More than 2 decades ago, Nepal welcomed its first e-commerce platform. In a time when computers and cybers were prominent with smartphones being a yet-to-be-discovered context, online business was inaugurated by Thamel.com in 2000.
As of projections made for 2025, the E-Commerce market is projected to conquer a new milestone of US $1,337million dollars. Every social media platform from TikTok to Instagram to Linked-in have become hubs of networking and sales.
This attributed involvement in social media has given rise to social media marketing agencies (SMMA), which are the pillars of some of the top online companies in Nepal that go online. From 2025 to 2029, the revenue growth rate is expected to be around 9.02%.
With more and more Nepalese, signing up as online entrepreneurs, the number of players in the online market is expected to be around 5.7 million. With this let’s identify top online business ideas in Nepal for 2025.
Navigating The Scattered Online Businesses In Nepal And Its Growth
Nepal’s consumer market favors a wide variety of product selections. From Gen Z to Baby Boomers, electronics are the most purchased products online in Nepal. In 2017, when online business was just brimming, electronics managed to pull in $160 million dollars in revenue.
The graph gets even crazier as 2029 expects Nepal’s online electronics market to pull in almost $600 million dollars. Other online businesses such as Media and Food are growing majorly in a avalanching rate too.
A graph to show, how fast the overall online business spectrum is expanding in Nepal:
Source: Statista
Online businesses is still in a very raw stage in Nepal. Companies in developed countries receive incentives which helps in online scalability. Nepal’s online business landscape is however very scattered in absence of proper planning, and authoritative monetization.
A Rundown On The Types Of Online Business
What evolves and adapts sustains in the dynamic online business world. Amongst the ever evolving businesses, two types of major business categories are formed accumulating all the existing online businesses.
The first type of online business is Product Based Business. This simply means E-commerce in the truest form where, physical products are sold online either through B2B model or B2C model. Examples include FMCG, clothing business, gadgets and electronics.
The makeup of Nepalese market has pretty much remained un-brainwashed with individuals diving into product based online selling. The product based business makes up for 83 % of Nepal’s market both online and offline.
This brings us to the remaining 17%, which is segregated to Service Based Business. Offline service based businesses include consultancies, car wash services, banks and so on. The Online service based business is the second type of online business here.
This includes popular fields like zoom teaching, online consultations, digital marketing businesses and so on. Reading the blueprint thoroughly before handpicking the best online business for you is a life savior.
Top Online Business Ideas In Nepal For 2025
As per, “Aftership“, Nepal has around 3010 online stores specializing in different niches such as apparel, home and garden, auto vehicles and so on. The online business alone brings around $3.10 billion monthly sales per month.
If your intention is to scoop a reasonably massive piece from this profitable pie called “online business in Nepal”, the following business ideas might just be your greatest asset:
1. E-Commerce
Nepal is the 73rd largest market for eCommerce in the world. E-commerce is such a feasible business model to set up and with websites like Shopify and Woo-commerce, inventory management and logistics are easily taken care of too.
Why choose eCommerce?
- Well, the 24/7 availability of products on your online store, page, business page on social media gives 24/7/365 exposure. This mean higher impressions, higher consumer engagement and overall higher sales prospect.
- Also having an eCommerce store has the potential to secure higher and newer traffic within the right execution. You can perform SEO and digital marketing practices with limited budget reaching even international boundaries and acquiring world wide customers.
- E-commerce reduces overall operational expenses such as rent, land area, business premise, physical display artifacts and much more.
- Likewise, international exposure invites market study so you can identify actual customer segments, cater accordingly, and make 10x the profit!
- The major benefit of e-commerce is actual consumer satisfaction. Let me explain! People seek flexibility which is the key metric why e-commerce is booming. The flexibility of purchasing whenever and from wherever they are! The hassle of walking to a shop and at the ease of one’s own calculation, uninterrupted by annoying salespersons is what customers enjoy and e-commerce websites earn through.
2. Social Media Marketing Agency
Nepal ranks 94th globally among 190+ countries in for the ease of doing business. This statistic and the current passion of entrepreneurship in young minds has created the most favorable environment in Nepal’s history for entrepreneurship.
