Delivery charges in Pakistan: what to charge buyers

Your delivery fee is a price like any other. Set it too low and every order leaks money to the courier. Set it too high, or spring it on the buyer late, and orders get refused at the door. Below is how to pick a method, work out the number from your courier’s real charges, and show it so nobody is surprised.

Three ways to charge delivery

• A flat fee on every order. One number, for example Rs 250, whatever the city. Easy to say on the confirmation call and easy for the buyer to add up. You win on some parcels and lose on others, and it evens out if the fee sits near your average cost.
• Free delivery above an order amount. A flat fee on small orders, and free delivery once the cart passes an amount you choose. This is the one that grows your order size, because buyers add a second piece to cross the line.
• Built into the price. Delivery is “free” and the courier cost lives in the product price. The price looks higher next to sellers who charge delivery separately, but the total at the door is the same number the buyer saw on the product. Works well for products with high margins or one standard weight.

All three work. What decides the right one is your courier cost, your return rate and how much your buyers usually order. The building-it-into-the-price side is covered in how to price products; this guide is about the delivery number itself.

What a parcel actually costs you

Courier rates for online sellers are often agreed per account. PostEx publishes an estimate: its delivery charges calculator gives an estimate by city and weight. These are its results for a parcel booked from Lahore, as of October 2026, rounded to the rupee:

Three things to take from it:

• The base rate is not the bill. For 0.5 kg within Lahore the calculator shows a base of Rs 100, a fuel surcharge of Rs 35 and GST of Rs 21.60 on top. If a courier quotes you a base rate, ask what gets added.
• Other cities cost much more. A 0.5 kg parcel to Karachi costs about Rs 117 more than one within Lahore.
• Weight above 1 kg adds up fast. In these estimates a 2 kg parcel costs twice a 1 kg one.

PostEx says final rates vary by service level and account type, and you get your own tariff sheet when you sign up. Other couriers price on their own terms: Leopards’ Retail COD, for one, says on its e-commerce page that it adds no fuel surcharge, GST or return fee. Ask each courier for the full charge on your usual weight to your top cities, including any COD or handling fee. Our comparison of the best courier services in Pakistan lists what each one publishes, and the free courier charges calculator lines up your quotes for one parcel, cheapest first.

Weight, box size and heavy products

Couriers bill the chargeable weight, not just what the scale says. Leopards publishes the rule on its e-commerce page: a standard size of 12 × 12 × 12 cm, and above that, length x width x height in cm divided by 5,000. A light shirt in a big box can be billed as 2 kg. Our guide to packaging for an online business shows how a flyer bag instead of a box changes the bill.

For your delivery fee, this means one flat fee only works across products of roughly the same weight. If you sell a 0.5 kg kurta and a 3 kg bedsheet set, a fee that covers the kurta loses money on every bedsheet. Two fixes:

• Set the flat fee for your usual parcel, and add the extra courier cost of heavy products into their price.
• Or sell heavy products with delivery included, and say “free delivery” on those listings.

Returned parcels and the 2% tax

Here is the part that is easy to miss. The buyer pays your delivery fee only when they accept the parcel. When they refuse it, you still pay the courier, and often for the trip back as well. So the fee collected on delivered orders has to pay for the returned ones too.

Example. Your average courier cost is Rs 230 a parcel, and 20 of every 100 parcels come back.

• Courier on 100 parcels: 100 x Rs 230 = Rs 23,000.
• Delivered: 80 parcels. Rs 23,000 ÷ 80 = Rs 288 per delivered order.
• Add any return fee your courier charges on the 20, divided by the same 80.

A Rs 230 delivery fee looks like it covers the courier. At that return rate it leaves you about Rs 58 short on every delivered order, before packaging. Use your own return rate, counted over the last month. If it is high, bringing it down is worth more than any fee: see how to reduce COD returns.

Then the tax. On cash on delivery the courier keeps 2% of the gross amount it collects as income tax before it pays you. How that works, and what changed in the Finance Act 2026, is in registering an online business. For your delivery fee, the point is that it is part of what the rider collects, so if the 2% is taken on the full amount collected, plan on keeping 98% of it. On a Rs 250 fee that is Rs 5 gone.

The COD profit calculator puts courier, returns, packaging and ads together for one order, so you can test a fee before you set it.

Your city or the rest of Pakistan

Couriers price by route, so a parcel to your own city costs less. You could charge two fees, one for your city and one for everywhere else. It is fair, but it costs you in other ways: the buyer has to work out which fee applies, the confirmation call gets longer, and a buyer in a nearby town who expected the lower fee may refuse at the door.

