How to Start an Online Store in Uzbekistan: Marketplace or Own Website, Payments, Receipts and Delivery

Shops, brands and distributors that want to start an online store in Uzbekistan usually begin with one question: should we sell on Uzum Market or build our own website? It is a fair question, but not the first one. Whether you open an online shop next to a physical one or sell only online, the order that wastes the least money is the sales model, then the legal basics, then the platform, then the operations behind every order: payments, fiscal receipts, stock and delivery. This guide is vendor-neutral and based on official sources at the time of writing. The legal points are a starting list for your lawyer and accountant, not legal advice.

Choose the sales model first: marketplace, own store, social selling or a mix

The channels differ in who owns the customer, where buyers come from, how much you control and who delivers the goods.

Uzum Market accepts organisations, individual entrepreneurs and self-employed persons registered in Uzbekistan. Its main fulfilment models are FBO, where Uzum stores, packs and delivers your goods; FBS, where you store and assemble orders and Uzum delivers; and DBS, where you handle storage, packing and delivery yourself. Market Yandex Go, Yandex's marketplace for Uzbekistan, had opened seller registration by March 2025, ahead of its launch in April 2025, and offered FBY and FBS schemes at the start. Check the current terms in each seller account, and work out every product's margin after fees and logistics before you list it.

For many businesses the answer is a mix: selling on Uzum Market or your own website is rarely an either-or choice. The marketplace brings reach; your own store brings repeat customers, a better margin and customer data you keep. A Telegram bot often sits beside both for customers who already message you. Add channels one at a time, once the first runs smoothly. If most of your buyers will come from social media, plan social media marketing for Instagram and Telegram as well: content and ads that bring them to the store.

Register the business: e-commerce legal requirements in plain words

Business form. Most online stores are run by a registered business: an individual entrepreneur (YaTT in Uzbek, IP in Russian) or a limited liability company (MChJ in Uzbek, OOO in Russian). Both can be registered online through the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services or in person at a Public Services Centre. Your accountant can advise which form and tax regime suit you. Payment providers sign merchant agreements with a registered business that has a settlement account; our guide to Click, Payme and Uzum payment integration covers what they ask for.

The Law "On Electronic Commerce". Law No. ZRU-792 of 29 September 2022, in force since 31 December 2022, replaced the 2004 law that some older guides still quote. Under it, sellers are legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in wholesale or retail trade, and also self-employed persons in retail on electronic trading platforms. The public offer on your website must state the seller's name and contact details (address, phone, email), licence or permit details where your activity needs them, how the contract is concluded, the delivery and payment terms, and the prices offered. Sellers must also give full information about the goods and their producers, and must not sell prohibited goods.

The Law "On Protection of Consumer Rights". Law No. 221-I of 26 April 1996 requires information about the seller, the trading rules and the goods to be given to consumers in the state language, Uzbek; other languages, such as Russian, may be added. Article 28-1 deals with sales through information systems, and since the 2022 amendments the seller must tell the buyer where goods can be returned when an online purchase is cancelled.

Personal data. Customer names, phone numbers and addresses are personal data under the Law "On Personal Data". In the wording set by Law No. ZRU-1125 of 26 March 2026, its Article 27-1 requires only biometric and genetic data, and the data of telecommunications users, to be stored in Uzbekistan. Other personal data, ordinary customer data included, may be stored abroad under conditions set in that article, some of which depend on decisions of the authorised state body. Check them with a lawyer before you choose hosting abroad, and publish a privacy page that explains what you collect and why.

Digital marking. Some product groups must be marked through the national digital marking system, Aslbelgisi, among them tobacco and alcohol, beer, household appliances, medicines and medical devices, and water and soft drinks. The list has grown in stages: check whether your category is restricted or subject to marking.

Check your category, tax regime and documents with a lawyer and an accountant.

Choose the platform: builder, CMS or custom store

• A website builder. The fastest start, on a rented platform whose limits show up later: integrations, data export, unusual pricing or delivery rules. Check that it supports your payment provider and fiscal receipt data, and gives you proper Uzbek and Russian pages and URLs.
• An open-source CMS with an e-commerce plugin. More flexible, but someone has to install updates, watch security and pay for hosting. Click's developer documentation, for example, has a section of CMS plugins; check that a maintained module exists for your provider and your CMS version.
• A custom store. Worth it when the store must sync with 1C or a warehouse system, show B2B prices, sell from several warehouses, apply complex delivery rules, or later share its backend with a mobile app.

