How to Sell Pashmina and Handicrafts Online — A Practical Guide for Nepali Artisans

If you make pashmina shawls in Bhaktapur, carve singing bowls in Patan, or knit felt slippers at home in Pokhara, you already have what online buyers want: real, handmade Nepali craft. What most artisans lack is a simple system to photograph, price, and ship their work to customers in Kathmandu and across the world. This guide walks through exactly that, with the tools and rules that actually apply in Nepal.

1. Photograph your products so they sell

Buyers can't touch your weave or feel the cashmere, so your photos have to do that job. You do not need a studio or a DSLR. A recent phone, daylight, and a clean background are enough.

• Shoot near a window in the morning. Soft daylight shows true colour. Avoid harsh midday sun and avoid yellow tube light, which makes white pashmina look dirty.
• Use a plain backdrop. A white bedsheet or a wooden table works. Keep it consistent so your store looks tidy.
• Show scale and detail. For a shawl, take one photo folded, one draped over a shoulder, and one close-up of the fringe and weave. For a singing bowl, photograph the engraving and the rim.
• Tell the truth about colour. If a shawl is a deep maroon, do not over-edit it to bright red. Returns and bad reviews come from photos that lie.

Write a short, honest caption with the material, size, and care: "100% cashmere pashmina, 200x70cm, handwash cold." Buyers searching for genuine pashmina are wary of fakes, so being specific builds trust.

2. Price for profit, not just to match the next shop

Many artisans price by copying the stall next door and end up earning almost nothing. Build your price from your real costs instead.

1. Add up material and labour. Yarn or wool, dye, and the hours you or your weaver spent. Pay yourself a fair daily wage — your time is a cost.
2. Add overhead. Packaging, electricity, your phone data, and transport to the courier.
3. Add a margin. A common handmade margin is 2 to 3 times your total cost. That margin pays for the items that don't sell and for your growth.
4. Account for fees. Digital wallets and gateways take a small cut, and COD couriers charge a service fee. Build a few percent in so the discount or fee does not eat your profit.

VAT and PAN — know where you stand

If you are a small home maker, you likely operate under your personal income. Once your turnover grows, register a PAN; cross the VAT threshold and you must register for VAT and add 13% correctly on invoices. For export sales, keep clean records — genuine handicraft exports can qualify for friendlier treatment, and clean books make that painless. When in doubt, a quick visit to your local Inland Revenue office or an accountant saves trouble later.

3. Set up an online store you actually control

Selling only through your Instagram DMs means chasing screenshots of payment and losing orders in a busy inbox, especially during festival rush. A proper store page lets a buyer choose a product, pay, and give a delivery address in one flow.

This is where a local platform helps. With Saauzi, you can build a store in Nepali pricing (NPR), accept eSewa, Khalti, and bank transfer at checkout, run the same catalogue at your physical stall through POS, and hand orders to delivery — without stitching together five foreign tools that don't understand Nepal. You keep your customer list and your brand, instead of renting space in someone's feed.

4. Accept payment the way Nepali buyers pay

Domestic buyers expect choice. Offer all three of these:

• eSewa and Khalti for instant digital payment — fast, and most younger buyers prefer it.
• Bank transfer / connectIPS for larger orders, such as a wholesale lot of shawls.
• Cash on delivery (COD) inside the Kathmandu Valley and major towns. COD still wins trust for first-time buyers, but confirm the order by phone first to cut down on fake or refused deliveries.

For overseas buyers, settle on a clear price in NPR or USD up front, state that international shipping and any customs duty are the buyer's responsibility, and get full payment before you ship.

5. Pack and ship so the craft arrives perfect

Pashmina and textiles are light and forgiving; ceramics, glass, and singing bowls are not. Match your packing to the product.

• Inside the Valley: a local courier or a tempo-based delivery service handles same-day or next-day drops. Wrap textiles in a poly bag against rain, then a courier flyer.
• Outside the Valley: use an established domestic courier with COD remittance, so the cash collected reaches your account reliably.
• International: Nepal Post's parcel service is the cheapest; private couriers like DHL or Aramex are faster and trackable but cost more. Always declare the parcel honestly as a handicraft and keep the receipt.
• Protect fragile items. Bubble wrap singing bowls and pottery, fill empty space so nothing shifts, and mark the box "Fragile / Handle with care."

6. Sell hard during Dashain and Tihar

The festival season from Dashain through Tihar is the single biggest buying window for gifts and home goods, and many in the diaspora buy Nepali handicrafts to send or carry abroad. Prepare early:

• Build stock in Bhadra, weeks before the rush, because your weavers and suppliers also take festival leave.
• Make small gift bundles — a shawl with a felt ornament, or a singing bowl with a cushion — at a clear festival price.
• Set an honest order cut-off date for guaranteed festival delivery and put it on every product, so you are not blamed for courier delays.

Your one-week action plan

You don't need everything at once. Start small and finish this week:

• Day 1–2: Photograph your five best products near a window.
• Day 3: Calculate true cost and set a confident price for each.
• Day 4–5: Set up an online store, connect eSewa and Khalti, and list those five items.
• Day 6–7: Choose your courier, write your packing and COD process, and take your first order.

Real Nepali craft already has buyers waiting at home and abroad. Photograph it honestly, price it for profit, accept payment the way your customers actually pay, and ship it safely — and your workshop becomes a shop that sells every day, not just on market day.