According to Statista, the number of eCommerce users in Pakistan is expected to amount to 70.8m users by 2027.
On top of that, the average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to amount to US$134.20 by 2027 as well.
These figures show that Pakistan’s eCommerce industry has a great potential for growth and profit for merchants who can leverage it correctly.
This leads us to the goal of this guide.
We will delve into some of the best tips to market your store in Pakistan, and get a piece of this pie.
What is Shopify?
This section is for you if you don’t know what Shopify is.
Shopify is a web-based e-commerce platform designed to help entrepreneurs create an online store, manage sales, and fulfill orders.
It is a perfect alternative to paying someone between PKR 39,000 to PKR 76,000 to create an online store for you.
Shopify has many features that make it easier for small business owners to build their own successful online stores.
For instance;
- you can customize your store’s look and feel with its drag-and-drop design tools
- add products or services with just a few clicks
- integrate payment gateways for secure payments
- optimize their website for search engine visibility, and
- measure sales performance with built-in analytics.
And if you get stuck, Shopify offers support services like tutorials on how to set up the platform.
There are also customer service representatives who are available via email or phone call to answer questions and provide assistance.
In short, Shopify makes it easy to start selling online in Pakistan if you don’t have a coding or eCommerce background.
One more thing.
Here is a step-by-step guide if you haven’t created a Shopify store yet.
Now that you know a little about this platform, let’s get right into how to market it and get more sales.
Understand Your Target Audience
The first expert advice to marketing a Shopify store in Pakistan is to know your customers!
a. Who are the target customers?
The target customers are the group of individuals or businesses that a company hopes to sell its products or services to.
Knowing them is the key to selling more and raking more profits.
Luckily, there are some ways to identify your target audience.
- Demographics: Analyze characteristics such as age, gender, income, and education level can help determine who is most likely to be interested in a company’s products or services.
- Psychographics: Understand lifestyle choices, values, and personality traits.
- Behavior: Examinining purchasing patterns and brand loyalty can indicate who is most likely to be interested in your store’s offerings.
- Market research: Surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews can provide valuable insights into what potential customers are looking for and how they make purchasing decisions.
- Competitor analysis: Examining what other online stores in the same industry are doing and who they are targeting can provide useful information about your potential customers.
- Online and offline data: Analyzing data from website visitors, social media followers, email subscribers and offline data can give you a sense of who is interested in your products or services.
And that’s not enough.
b. What are their needs and preferences?
Now that you know who is more likely to buy from you, the next thing is to understand their needs!
This information comes in handy when crafting marketing copy, as it helps you create content that resonates with your audience.
To get an insight into Pakistani shoppers’ needs and preferences, look at both qualitative research, such as surveys and interviews, as well as quantitative methods such as data analysis of online shopping trends.
Through this process, you can gain valuable insights into the popular products among Pakistani shoppers, the motivations behind their purchase decisions and which platforms they are most likely to shop from.
Once you have gathered this information, you can use it when creating campaigns or tailoring existing ones to appeal more strongly to the Pakistani market.
For example, Pakistani shoppers tend to prefer stores that offer a wide variety of products, competitive prices, and convenient delivery options.
That’s a gold mine for you!
Strategies for Marketing a Shopify Store in Pakistan
Now that you know who is likely to buy from you, it is time to put yourself in front of them, and hopefully, they take the bait.
a. Utilizing Social Media Platforms
There were 71.70 million social media users in Pakistan in January 2022, according to DataReportal.
That’s equivalent to 31.5 percent of the total population.
With such numbers, promoting your Shopify store on social media in Pakistan makes more sense.
i. What platforms to use
Since social media is an obvious choice, which platform should you go for?
Well, according to data from Statcounter, the following are some of leading social media platforms in Pakistan.
Facebook takes up 84.85% of the market share, followed by Twitter at 12.44%, and YouTube coming in at 1.1%.
Getting on these platforms can work wonders in extending the reach and increase engagement.
ii. How to create effective campaigns
Now that you know the platforms to go after, it’s time to figure out how to craft a perfect campaign.
This is where the knowledge of your target customer comes in handy.
