Launching an online store is exciting. It is also the moment when small omissions become large customer-support headaches. We've helped hundreds of Nepali stores go live; this is the short list we make every founder run before they share their URL with anyone.
1. Test a real end-to-end order
Place an actual order on your own store, with your own card or eSewa, for a real product. Pay the full amount. Receive the confirmation email. Check that the order shows up in your dashboard. Refund yourself.
Most founders skip this because they "already know it works". They are usually wrong about one thing — a missing thank-you email, a broken shipping calculation, an invoice that lists the wrong currency. Every one of these problems is 100× cheaper to find before your first customer than after.
2. Write your refund and shipping policies
These are the two pages every skeptical customer reads before they pay you. If they're missing, the customer leaves.
Refund policy needs to answer three things in plain Nepali or English:
- How many days does the customer have to return something?
- Who pays return shipping?
- How long does the refund take?
Shipping policy needs to answer:
- Which districts do you ship to?
- How long does delivery take to each region?
- What is the shipping cost?
Vinoraam ships with template policies that you can edit in Settings → Legal. Edit them, do not just publish them as-is.
3. Set up your WhatsApp link
In Nepal, more customers will message you on WhatsApp than email you, by a factor of about 10. Add your WhatsApp Business number to Settings → Store → Contact, and Vinoraam will show a floating WhatsApp button on every page.
If you don't have WhatsApp Business yet, install it (it's free) and verify your store name. Customers see the verified name instead of "Unknown number" when they message you.
4. Add at least 8 products
Stores with fewer than 8 products convert at less than half the rate of stores with 12+ products. Customers worry that a thin catalog means a thin business.
If you only have 3 products to sell, add variations — colors, sizes, bundles. Or add complementary products you might sell in the future. You can mark them "Coming soon" until they're ready, but the page count matters.
5. Tell your friends and family first
Your first 10 orders should come from people who already know you and trust you. They will forgive the inevitable rough edges and give you the feedback you need to fix them before strangers find your store.
Do not buy ads on day one. Do not launch on Product Hunt. Do not post in a Facebook group of 50,000 people. Get 10 close-circle orders, fix what they complain about, then open the doors wider.
The stores that follow this checklist hit their first 50 orders in week two. The stores that skip it spend week two firefighting and lose the customers they paid to acquire. We've seen both, repeatedly.
