Pakistan is a land full of opportunities. There are plenty of innovative business ideas waiting to be put under practice in Pakistan. As much as physical businesses are important, Pakistan also has a lot to offer cyber as well. Online businesses in Pakistan are booming, they are able to generate great sales and attract many loyal customers. There is a lot that is yet to be introduced to the people of this country and that is exactly why you should set up shop in the cyberland of Pakistan!
If you are reading this article, you were probably interested in what the title hints at. This article is the ultimate guide to your way around the cyber market of Pakistan, online business ideas, do’s & don’ts. For further information, continue reading down below.
Online Business Ideas In Pakistan:
There are plenty of business opportunities in Pakistan, and some of the online opportunities have been listed below!
Rental Service:
It is quite a hassle to keep track of business cards, nowadays. They are bound to get lost, but if you have a visible online presence, you do not need to worry. Rental service is a vast field, you can offer house/apartment/room rental services or car rental services. You may even offer furniture and land rental services for events.
The first thing people are predictably going to do is search for the nearest options online. You will need to have a stellar rating, an attractive fast-loading website with proper contact numbers. FAQs, and services you offer. You can even provide customers the option to book your rental service online, this saves both your and their time!
Food services:
Now, it is extremely important that you have a physical presence for this as well but if you really want to lift up your sales, you might want to have an online presence as well. People are bound to judge your food by the pictures they see online. This will attract customers to your physical location.
You may even start a food delivery service. This can be daily homemade food, party catering, or just deals for 2. Everyone is a sucker for desserts, you can sell delicious desserts online and provide delivery services. All you need are positive reviews and online campaigning to get your name around.
Loan Services:
Around the world, you can get in touch with a lender through the internet. You may even process your application via the internet and receive your loan while sitting at home. Pakistan has a lack of these innovative convenient options. So, if one was to start this, it would give them a huge profit margin. You can choose what types of loans you want to give out, set up your site, and market it online through different platforms to gain traffic.
Clothing:
Online shopping is a real obsession for many. No matter how many competitors emerge in the market, your business will always have profit. All you need is creativity and visually appealing pictures displayed on your website.
With the click of a button, people can shop your collection meaning profit for you. This market is very versatile, all sorts of clothes stand their own ground online. Whether it is a baby’s clothing business or formal clothing business, it is all in demand. To be diverse, you can opt for clothes that fit both the gender, This will help increase the visitors on your site, as you will target a much larger audience than one gender.
Shoes:
You can even sell shoes online. Whatever goes behind the scenes, whether you are importing them or you have a small studio where you make them yourself, does not matter. As long as you market your product correctly, get it reviewed by the right people, and earn the trust of customers, your business will be booming in no time. Pakistan has a diverse selection of shoes one can choose from. From khussas, chappals, to joggers and sneakers, everything is in demand here. You can start small and make your way up as your business gains attention.
Printing services:
This is another vast field. You may offer all kinds of printing services, an online card business in Pakistan is always a good option. Give people the convenience of getting their business cards printed while at home. Cards are not limited to business only, Pakistan has a huge demand for fancy wedding invitations as well. About 100 (or more) of 3 different types of cards are required per wedding. Imagine the profit!
Besides cards, you can offer poster and banner printing as well. You can even offer a T-Shirt printing service, all of these aforementioned services are in demand all year round. You will never have an off-season with this business.
Art Services:
This is for talented artists. If you are naturally good at art, there are many keen art buyers in Pakistan looking for a proper platform to visit. You can set up an art website and showcase your talent on it. You may even showcase other artist’s work as well and charge commission every time they make a sale through your website.
How To Start An Online Business In Pakistan Without Investment:
Most online businesses will require an investment, be it small or large. However, there is always an exception to everything and the same goes for this. Listed below are some businesses you can start without having to invest and how:
Made-to-order businesses:
Some of these businesses are the same as mentioned in the section above but in this section, we will tell you how to start them without any money.
If you want to start a printing business, you do not need physical samples to help you. All you need is your laptop and your trusted graphic software. You can show virtual samples to your customers. Make plain shirts with pictures on them, make card templates for customers to choose from. This will help you ace the online game.
If needed, ask your dear friends and family to share your online business links to get the word out and an honest positive review will just be the cherry on top.
What to do if you finally receive an order?
You can ask your customers for the cost price beforehand and take your profit before handing their completed project over to them. This way, you have enough money to get the supplies you need for the job and none of yours was invested, and you eventually get a profit. No loss, only profit!
Freelance writer:
You need absolutely zero investment in this, All you need is a laptop and a stable internet connection, which we will assume you have since you are reading this article. You only get paid here and you have to invest no money of your own. The only investment required is of time and skills! If you get good reviews, before you know it, your services will be extremely in demand.
Food Business:
This isn’t totally investment free but it is an extremely low investment. You need to take pictures of your product just once and then you can start taking orders 2 days prior to the required date. You can give your customer the option of choosing a delivery date and time, they will place an order, give you half the advance (enough for supplies) and you can make it and send it on their opted day. Even if you go for cash on delivery, the Food business is the kind of business where your supplies can be used more than just once. The main ingredients are always basic, be it savory or sweet. You can easily find the base ingredients lying around the house.
