What each payment method actually requires, what it costs you, and why a personal account number in a WhatsApp message is costing you sales
Every business selling online in Pakistan runs into the same question, usually after the first customer asks how to pay. The answers are genuinely confusing: some options need a registered company, some need a bank account in the business's name, some need nothing at all but cost you trust. This guide goes through what each method actually requires, what it costs, and a sensible order to add them in — written for a small business, not a bank.
COD is not a payment method so much as a fact of the market. Most first-time buyers will choose it, because they have been burned before or because they have no card.
What it means for you in practice:
The simplest method, with no per-transaction fee and no application process. Publish the account title, bank name, account number and IBAN, and ask the customer to send a screenshot of the receipt.
Mobile wallets reach the large share of the population without a bank card, and for many customers this is the only digital payment they use.
Accepting Visa and Mastercard on your own site means either a bank's internet merchant account or a payment aggregator that resells one.
The honest test: if card payments would be a small share of your orders, the paperwork and the cut may not pay for themselves yet. Revisit when enough customers ask for it.
If you sell to overseas Pakistanis or international customers, this is a different problem with its own rules.
Receiving foreign payments involves State Bank regulations on foreign exchange, and the correct route depends on whether you are exporting goods or services and whether you are registered for it.
Freelancers and service exporters often use a different set of channels from product sellers, and the requirements change. This is one area where an hour with an accountant who handles export remittances is worth far more than any guide — including this one. Do not improvise it.
Whatever methods you accept, the site has to do four things:
Pakistani buyers are cautious online for good reasons, and most abandoned purchases are not about price. The things that reassure cost nothing:
A store doing all of this converts better on bank transfer alone than a store doing none of it with every payment method enabled.
The payment methods themselves cost a percentage; the site that presents them properly is the one-off. A custom-built store with payment integration in Pakistan generally starts around PKR 80,000, plus hosting.
Most businesses do not need a full gateway integration on day one. A clear payments page, an order form and a written confirmation covers the majority of real orders. Our website cost guide breaks the numbers down.
You describe the business once — what you sell, which payment methods you take, your delivery areas and your refund terms — and WebNewBiz builds the site around it: a payments page in your business's name, checkout that matches what you actually accept, written order confirmations, and a refund policy page.
The store side comes out of the online store, orders land in the CRM rather than a chat thread, and the pricing page shows what running it costs.
What is the easiest way to accept online payments in Pakistan?
Bank transfer into an account in the business's name. There is no application, no per-transaction fee, and Raast has made inter-bank transfers instant for most small amounts. It is manual — somebody must check and confirm — which is fine until volume makes it painful.
Do I need a registered business to accept card payments?
Generally yes. A bank's internet merchant account or a payment aggregator will ask for business registration, NTN, bank details and a description of what you sell, and some categories are refused. The process takes weeks, so start it before you need it.
Should I use a personal JazzCash or Easypaisa number for business?
No. A personal number in a chat message is the single biggest trust problem in Pakistani online selling — it looks like a stranger asking for money and leaves you with no record you can audit. A business account also settles faster than waiting for a courier's COD cycle.
Can I avoid cash on delivery?
You can, but you will lose orders, because many first-time buyers have no card and no reason to trust you yet. The better approach is to price for the refusal rate, confirm every COD order before booking it, and give customers a reason to prepay such as free delivery.
How do I take payments from customers outside Pakistan?
Carefully, and with advice. Receiving foreign payments involves State Bank foreign exchange rules, and the correct route differs depending on whether you export goods or services and whether you are registered for it. An hour with an accountant who handles export remittances is worth more than any guide here.
Everything else is on the blog.
Decide which methods you will accept, open a business account in the company's name, and write down your refund terms, then start for $1 and describe the business. If you are setting up a store from scratch, the online store guide covers the rest. More guides are on the blog.
Every guide is listed on the blog.