Every month I talk to Pakistani business owners who want to sell online. A clothing brand in Karachi that's outgrown Instagram DMs. A wholesaler in Lahore tired of taking orders on WhatsApp. A home-based bakery that wants a proper checkout.

I'm Muhammad Ali Mughal, and I run Loop Origin , a Karachi-based team that builds e-commerce stores, custom web apps, and the servers they run on. The questions I hear are almost always the same: Which platform? Which payment gateway? What about cash on delivery? Where do I host it?

This guide answers those questions plainly, including when you don't need a custom build.

Step 1: Decide what kind of store you actually are

Before picking technology, be honest about where your business is today:

Testing the market (under ~50 products, a few orders a day): you need something live this month, cheaply.

Growing retail brand (hundreds of SKUs, sizes and colors, flash sales): you need solid variant and inventory handling, and a checkout that doesn't leak orders.

B2B or…