads and withholdings.

You can estimate the last one right now with the COD profit calculator.

Moving to Shopify from WhatsApp or Instagram

If you sell through WhatsApp or Instagram today, the reason to move is not the storefront — it is that orders, parcels and payments finally live in one place, so you can see which products actually make money once returns are counted. That is the part Kaarobar adds on top of Shopify.

Set up your Pakistani Shopify store properly — install free

Questions merchants actually ask

Is Shopify available in Pakistan?

Yes. You can open a Shopify store from Pakistan, sell in PKR and ship nationwide. Shopify Payments is not available in Pakistan, so card payments go through a local third-party gateway, and most orders are paid by cash on delivery.

How do I enable cash on delivery on Shopify?

In Shopify admin go to Settings → Payments → Manual payment methods and add Cash on Delivery (COD). It then appears as a payment option at checkout.

How do I connect a Pakistani courier to Shopify?

Shopify has no built-in Pakistani courier booking. Either book in the courier's own portal and paste tracking into each order, or install an app that books from the order. Kaarobar does this for PostEx and Trax.

Why is my Shopify revenue higher than what I actually received?

Because Shopify counts orders when they are placed. Under COD some are refused, freight is paid both ways on those, and the courier deducts its charges and 4% withholding before paying you.