This rise in businesses also mean rise in the social media platform. Businesses seek exposure along online sales and growth for which social media is optimal. This is exactly why if you have prior knowledge on social media marketing and management you can start Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA).
Reasons social media marketing agency might be your game changer:
- There is a growing demand for digital presence in social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked-in, Reddit, Pinterest, Telegram and much more. Managing requires individuals with high skillset, commonly termed as SMMA.
- Agencies usually manage multiple clients by charging certain amounts as fees for service catered. This is a high earning potential given the rise of businesses in social media.
- The freedom of scalability. There is no threshold point in growth. If you keep multiplying clients’ results so will your business figures multiply.
- The power of networking with esteemed figures and celebrities help add the touch of standard and authority in your agency.
3. Digital Marketing
The year of 2024 was a blessing for Nepali marketers, with the market cap reaching US $71.2 million dollars in total. An article published by IT Concerns, reveals that internet penetration in Nepal has reached 90% meaning, going digital is a massive opportunity.
Starting a digital marketing in Nepal is somewhat new business model to get into, as the industry only possesses a decade or two of existence. Here’s a graph showing how fast digital marketing rose in Nepal.
The graph extracted from google trends clearly shows how, the early years from 2013 to late 2017 had no hype and trend for digital marketing. However, from 2018 onwards, popularity for digital marketing rose. Likewise, on hitting the years of 2021-2022, digital marketing has seen only upward growth as shown in the image.
Not just the time optimal to get into digital marketing, but the following are the reasons that make digital marketing amongst the top online business ideas in Nepal for 2025.
- Large number of national and multinational companies are looking forward to digitally forward. The same reputation they secured offline is what they seek in todays online world to.
- With companies in competition to rank better online, the value of marketers is high, and opening a digital marketing company means better earning opportunity.
- Startup costs are comparatively low with minimal investments. Most tools that support digital marketing are free or affordable.
- Nepal’s Pay Per Click (PPC) is low. Nepal’s Cost Per Click is $0.645 which is 57% less than the US market. This means a lot of room for quality ads running at less cost.
4. Coaching And Tutoring
Online coaching is the new metric that has brought the scope of education amongst adults. The stereotypical decade ago trend was for children and young adults to complete their education and acquire degrees. This would be labelled as tutoring.
However, in today’s time, even wealthy entrepreneurs, top athletes or highly qualified scholars can simple hop on a coaching or tutoring program to learn something that can help boost their professional works. Platforms such as Fiverr, Discord, Zoom are common ways online coaching takes place.
If you feel that your expertise in a field can help people online, diving into coaching and tutoring would be excellent. The following reasons add more weight to our statement:
- Live coaching, especially with one client at a time helps them solve certain extreme pain points. This means you will be paid high even with one call only.
- Recorded coaching and tutoring can act as resources that can be sold like e-books to thousands of individuals.
- You are trading time for money. This means every second you invest in a live call, guarantees that you will make money once the call ends.
- The flexible and affordable structure of coaching programs pulls in a large audience. Flexibility comes with being able to make a call any time of the day for a short period.
- In Nepal, corporate level works are increasing that demand high skill. To address this demand, young individuals are thrilled to get coached.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you earn money by recommending products or services to others. If someone buys through your special link, you get paid a small percentage as a reward.
- Affiliate marketing requires minimal investment, making it accessible for Nepali entrepreneurs to start without significant capital. With growing internet penetration and smartphone usage, affiliate marketers can now reach diverse audiences across Nepal.
- The global affiliate marketing market is projected to grow from $13 billion in 2024 to $44.8 billion by 2031, offering immense opportunities.
- Affiliates earn based on results, allowing scalable income opportunities and incentivizing better marketing efforts.
- Nepal offers programs across sectors, such as e-commerce (Daraz) and niche markets (Khukuri Nepal), catering to various interests.
The above five niches are the top online business ideas in Nepal for 2025! Nepal’s startup scene is stupendously emerging with unique startups every single year. Statistics suggest that a staggering 1 million businesses are registered in the country.
With commerce going digital, Nepal has immense potential to outrank bigger businesses markets, if the proper monetization and incentive is provided. All the businesses that get established eventually proceed towards online presence.
