Dashain is the single biggest spending window of the year in Nepal. Families buy clothes, electronics, gifts, kitchen items, and festive food in volumes they don't touch the rest of the year. If you sell anything, this is when demand comes to you. The catch: customers start browsing and buying weeks before the tika, so a store that goes live the day before Ghatasthapana has already missed the wave.
This is a practical 30-day plan to get an online store live, stocked, and taking orders before the rush. It assumes you're a small shop owner or first-time online seller in Nepal, not a tech company. Block out an hour or two a day and follow the weeks in order.
Week 1 (Days 1–7): Decide what you sell and set the foundation
Don't try to list everything you own. The sellers who do well during Dashain pick a tight, festive-relevant range and go deep on it.
- Pick 10–20 hero products. Choose items people actually buy for the festival — kurtas, sarees, kids' clothes, dry fruits, gift hampers, home decor, electronics accessories. Fewer SKUs done well beats a messy catalog.
- Fix your pricing in NPR with margin built in. Work backwards: cost price + your margin + payment gateway fee + delivery (if you absorb it). Decide now whether delivery is free, flat, or charged by zone.
- Sort out PAN/VAT. If you're registered, keep your PAN number ready for invoices and any VAT obligations. If you're not yet registered and turnover is growing, talk to an accountant before the season — it's far cheaper to be correct from the start than to fix it in Mangsir.
- Lock your brand basics. A clear store name, a simple logo, and a phone number customers can call or message on Viber/WhatsApp. Trust matters more than polish in Nepal — a reachable seller converts better than a fancy one.
Week 2 (Days 8–14): Build the store and connect payments
This is the week the store goes from idea to a real link you can share. You don't need a developer.
Set up the storefront
- Create your store, upload your logo, and write a one-line description of what you sell and where you deliver.
- Add your hero products with clean photos (shoot on your phone in daylight against a plain wall), honest descriptions, sizes/variants, and stock counts.
- Write a short, real shipping and return policy. State delivery timelines, areas covered, and what happens if an item is wrong or damaged.
This is where Saauzi does the heavy lifting for Nepali sellers: you can spin up the online store, wire it to your inventory and POS, and turn on local payments and delivery from one place — instead of stitching together separate tools that weren't built for Nepal.
Turn on digital payments
- Connect eSewa and Khalti. These are what most Nepali shoppers already use and trust. Have your merchant details ready to link the accounts.
- Add bank transfer / QR as a backup for larger orders.
- Keep Cash on Delivery (COD). A large share of Nepali buyers still prefer paying when the parcel arrives, especially first-time customers. Offer it, but be ready for it (see Week 3).
Test a real transaction
Before you tell anyone, place one real order yourself end to end: add to cart, pay with eSewa or Khalti, confirm the order shows up, and check the invoice. Fixing a broken checkout now is free; fixing it during the rush costs you sales.
Week 3 (Days 15–21): Stock, delivery, and operations
A store that takes orders it can't fulfill loses customers permanently. Spend this week making sure you can actually deliver.
- Build buffer stock on your top sellers. Look at what moved last Dashain (or what's trending now) and over-order on your 3–5 best items rather than spreading thin. Running out of your hero product mid-festival is the most expensive mistake you can make.
- Line up delivery. Decide between using a courier (Pathao, Upaya, NCM, Aramex, or a local rider network) and your own delivery. Confirm their COD remittance cycle — how many days until they pay you back the cash they collect — because that affects your cash flow during the busiest weeks.
- Set delivery zones and charges. Inside Kathmandu Valley you can promise faster timelines; outside the valley, be honest about 2–5 days. Don't promise next-day everywhere.
- Plan packaging. Stock boxes, tape, and bubble wrap now. Festive gift packaging is a cheap way to stand out.
- Reduce COD risk. Confirm orders by call or message before dispatch, and consider a small advance for high-value items to cut down on fake or abandoned orders.
Week 4 (Days 22–30): Promote, sell, and refine
Now you have a working store and stock. The last week is about getting traffic and removing friction.
- Tell everyone. Share your store link on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, your WhatsApp/Viber status, and to existing customers directly. In Nepal, social media and word of mouth drive more sales than search.
- Run a Dashain offer. A clear festive discount, a free gift over a certain NPR amount, or free delivery inside the valley gives people a reason to buy now instead of later.
- Post daily during the build-up. Show products, behind-the-scenes packing, and real customer orders. Consistency beats one big post.
- Make checkout effortless. Keep the number of steps short, keep COD visible, and reply to questions fast — slow replies lose Dashain buyers to the next shop.
- Watch your numbers. Use your dashboard to see which products sell and which payment methods customers choose, then push more stock and ads behind the winners.
What to keep doing through Tihar
Dashain rolls straight into Tihar, so don't switch off after the tika. Keep popular items in stock, swap your festive offer to a Tihar/Bhai Tika theme, and keep delivering on time. The customers you win and treat well during Dashain are the ones who come back in the off-season — that's the real return on this month of work.
Your takeaway
You don't need a perfect store — you need a live one with your best products, eSewa/Khalti and COD working, and a delivery plan you can keep. Start today: pick your 10–20 hero products this week, get the store and payments live next week, lock your stock and courier the week after, and spend the final week promoting. Do that, and you'll be selling while everyone else is still setting up.
Comments
Be the first to comment.