Answers about 12Commerce

12Commerce is a widget-based e-commerce platform built in Pakistan. Merchants use a drag-and-drop builder to create storefronts and embeddable widgets, add products, take WhatsApp and web orders, collect COD or online payments, manage delivery, run marketing, and control everything from one dashboard — without hiring developers or rebuilding an existing website.

Small and growing businesses in Pakistan: home bakers, craft and tailoring sellers, clothing brands, restaurants and cafes, freelancers and agencies, print-on-demand sellers, multi-branch businesses, event organizers, and community leaders who want a professional store without technical overhead.

12Commerce is built for how selling actually works in Pakistan. Cash on delivery is a first-class payment option, not an app you install. WhatsApp ordering is built in. Plans are priced in PKR with a genuinely useful free plan. It is also widget-based: you can add a store to an existing HTML website instead of moving everything to a new platform. Full comparisons are on our Shopify alternative, Wix alternative, and Odoo alternative pages.

Yes. Storefront content can be written in Urdu, English, or mixed, and the platform supports Urdu-friendly themes including right-to-left layouts. The dashboard itself is designed to be simple enough that language is not a barrier.

Yes. An internal document, documentation/FEATURES.md, covers every major and minor feature in plain language with sales guidance. Publicly, every feature on the platform has its own page under /features, and a searchable FAQ library lives at /faqs.

Yes, to a degree. PayPal and PayFast integrations support international online payments, and shipping zones let you define international rates. The platform is optimized for Pakistan-first workflows like COD, but it does not lock you to one country.

Sign up with an email and password or with Google. No credit card is required and there is no advance commitment. After signing up, a guided setup checklist walks you through your first widget, first product, theme, domain, and first order.

Yes. New merchants get a step-by-step checklist: build a widget, add a product, set your theme, connect a domain, and take your first order. Each completed step advances your progress, so you never wonder what to do next.

Yes. You can start with demo products and widgets to see how your store will look, then replace them with your own data. That removes the blank-page feeling for new users.

Yes. The platform sends emailed guides at each milestone — product creation, shipping setup, theme customization, domain connection, and more — plus support through the helpdesk whenever you need a human.

Most merchants who follow the onboarding steps can take their first order within the first week. The drag-and-drop builder means a basic widget can go live in minutes, and a full storefront with products, shipping, and payments typically takes days, not weeks.

No. The entire system is drag-and-drop, similar to arranging slides in PowerPoint — add sections, drop content, and publish. No coding or developer is needed for setup, products, themes, or payments.

Yes. The free plan includes 3 widgets, roughly 100 form submissions per month, up to 10 products, a 48-hour support response time, and a 12Commerce branding badge. It is genuinely usable — you can run a real business on it without paying.

No. You can start on the free plan without a card. Paid plans are also structured so merchants in Pakistan who cannot pay by card can use bank transfer or wallet payments with slip verification.

Plans are free, starter, professional, growth, pro, and enterprise. Each has clear limits for widgets, submissions per month, products, staff seats, and features. You can upgrade or downgrade yourself from the dashboard at any time.

Pricing depends on the plan you choose, and the current rates are published on the pricing page. The key point for cost-conscious buyers: you can start free, and you only move to a paid plan when your business outgrows the free limits.

Yes. Plan changes are self-service from the dashboard and proration is handled automatically — no phone call needed. Growth naturally pushes you toward a bigger plan only when you hit your limits, not before.

Subscriptions move through clear states — trialing, active, past due, canceled, and expired — each with its own emails. If a trial expires, a reactivation email with an offer is sent automatically, and your data is never deleted without warning.

Yes. 12Commerce supports manual payments: you pay by bank transfer or wallet, upload the payment slip, and the team verifies it before activating or renewing your plan. Billing history and invoices are always visible in the dashboard.

No. Plan limits and included features are stated clearly. Common costs that other platforms treat as add-ons — WhatsApp ordering, COD, basic themes, and the widget builder — are built into the platform rather than sold as separate apps.

Start on the free plan: 3 widgets, 10 products, and up to about 100 submissions a month are enough for a first store. Use the free subdomain until you are ready for a custom domain, and only upgrade when you actually hit a limit.

It is the drag-and-drop design studio. Instead of coding, you drag blocks onto a canvas — text, images, buttons, forms, product grids, countdowns, reviews, maps, and more (15+ block types). Every block has its own settings, and you get a live desktop, tablet, and mobile preview.

Yes. Widgets publish and embed on any external HTML website with a small snippet — no store rebuild required. This is a core differentiator: you keep the site you already have and add storefront or lead-generation capability on top of it.