For cost drivers, see how much a website costs in Uzbekistan. A mobile app usually comes later, once customers return often enough to install one; see how to build a mobile application and mobile development.

What the store needs to work: catalogue, product data and languages

• A product data model: variants such as size and colour, attributes for filters, units of sale and stock per warehouse. Changing it later means re-importing everything.
• An IKPU and a package code for every product, agreed with your accountant before the catalogue is imported, because receipts need them.
• Real photos of your goods, not supplier shots.
• Uzbek and Russian texts: product names, descriptions and trading rules in Uzbek, because of the state-language rule, with Russian alongside.
• Search that forgives spelling. Buyers type in Latin and Cyrillic, often with typos; "telefon" and "телефон" should find the same products.
• Category pages built for search, each with its own URL in each language, and filters that do not create thousands of duplicate pages.
• A mobile-first checkout: few fields, the phone number first, delivery and payment on one screen.
• Trust pages: the offer, delivery and returns, and the seller's name and contacts.

Payments, fiscal receipts and refunds

Connect Click, Payme or Uzum Checkout as described in our payment integration guide. One rule is worth repeating: confirm an order only when your server receives the provider's verified notification, never because the browser came back to your success page.

Sales to consumers need a fiscal receipt whichever way the customer pays: by card online, through a payment app, or in cash or by card on delivery. Since 1 January 2022, receipts from online and virtual cash registers must carry the product's 17-digit IKPU, which you look up on tasnif.soliq.uz. Since Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 255 of 12 May 2022, an electronic receipt can be issued instead of a printed one, which suits remote payments through payment apps and marketplaces.

Decide with your accountant who issues receipts: the payment provider through its fiscalisation service, or your own virtual cash register. Agree on refund receipts at the same time. Cash or card on delivery needs the same decision for the courier: who issues the receipt at the door, and how the money and the receipt reach your books. Ask, too, how marketplace orders and sales to companies paying by bank transfer are documented.

Delivery, pickup and order management

• Delivery zones. Tashkent and the regions often differ in price, timing and who delivers; keep zones, prices and cut-off times in the admin panel, not in code.
• Who delivers. Your own couriers give control at a largely fixed cost, courier services scale with volume, and marketplace logistics cover marketplace orders.
• Pickup points at your shop or warehouse, which cost little and cut failed deliveries.
• Statuses the customer sees: accepted, paid, packed, with the courier, delivered, returned, in the same words everywhere.
• Stock reservation while payment is pending, released if the payment times out.
• Notifications by SMS, and by Telegram for customers who have started your bot.
• Returns logistics: where goods come back, who pays for the return, and how the refund and its receipt are issued.
• An admin panel with roles for operators, warehouse staff and managers.

Stock across channels. When you sell on a marketplace and in your own store at once, one system must own the stock figure and feed every channel, or you will sell the last item twice. For many distributors that system is 1C or a warehouse system, with orders flowing back into it. Our guide to 1C integration with a website and CRM explains the options, and system integration is the work behind it.

Launch checklist

• The business is registered and its settlement account is open.
• The merchant agreement is signed in the company's name.
• The offer, delivery, returns and privacy pages are published in Uzbek, with Russian versions alongside.
• The seller's name and contacts are on the site.
• Every product has an IKPU and a package code.
• The receipt route is agreed with the accountant and tested, refunds included.
• Marking requirements are checked for your categories.
• A test order has gone through for each payment and delivery method.
• Stock sync has been tested at the volume of a busy day.
• Web analytics, Google Search Console and Yandex Webmaster are set up.
• The domain, hosting, code and merchant credentials are in the company's name.
• A named person is responsible for orders and support.

Common mistakes

• Your own store with no plan for traffic. A new site has no buyers until search, ads or existing customers bring them.
• Listing on a marketplace without checking margins after commission and logistics fees.
• Selling the last item twice because two channels keep two stock figures.
• Texts only in Russian, despite the state-language rule.
• Missing IKPU codes, discovered when the first receipts fail.
• Trusting the success page instead of the provider's confirmation.
• Payment credentials on a freelancer's account instead of the company's.
• No returns process, so every return becomes a negotiation.
• Launching every category at once instead of the products that already sell.

How BITS can help

We build storefronts and checkout flows integrated with local and international payment providers as part of our web development work, connect stores with 1C and other systems through system integration, and build apps through mobile development. Your company signs the merchant agreements and holds the credentials. If you are comparing companies for online store development in Tashkent, our guide to choosing a web development company may help, and everything we do is on our solutions page. We send a quote after a discovery call: contact us.