From One Kharian Shop to Hundreds of Online Orders: Munawar Book Store

Munawar Book Store is a bookshop in Jinnah Center, near the bus stop on G.T. Road in Kharian, run by Syed Touqeer Shah. It sells books in Urdu, Arabic and English: Islamic books, Urdu novels and literature, history, Iqbaliyat, poetry, children’s books and guides for CSS, PMS and other competitive exams.

A shop on G.T. Road can only serve the readers who walk in. Ninja Softs designed and developed munawarbookstore.com, a complete online bookstore that puts the shop’s shelves in front of readers anywhere in Pakistan and abroad. The store has now delivered hundreds of orders.

This case study shows what a Pakistani bookshop needs from an online store, how we built each part, and what other retailers can take from it.

Project at a glance

The challenge: thousands of titles, two scripts, one shop

Selling books online in Pakistan is different from selling most products:

• The range is huge. A single shop can hold thousands of titles across religion, literature, history and exam preparation.
• Readers search in two scripts. One reader types “Ziddi” in English letters, another types “ضدی” in Urdu, and many search by author rather than title.
• Many buyers want to pay on delivery, and others prefer a bank transfer or Easypaisa.
• Orders go to big cities and remote towns alike, and some come from Pakistanis living abroad.
• The same books sell over the counter, so stock can change between an online order and its payment.

Syed Touqeer Shah needed a store that handles all of this without making his team’s work harder.

How we built it

1. A catalogue of more than 2,000 books, sorted three ways

Readers can browse the shelves the way they think about books:

• By subject: about 150 categories, from Islamic Books, Novels and History to Iqbaliyat, Poetry, Travelogues, Children’s Books and a CSS / PMS / FPSC / PPSC section with more than 200 titles. A Books Categories list sits beside the products, and the busiest sections are in the top menu.
• By author: more than 800 author pages. Every book links to its author, so a reader who likes one Ismat Chughtai novel can see the rest in one click.
• By what’s new or discounted: New Arrivals and Special Deals on the homepage, and a Books on Sale section.

2. Every title in English letters and Urdu script

Each book is listed under both names, for example “ZIDDI ضدی”, “TAQSEEM-E-HIND تقسیم ہند” and “WAQT KI KASAUTI وقت کی کسوٹی”. Readers find the book whichever way they type it, and the listing looks familiar to Urdu readers and English readers alike.

3. Instant search that understands authors and subjects

The search box at the top of every page suggests results as the reader types. Typing “iqbal”, for example, shows the author pages for Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Dr. Afzal Iqbal, the Iqbaliyat category, and individual books with their covers and prices. With more than 2,000 titles, a good search box saves readers from scrolling through page after page of books.

4. Book pages that make buying easy

Each book page shows the cover, the price (with the original price struck through when the book is on sale), an Add to Cart button and, where available, the details readers ask about: author, translator, editor, binding, number of pages and ISBN. The author’s name links to their other books, and a breadcrumb such as Home / Authors / Abul Kalam Azad / Azadi-e-Hind shows where the book sits in the shop. A side column suggests other titles, sold-out books are clearly labelled, and every book has a Pinterest Save button.

5. Sale prices and deals that are easy to read

Discounted books show the original price struck through next to the sale price, so readers see the saving at a glance. More than 1,200 books carry a sale price, multi-volume sets such as tafsir and hadith collections are grouped as Special Deals, and the checkout accepts coupon codes.

6. A checkout built for Pakistan

Buyers in Pakistan find their country already selected, and the province list includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Shoppers can check out as guests or create an account, send the parcel to a different address (useful for gifts), and add order notes. Delivery costs a flat Rs. 300 on orders under Rs. 7,000, and orders above that ship free, a rule announced in the bar at the top of every page.

7. Payment the way Pakistani buyers prefer

Buyers can choose cash on delivery, a direct bank transfer or Easypaisa. A dedicated How to Pay page explains each option step by step, and buyers who pay in advance confirm their payment by call, SMS or WhatsApp.

8. Delivery to every corner of the country, and abroad

Cash-on-delivery orders travel with Pakistan Post’s UMS COD service, which reaches even remote areas within seven working days. Overseas readers can order too: the shop quotes the shipping cost within two to three business days and accepts payment by bank transfer.

9. One stock for the shop and the website

Because the same books sell over the counter in Kharian, the payment instructions ask buyers to wait for an availability confirmation before they pay in advance. Nobody pays for a book that has just been sold in the shop. The Contact page gives the shop’s address, opening hours (Saturday to Thursday, 10 AM to 8 PM; Friday, 9 AM to 1 PM), phone numbers and a map, so local readers can visit in person.

10. Built on WordPress and WooCommerce

We built the store on WordPress and WooCommerce with the Divi theme. New titles are added as the shop receives them and go straight into the New Arrivals section on the homepage.

The result: a Kharian bookshop that sells nationwide

• Hundreds of orders delivered through the online store
• More than 2,000 books online, with over 800 author pages and about 150 categories
• Nationwide delivery with cash on delivery, plus international orders
• Three ways to pay: cash on delivery, bank transfer and Easypaisa
• A shop that is open around the clock online, alongside its counter on G.T. Road

Lessons for bookshops and retailers in Pakistan

• Name products the way customers type them. For books, that means English letters and Urdu script together.
• Give large catalogues more than one way in: subject, author, new arrivals and deals.
• Invest in search. Instant suggestions with covers and prices turn a search into a sale.
• Offer cash on delivery, and make advance payment simple with bank transfer and mobile wallets.
• Show the free-delivery threshold on every page. It answers the first question buyers ask.
• If your shop and website share stock, confirm availability before taking advance payment.

Ready to take your shop online?

Ninja Softs builds online stores for shops and brands in Pakistan and abroad. See our ecommerce development package, our website development services and more work in our portfolio, or read how we built a website for Darul Madinah School.

Ready to start? Request a project estimate or message us on WhatsApp.