Knowing who your customers are and what they need helps you create campaigns that will effectively reach them.
It helps make your messages relevant and engaging to grab attention and motivate them to take action.
Campaign ideas
To help you out, here’s what to post on Facebook:
- Product promotions and sales: Share details about current promotions and discounts to encourage purchases.
- Product highlights and features: Showcase new products or highlight key features of existing products to generate interest.
- Customer testimonials and reviews: Share positive feedback from satisfied customers to build trust and credibility.
- Behind-the-scenes content: Give customers a glimpse into the inner workings of your business, such as the manufacturing process or the people behind the scenes.
- Tips and tutorials: Share expert advice or how-to content related to your products to provide value to your customers.
- Engaging visuals: Use high-quality images and videos to showcase your products and make them more appealing to potential customers.
- Interactive content: Use polls, quizzes or live videos to engage with your audience and encourage participation.
Twitter, consider the following campaign ideas:
- Short, engaging updates: Keep your tweets short and to the point, and use hashtags and @mentions to increase visibility and engagement.
- Behind-the-scenes content: Share candid photos, videos and updates to give followers a glimpse into your company culture and daily operations.
- Industry news and updates: Share relevant news and updates from your industry to position yourself as a thought leader and resource.
- Customer interactions: Respond to customer inquiries and complaints promptly and professionally to build trust and loyalty.
- Live-tweeting events: Share updates and insights from events you attend or participate in, to give followers a sense of what it’s like to be there.
- Visuals: Use images, videos, GIFs, and infographics to make your tweets more engaging and shareable.
- Influencer partnerships: Collaborate with industry influencers to expand your reach and credibility.
And on YouTube:
- Product demonstrations and reviews: Showcase your products in action and provide detailed information about their features and benefits.
- How-to videos: Create tutorials on how to use your products or solve common problems related to them.
- Unboxing videos: Show the unboxing of a new product, providing a first look at what’s inside the package.
- Customer testimonials: Share positive feedback from satisfied customers to build trust and credibility.
- Behind-the-scenes footage: Give viewers a glimpse into your business operations and show the people and processes behind your products.
- Influencer collaborations: Partner with influencers in your niche to showcase your products to a wider audience.
- Live streaming: Use live streaming to connect with your audience in real-time and answer their questions.
- Animated explainer videos: Use animation to explain the features and benefits of your products in an engaging and easy-to-understand way.
While at it, try using local languages such as Urdu or Punjabi in addition to English when possible.
This can be especially helpful if most of your target audience speaks these languages.
iii. How to measure success
Social media campaigns are a great way to reach potential customers, but they must be tracked and monitored for maximum effectiveness.
And tools such as Google Analytics can help track metrics such as page views, impressions, reach, engagement rates, and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
Also, Shopify comes with an in-built analytics dashboard.
You can monitor these metrics from there.
A/B testing can also provide invaluable insights into which strategies work best for which audiences in different markets.
- Testing different headlines: Create two versions of a social media post, one with a headline that emphasizes discounts and the other with a headline that emphasizes new products. Compare the two versions’ engagement (likes, shares, comments) and conversion rates (clicks to the online store) to see which headline performs better.
- Testing different images: Create two versions of a social media post, one with an image of a product and the other with an image of a person using the product. Compare the engagement and conversion rates of the two versions to see which image performs better.
- Testing different call-to-action (CTA) buttons: Create two versions of a social media post, one with a CTA button that says “Shop Now” and the other with a CTA button that says “Learn More.” Compare the engagement and conversion rates of the two versions to see which CTA performs better.
- Testing different targeting: Create two versions of a social media ad campaign, one targeting a specific age group and the other targeting a specific location. Compare the engagement and conversion rates of the two versions to see which targeting strategy performs better.
b. Creating an Email List
Another effective way to market your Shopify store in Pakistan is to use email marketing.
Email marketing is a great way to reach shoppers with new products, sales, and special offers.
It is also easy to keep your brand top of mind with your existing customers.
With an email marketing strategy, you can create a list of addresses that you’ll use to contact potential or existing customers in the future.
In fact according to studies, The average ROI through email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent!