For a small store one flat fee is simpler and fair enough. Work it out from your own orders:

• Count where last month’s parcels went: your city, your province, the rest of the country.
• Multiply each share by your courier’s charge for that route at your usual weight.
• Add them up, then adjust for returns as above.

With the PostEx estimates above at 0.5 kg, a Lahore seller sending 40% of parcels within Lahore and 60% to other provinces averages 0.4 x Rs 157 + 0.6 x Rs 274, about Rs 227 a parcel. At a 20% return rate that is about Rs 284 per delivered order. A flat fee near that, or a lower fee with the gap built into the price, holds up.

Setting a free delivery amount

Free delivery above an amount works when the amount is just above what one item costs. The buyer who wanted one piece adds a second to save the fee, and your courier cost is shared across two pieces in one parcel.

• Look at your usual order. If most orders are one suit at around Rs 2,600, a line at Rs 2,500 changes nothing, since almost every order gets free delivery anyway. A line around Rs 5,000 asks for a second piece.
• Check the heavier parcel. Two pieces weigh more. Price the free delivery parcel at its real weight, not the single-piece rate.
• Check the margin on the second piece. It has to pay for the delivery you are no longer charging. If it does not, raise the line.
• Say it everywhere. “Free delivery on orders over Rs 5,000” belongs on the product page, in your bio and in the order confirmation, not only at checkout.

Sale days are a good time to lower the line for a week. Our guide to the Eid sale covers running offers that still leave a profit.

Show the delivery charge before the order

On cash on delivery the buyer meets the full amount at the door, with cash in hand. A total that is Rs 250 more than the price they remember is one of the easiest refusals to cause and the easiest to prevent.

• Put the delivery fee, or “free delivery”, on every product page, not only at checkout.
• Show the total with delivery before the buyer places the order.
• On the confirmation call or message, say one number: “Rs 2,850 including delivery, cash to the rider.”
• When you take orders in Instagram or WhatsApp messages, quote the total with delivery in the same reply as the price.
• Never change the fee after the order is confirmed. If your courier raises rates, change it for new orders only.

Courier rates change during the year, and fuel surcharges move with fuel prices. Check your tariff sheet every few months and update your fee when the average moves.

Delivery charges on Storelala

On Storelala you set one delivery fee for your store and, if you want, an order amount above which delivery is free. Buyers see the delivery fee and the total in the cart and at checkout before they place the order, and when free delivery is on, the cart tells them how much more to add to get it. Buyers pay by cash on delivery, JazzCash, Easypaisa or a debit or credit card, chosen at checkout. You book PostEx, Leopards or TCS right from the order screen, and the tracking number goes to the buyer on WhatsApp.

Questions sellers ask

What are delivery charges in Pakistan for an online order?

It depends on the courier, the weight and how far the parcel goes. PostEx’s own online calculator, checked in October 2026, gave about Rs 157 for a 0.5 kg parcel within Lahore and about Rs 274 from Lahore to Karachi, including fuel surcharge and GST. Your rate on a merchant account may differ, so get your courier’s tariff sheet before you set your fee.

Should I offer free delivery on my online store?

Only if the courier cost is already inside your product price. Free delivery is not free for you: you pay the courier on every parcel, including the ones that come back. A common middle way is a flat delivery fee with free delivery above an order amount that needs a second item.

How are delivery charges calculated by couriers?

By the parcel’s chargeable weight, the route (same city, same province or another province) and add-ons like a fuel surcharge and GST. Chargeable weight is the higher of the real weight and the box size worked out as length x width x height in cm divided by 5,000, which is the formula Leopards publishes.

Who pays the delivery charge when a COD parcel is returned?

The seller. The buyer refused the parcel, so they paid nothing, and you still owe the courier for the trip out and often the trip back. Your delivery fee only comes in on delivered orders, so it has to cover the cost of the returned ones too.

Should I charge more for delivery outside my city?

Couriers charge more for other cities, so it is fair. But two or three fees confuse buyers and slow down confirmation. A small store can keep it simple with one flat fee set near their average cost, and a free delivery amount on top.

Storelala is the Shopify alternative in Pakistan: your own store at yourbrand.storelala.com, cash on delivery, JazzCash, Easypaisa and cards built in, no marketplace commission, and free to start with no card needed. Start your store from your phone today.