Steps To A Successful Online Business:
- Work On Your Website:
Hire a graphic designer and a web developer to build up the base of your business; the website. You will definitely need both the aforementioned people to work on your website. Potential customers tend to lose interest if a website takes more than 5 seconds to load, this is where your web developer comes in. They will help set up a firewall security system to protect your site from attacks, make it faster, easily accessible.
A web developer will do all the important stuff needed behind the scenes but your customer has no concern with the technicalities. A potential customer/visitor will only be attracted to your business platform if it is aesthetically pleasing. Get a beautiful logo made by a professional logo maker, do not go for those “free logo template” apps, as the problem with that is the lack of uniqueness. You will end up with a logo that looks similar to plenty of other logos.
You will need to decide on an eye-pleasing layout for your website, this is important, as this is what your customer will judge you on before they view your work. You must also make sure to keep everything easily accessible, no one likes to hunt around for things. Especially not a customer. It is a fact that in today’s world, everyone has a short attention span. You basically, only have 10-20 seconds to sell your service to the customer before they exit your site. So the main page should have it all!
- Marketing:
This is extremely important. If you have taken the initiative to start a business, you will need to do it right, or all your investment and efforts will go down the drain. When it comes to marketing, there are different ways you can market your online business to make your presence be noted.
Digital Marketing:
This is a vast marketing field. Since your target audience is the online user, you should consider paying social platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube to display your ad. These charges start from $5 and so on, according to the number of times you want your ad to appear and for the number of days you want your ad to be displayed.
Due to Facebook and Instagram’s algorithm system, it is quite easy to choose the correct target audience. If you feel like your business will be more appealing to the youth, you can specify the age group, even the gender. The same goes for if you feel like your business will be more appealing to adults.
Physical Marketing:
Even though your business is online, it doesn’t mean that you cannot reach people in person. If you feel the need to do so, you may get pamphlets printed out, business cards printed out, and so on. One thing you need to make sure is that your website and username of social platforms are visible.
One clever tactic that always helps grab the attention of people is offering a “new customer discount”. From there on end, it is all about the quality of your service.
Search Engine Marketing:
This is yet another really great way to boost traffic on your site. Search engine optimization helps google target your business to the right people. There is a concept of “SEO keywords”, these are the keywords that google picks up on and they need to be thoroughly researched before selecting. The keywords are words that a user is most likely to type in the search engine bar when looking for something. If you add that keyword to your website’s FAQ, blog, or About Us, your website will automatically show up in the searches. You can hire an SEO writer, who is proficient in this field and knows all the rules. This will generally visible amount of traffic and attract customers. A good SEO writer will help your business pop up on the first page of Google, which is a huge accomplishment. With the help of this, you will get an organic customer base, instead of spammers and robots.
- Spread the word:
Nowadays, you can pay bloggers to review your service or product. How it works is that
- you send them a sample of your product or offer them your services,
- they use your product or avail of your service
- Then they write an honest review on it.
Some bloggers may ask for a fee but some will do it for free. Make sure that the content creator/blogger you choose to work with has an organic following, as many buy followers. Meaning they have low reach but a high follow count, ultimately being useless. Make sure that your content creator is genuine, people have sent PR before, and they are professional individuals who know what they are doing.
With one post, your sales will go crazy. It is an even more clever tactic if you offer a discount code with the content creators’ PR. This will attract the creator’s followers to your site, whether they buy your service or not is another question but you will definitely have a lot of traffic.
What To Avoid:
As a new online business startup, it is predictable that you may make some errors in judgment and in general. There are certain ground rules to doing business online, if you want to know what you need to stay wary of, see below!
- Never copy someone else’s content. Be it pictures, FAQ, About Us, or anything that is unique to the other business. Of Course, there are common things such as product names, which are bound to clash with other businesses, that is no problem.
- Do not be rude to customers at any cost! As a new startup, you cannot afford to lose any customers. Even if you are running a successful business, a customer should never be misbehaved with. Follow the rule of “The customer is always right” and you are good to go. Be kind, inviting, accommodating, and courteous.
- Even though this should be obvious, it is a practice around the world. Please do not indulge in fraudulent activities. This could involve, showing one thing on your website and sending something totally different. This deception is illegal and you can have your whole business shut down because of it.
- Do not sell fake products. If you are doing an import business, where you claim to import items from genuine places but in actuality, you buy knock-offs from here and there, people will find out. Rarely has anyone ever gotten away with this practice. You can be reported to cybercrime as well. The Cyber Crime unit of Pakistan is extremely efficient and fairly active.
Conclusion:
The ideas given in this article are only a few out of the many you can implement. It is always smart to bring something new and innovative to the table and it always sells. You just need to know your audience, analyze them, and market your product accordingly.
It is all about tactics and statistics.
You will need a small team on board; a content writer, website developer, and graphic designer to get you started and to help you run things smoothly. Pakistan is a gold mine that is yet to be explored, this is exactly why it is the perfect place for your online business startup because chances are that you may be the first person or one of the first people to do so.