For this to work, you will need an email list.
This is a list of people who’ve given you a consent to send them emails.
i. How to build an email list
An effective email list will enable you to reach the right people and maximize the impact of your marketing efforts.
Here are some tips to help you build your email list:
First, create content that is valuable and relevant to your target audience. This could include blog posts, videos, or whitepapers related to the products or services offered by your Shopify store.
Make sure this content is easily accessible from within your website so people.
Next, create an incentive for people to subscribe to your email list. This could be a discount coupon, exclusive access to special offers, or a free ebook.
Then, create an opt-in form on your website and make sure it is prominently featured.
This will make it easier for people to sign up for your email list.
You should also include a link to your opt-in form in your email.
You can use tools like Mailchimp or Mailerlite to manage your email list.
These tools allow you to track each campaign’s effectiveness and ensure that emails are being delivered to the right people.
ii. How to write effective emails
Now that you have created your contact list, it is time to craft messages. Writing effective emails is an important part of marketing a Shopify store in Pakistan.
To write effective emails, there are several key steps to take:
First, make sure the subject line is clear and concise.
The subject line should capture readers’ attention and motivate them to read the message.
It should be short enough to fit on one screen so that people can easily scan it quickly and decide whether they want to read further.
Second, keep the message brief and direct.
Avoid long introductions or flowery language, as this will confuse readers and may lead them to lose interest quickly.
Get straight to the point by introducing your product or service with a call-to-action at the end of the email.
Third, use a friendly and conversational tone.
People respond better to emails that sound as if they were written by an actual person instead of something generic or robotic.
Your email should be engaging yet polite so readers will feel comfortable enough to take the desired action you are asking for in your call-to-action.
Fourth, include visuals, such as images or videos showing what makes your product special and why customers need it now!
This can help make people more interested in learning about what you have to offer them, which could result in higher conversion rates overall.
Finally, always end with a thank you note at the bottom of each message.
Then add contact details where potential buyers can reach out further if needed – this small gesture goes a long way towards building trust between companies/brands and their audience base over time!
iii. How to measure success
To measure the success of your email campaigns, there are several key metrics that you should pay attention to.
First, measure the open rate of each email campaign.
This is the number of successfully opened emails divided by the total number of delivered emails.
Second, keep an eye on your click-through rate (CTR), which is the number of clicks divided by the total number of delivered emails.
Finally, track how many customers have made a purchase after receiving one or multiple emails from your store.
These figures will help you determine which email campaigns are performing best and allow you to make necessary adjustments in order to optimize future campaigns for maximum success.
c. Search Engine Optimization
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization or “SEO” refers to improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search engines.
According to 99firms, a typical internet user will search Google 4 times a day.
From this, it is estimated that the number of people using Google search daily is roughly 1.7 billion – considering there are 7 billion daily searches.
One more thing.
According to Backlinko, the #1 result in Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks!
And that explains why everyone wants to rank higher on search engines.
i. How to optimize website content
Ranking is essential to market your Shopify store in Pakistan successfully.
It involves writing compelling and informative content to draw customers to the store and strategically positioning keywords to help improve visibility on search engine results pages.
Here are some tips for optimizing website content:
First, thoroughly research keywords related to the products and services sold on the Shopify store.
Use these keywords throughout the page copy and metadata to ensure maximum visibility on search engines.
Don’t forget to add multiple media types, such as images, videos, infographics, or audio clips, to keep visitors engaged with the website’s content.
Finally, regularly update any existing web pages or blog posts with fresh content – this will help keep customers coming back again and again.
To recap, do the following to optimize your store for SEO:
- Research relevant keywords to use in your store’s content
- Incorporate those keywords into the page copy and metadata
- Include multiple media types such as images, videos, infographics, or audio clips
- Update existing web pages or blog posts with fresh content regularly
ii. How to optimize for local searches
Local SEO is a MUST-DO if your store is targeting customers within Pakistan.
Why?
According to Moz, local queries account for almost half of Google’s two trillion searches annually.
And that’s true because, in 2020, 93% of consumers used online searches to find a local business.