No. A templates gallery covers lead generation, e-commerce, and event registration categories. Pick a ready-made template and customize it instead of starting from zero.

Yes. Widget versions are saved automatically, so you can roll back to an earlier version if a change does not work out. Experimenting is safe.

Yes. Live preview with desktop, tablet, and mobile modes shows exactly what customers will see. Since the majority of traffic in Pakistan is mobile, checking the mobile view is a built-in habit on the platform.

They are widgets whose job is to collect visitor information — name, phone, requirement — so you can follow up. They include contact forms, quote requests, booking and appointment scheduling, surveys and polls, newsletter signup, callback requests, contest entries, a WhatsApp launcher, popup and exit-intent forms, and event registration.

Every submission triggers a dashboard bell notification plus an email. You can respond within minutes, which is exactly what converts browsers into customers. Submissions are also saved per widget with detail views and CSV export.

Yes. Build forms with text, email, phone, dropdowns, checkboxes, date pickers, file uploads, and address blocks. Required fields, placeholders, and validation are all under your control.

Yes. Storefronts are full multi-page websites: home, products listing, product detail, cart, checkout, category, branch, about, terms, privacy, shipping, and order tracking pages — each with its own role and purpose.

Ready-made professional themes are available to choose from, and the Design Studio lets you adjust colors, fonts, logo, spacing, and button shapes to match your brand. Sections on the homepage and product pages can be added, removed, or reordered.

Yes. Connect your own domain with guided DNS setup. If you do not have a domain yet, you can start on a free 12Commerce subdomain and switch to a custom domain later.

Yes. When you connect a domain, a free SSL certificate is issued and installed automatically. Customers see the HTTPS padlock instead of a browser security warning.

Use the announcement bar at the top of your store. You can change the message any time from the dashboard — it is the fastest way to push a current offer.

Yes. A popup builder supports timed and scroll-triggered popups, and exit-intent popups catch visitors who are about to leave with a last-chance offer — useful for discount captures and newsletter signups.

Yes. Storefronts are built mobile-first with caching, image optimization, and lazy loading so heavy catalogs still load quickly. Slow stores lose sales, and this is treated as an engineering priority rather than an afterthought.

Yes. The storefront includes clean URLs, per-product and per-page meta titles and descriptions, XML sitemaps, and structured data so your store can be indexed by Google. Organic traffic is a built-in channel, not an add-on.

The catalog supports unlimited products within your plan limits (the free plan allows 10). Each product has an image gallery, description, price, inventory, variants, and custom fields, all in one editor.

Yes. Variants let one product have multiple combinations — for example Red/M/L or Blue/XL — and every combination can have its own price, image, and stock count. Customers pick from a selector and stock is tracked per variant.

Yes. 40+ custom field types let each product tell its own story: text, rich text, HTML, images and galleries, video and video embeds, files, tables, key-value pairs, FAQs, buttons, WhatsApp and social links, maps, countdowns, badges, number and currency fields, and more — up to 50 per product. A wedding card page can look completely different from a t-shirt page.

Yes. Stock counts are tracked per variant with low-stock visibility and overselling prevention: when a product hits zero, it automatically shows as sold out while inventory tracking is on.

Yes. CSV import from WooCommerce or Shopify brings images, prices, and categories across — migration work that takes hours instead of weeks. You can also duplicate an existing product to create a similar one quickly.

Only customers who have actually received a delivered order can leave a review. This verified-buyer system is designed specifically to prevent fake reviews — ratings are tied to real purchases.

Yes. A public Q&A section on each product page lets shoppers ask questions and merchants answer them, so common objections get resolved before they are asked.

Yes. A wishlist lets customers save items to buy later — window shoppers convert when you announce a discount on saved items.

Yes. Products support a regular price and a sale price displayed with a strikethrough compare-at price. There is also a contact-for-price mode for custom or bulk items, with WhatsApp, phone, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, and Discord contact buttons.

Yes. Sale, New, and Sold Out badges appear on product cards. Themes render them automatically, adding urgency and information to the catalog.

Checkout collects only what fulfilment needs: address with postal-code intelligence, shipping method selection priced by zone, payment method choice, order review, then confirmation. Guest checkout is available — no forced account creation — and a persistent cart means returning visitors find their items waiting.

No. The cart persists across visits, so a window shopper who returns tomorrow still finds their items and totals waiting. Promo codes and shipping estimates are applied live in the cart.

Yes. A tracking page lets customers enter their order number or phone to see live status with timestamps — placed, confirmed, processing, shipped, delivered, or cancelled. That reduces “where is my order?” messages for merchants.

You get a dashboard bell notification, email, and optional device push. Merchants can act while the customer is still waiting, which is what makes five-minute responses normal.

In Pakistan most sales conversations happen on WhatsApp, so the platform embraces it: WhatsApp buttons appear on product pages, the floating widget, contact-for-price mode, and form success messages — all opening WhatsApp with a pre-filled message that includes product context. Orders coming through WhatsApp can be recorded as system orders instead of disappearing into chat screenshots.

Orders flow through placed, confirmed, processing, shipped, and delivered, with cancelled as a separate terminal state. Every status change is visible to the customer on the tracking page, keeping operations in one clean pipeline.

Yes. Bulk actions let you select several orders and change status or other properties together, which keeps high-volume operations manageable.

Order statuses include cancelled, and your refund policy is written on the terms page your store includes by default. For manual payments, the slip verification flow makes it clear when money was received and when it is returned.

Seven payment types: cash on delivery (COD), online transfer, bank transfer, wallet transfer, PayPal, PayFast, and AssanPay. COD covers Pakistan’s default trust method, manual transfers cover bank/wallet flows with slip verification, and gateways cover online card and digital payments — AssanPay for local PKR and PayPal for international.

Yes, and that is a core differentiator. COD is a first-class feature — not an app you install or an afterthought. It can be combined with online and manual methods so customers choose what they trust.

The customer uploads their payment slip and enters a reference code, then you or the admin approves or rejects it with a reason, and the order status updates. Payment accounts are registered in a registry so customers always see the correct account details on the storefront.

Guided flows plus emailed setup instructions walk you through connecting AssanPay, PayPal, or PayFast. While a gateway is being approved, manual transfer and COD keep your store selling from day one — the business does not stop because a gateway is pending.

Yes. Enable COD, bank transfer, and AssanPay together and let customers pick what they prefer. More choice at checkout generally means fewer abandoned carts.

Merchants register their bank accounts and wallets in a payment accounts registry, and the correct details are shown on the storefront automatically. This removes the risk of money going to a wrong account.

Create geographic zones down to city level — Karachi, Lahore, upcountry — and give each its own rates. Rates can be flat per zone or calculated from product weights, and you can set free-shipping thresholds like “free over Rs 2,000”.

At checkout: the customer enters the address, the zone is detected, applicable rates are shown, and the customer chooses. Transparent shipping early in checkout reduces cart abandonment.

You define the rates, so the system works with whatever model you use — TCS, Leopards, local riders, or your own delivery. Shipping is not tied to a single courier contract.

Yes. Products carry weight and dimension fields, and zone-based shipping uses that data to calculate accurate rates automatically.

POD lets you sell printed products without holding stock: the customer orders, then the item is printed. A mockup generator turns your uploaded design into professional product previews, print files auto-export for fulfilment partners, and dedicated POD order views track pending, in-production, and shipped items.

DTG, sublimation, embroidery, UV, and laser — each with product types and file requirements you configure to match your fulfilment capacity.

Three types: percentage off, fixed amount off, and free shipping. Advanced rules add a minimum order amount, total usage limit, expiry date, and product or category restrictions.

Yes. Coupon usage and revenue are visible in reports — for example, “EID25 brought 40 orders.” Marketing decisions become evidence-based instead of guesswork.

Unique codes track who brought whom, with permanent attribution — signups stay linked to the referrer even if cookies are cleared. This makes influencer and community deals measurable. Special trial promo codes can also grant longer or premium trials to new merchants.

Announcement bars, popup and exit-intent forms, email capture for building an owned audience, countdown timers for honest urgency, referral codes, trial promo codes, verified review blocks, and marketplace popularity signals — a full growth toolkit without separate app subscriptions.

Yes. The platform is prepared for Ramadan and Eid packages, the Azadi Sale in August, 11.11 and Black Friday, and wedding season — combining coupons, countdown timers, announcement bars, and campaign email templates you can switch on quickly.

Yes. Newsletter signup widgets capture emails into subscriber lists that feed future email campaigns — an owned audience that is not at the mercy of platform algorithm changes.

Verified-buyer review blocks render on product pages and anywhere you place them, and the widget marketplace publicly displays install and order counts for qualifying widgets — proof operates at the marketplace level too.

It is a central, filterable inbox where every lead lands — widget form submissions, storefront inquiries, and Facebook ad syncs. Search by name, phone, or email; sort by date or status. No inquiry is lost in chat screenshots.

Yes. Every lead stores full submitted details plus source attribution — which form, widget, or campaign created it, and any promo or referral codes it carried. Sales calls start informed instead of with an interrogation.