To optimize for local searches, add location-specific keywords and phrases into the titles and descriptions of each page on the website.
For example;
‘Affordable Men shoes in Islamabad.’
Creating a dedicated blog or page that focuses solely on local events or news related to your business and its products is also a good idea.
Additionally, create a Google My Business profile.
64% of consumers use Google My Business (GMB) to find business addresses or phone numbers (Murphy, 2020).
Furthermore, you can make use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by setting up geo-targeted campaigns aimed at people living in certain cities or regions within Pakistan.
iii. How to measure success
To measure the success of an SEO campaign, track key performance indicators such as website traffic, conversions, and rankings on search engines like Google or Bing.
These metrics can be seen directly on your analytics by pulling traffic source/medium if you are using Google Analytics.
d. Leveraging Influencers
Influencer marketing is another super effective way to market a Shopify store in Pakistan.
With 50.7% of eCommerce brands working with influencers running, it’s no wonder this marketing type has become so popular.
This marketing channel can greatly increase the visibility of your Shopify store in Pakistan and help drive more traffic, sales, and conversions.
i. How to find the right influencers
The key to influencer marketing in Pakistan is to find the right partner!
While this can be daunting, with the right strategy and resources, you can find influencers who will help spread awareness of your brand and products.
Start by identifying the target audience you want to reach out to.
Knowing their interests and preferences will help you narrow down the list of potential influencers.
Research social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc., to find popular people in your niche with large followings who already have an established presence in Pakistan.
Make sure to look for active engagement from their followers as well as reviews or comments from previous campaigns they’ve been involved in before deciding which influencer is best for your campaign.
A tool like TapInfluence can help you dig into metrics such as reach, engagement rate, and the potential price tag behind any given influencer.
ii. How to create effective influencer campaigns
Your success with influencer marketing is as good as your campaign.
Once you’ve picked the ideal influencer, here are some tips to help you create an effective campaign:
- Set Clear Goals & Objectives – Before starting any campaigns, define what success looks like so that all stakeholders can measure progress against a set goal. It’s also beneficial when negotiating rates with influencers if you know exactly what should be expected from working together before agreeing on terms of payment/reimbursement etc..
- Create Engaging Content- Ensure content created by both yourself and the chosen influencer(s) communicates why someone would want or need to purchase whatever it is being offered; provide clear instructions on where people can make a purchase; use engaging visuals such as imagery, GIFS & videos which will capture attention better than just text alone!
You can incentivize purchases via coupons, codes, exclusive offers, etc…to drive sales even further up!
iii. How to measure success
Without accurate measurements, you will find yourself spinning your wheels without making any progress.
To ensure that your efforts are paying off, here are a few tips for measuring the success of your influencer campaign.
How to measure success
Without accurate measurements, you will find yourself spinning your wheels without making any progress.
And worse, pouring money into a hole!
To ensure that your efforts are paying off, here are a few tips for measuring the success of your influencer campaign.
Monitor how the success (or lack thereof) changes throughout different periods within a given campaign.
YOU already know the goals, so look at if they are being hit!
So that you can adjust accordingly if needed and develop insights into what works best for future campaigns with similar goals/audiences.
This is especially important when working on long-term initiatives where results may not be immediate but are still worth tracking and regularly assessing along the way!
After completing an influencer marketing initiative, it’s essential to take some time to analyze all of the collected data – both quantitative(elements like views & clicks)and qualitative (such as customer feedback).
Such analysis will help identify areas for improvement in upcoming activities as well as give insight into potential new target audiences for future efforts from which further successes could arise!
Final Thoughts
From understanding the target audience and using social media platforms to being authentic and building relationships, implement these strategies in order to reach success with marketing efforts.
Understand current trends, and utilize various tools such as Google Ads and influencers to get noticed by potential customers.
Overall, it is clear that there are many effective tactics for marketing a Shopify store in Pakistan.
By taking advantage of digital space and understanding the local culture, entrepreneurs can develop an effective plan to ensure their business stands out from competitors.
As long as you stay on top of emerging technologies and remain committed to customer satisfaction, your Shopify store will surely make its mark on the Pakistani marketplace!