Yes. Lead lists export to CSV, and volume and source reports summarize activity over time. Agencies that charge for lead generation can export evidence for invoices.

The AI assistant generates content — product descriptions and draft widget/store text — through a reliable background job system. Output arrives as a proposal you review and edit before applying. AI helps, you decide; usage is metered transparently so fair use stays fair.

No. AI output is always a proposal — you review it, edit it if you want, and then apply it. There are no surprise overnight changes; the merchant stays in control.

Dashboard KPIs, store insights with traffic vs conversion trends, per-widget and per-product impressions, referrer analytics showing where visitors come from, branch attribution, submission and campaign attribution, user activity timelines, sales and user exports, and a self-serve data export center.

Yes. Run multiple stores, websites, or locations from one dashboard with clean separation between them. This is how agencies and growing brands manage several properties without juggling logins.

Yes. Roles and permissions are controlled at checkbox level — you decide who sees and changes what. Staff never need to share your owner password.

Owners create branch manager logins that are scoped to one location. A branch manager sees only their branch’s orders and to-dos — not other branches or billing. Owners add managers through simple forms, and invited managers set their own password via a secure first-login link.

Yes. Reports support branch attribution, so you can see which location is selling and which needs attention — franchise accountability driven by data, not arguments.

Use secure invites: the invited person receives a link to set their own password on first login. Passwords never travel through email or chat by design.

Yes. The agency program gives multi-client capabilities — dozens of businesses under one login with clean separation — plus branded invoicing with public shareable links, an earnings dashboard, agent ledgers, configurable commissions, a payout lifecycle, and performance reports.

Yes. Create branded invoices with line items, email them with templates, share public links clients can view or pay without logging in, cancel or void with reasons, and refresh share links anytime.

It is a referral and growth program: members promote 12Commerce in their networks, refer new merchants, and earn rewards plus status. Each member gets a unique referral code with permanent attribution, and an interactive referral tree shows their network growing across generations.

Every member has a unique referral code, and signups linked to that code are attributed forever — clearing cookies or changing devices does not lose the credit. Special per-code trial overrides can grant longer trials to the members who earn them.

Yes. Beyond software plans, service packages cover store setup, design work, catalog migration, and marketing — the “set it up for me” path. Each purchase becomes a trackable order with visible status: created, assigned, in-progress, delivered, closed.

Yes. Partners position service packages as their own offerings and earn services revenue, with the platform handling delivery. The package order lifecycle keeps everything visible for the buyer and the fulfilment team.

Yes. Outgoing webhooks notify external systems automatically when events happen — like a new order or a new submission — which enables Zapier-style or custom integrations. Incoming social-platform webhooks are also processed, so your data is not locked in.

Yes. Connect a Facebook page for leads and sync features, and link Instagram for storefront buttons and marketing attribution. Social webhooks route ad leads straight into the Leads Console, and Google login works for merchants.

It is a public discovery mall where shoppers can browse widgets and stores by category, search, and filters. Only qualifying widgets are listed — an eligibility engine keeps quality high — and public install and order counts give shoppers social proof that proven sellers benefit from.

Yes. A custom HTML embed block accepts iframe-based external embeds — calendars, booking engines, music players, and more — as an escape hatch when you need something beyond the built-in blocks.

Yes. A self-serve data export center lets you request full copies anytime, including source breakdowns — data ownership is a feature, not an argument. Records stay yours even if you ever leave the platform.

Through the built-in helpdesk: raise a ticket with category and priority, chat in real time with support agents, and watch your tickets with statuses on a “My Tickets” page. The free plan includes a 48-hour support response time, and paid plans get faster service.

Yes. Every ticket has an SLA clock that tracks response and resolution time, and overdue cases surface before customers have to complain. Support quality is measurable rather than promised.

Yes. Scheduled database backups run on automated schedules so data can be restored if something goes wrong. Heavy background work — AI processing, POD exports, SSL issuance — runs on job queues so your dashboard stays fast.

Privacy and terms pages are included with storefronts by default, and a Meta-compliant self-service data deletion request flow is built in. Passwords are hashed, tokens signed, and sensitive admin actions are covered by immutable audit logs.

No. Asset ownership is enforced at the infrastructure level — one merchant cannot hotlink another merchant’s images. Your photography stays yours.

The platform is built with automated backups, background job queues for heavy work, smart Redis and HTTP caching, live content revalidation, websocket-based real-time infrastructure, versioned migrations, rate limiting, and configuration validation — reliability is treated as engineering infrastructure.