Launching an online store in Bosnia and Herzegovina is no longer a technical problem — platforms are cheap, themes are ready-made, and hosting costs less than dinner. What still sinks most stores has nothing to do with code: business registration, fiscalisation, card payments and delivery. This guide walks through all nine steps in the order you actually have to solve them.
One note before you start: the figures and rules described here are indicative and reflect the situation in 2026. Confirm tax thresholds and fiscalisation obligations with your accountant and with the Indirect Taxation Authority before relying on them.
Step 1: Check whether you need a shop at all
The most expensive mistake is not a bad platform — it is a storefront for a product nobody buys. Before you spend a single mark on development, sell ten units by hand: through Instagram messages, a Viber group, WhatsApp, a marketplace. If you cannot sell ten units without a shop, a shop will not fix that; it will only give you a more expensive way to not sell. Before you start, it is worth knowing what a store realistically costs.
Almost everyone skips this step and almost everyone regrets it. Ten manual sales give you three things no platform can: proof the demand exists, the exact list of questions customers ask, and a feel for what one customer really costs to acquire.
Step 2: Register the business
There are two realistic legal forms here. A sole trader is cheaper to establish and simpler to run — but you are liable with your personal assets. A limited company (d.o.o.) costs more up front and requires share capital, but it separates business from personal assets and reads as more serious to suppliers and banks.
The practical rule: if you are testing an idea and expect modest first-year revenue, sole trader is enough. If you plan to take goods on credit terms, hire, or raise investment, go straight to a limited company — converting later means running the whole procedure again.
Either way you will need the right activity code for internet retail. Registration differs by entity and canton, so this is the first conversation you have with an accountant, not the last.
Step 3: Settle fiscalisation and VAT early
This is where most stores here go wrong. Two separate things:
VAT. Registering for VAT is mandatory once you cross the statutory turnover threshold. Below it you do not charge VAT — but you cannot reclaim it on inputs either. If you import goods, input VAT becomes a cost you never recover, so registering before the threshold sometimes pays. Run both scenarios with an accountant before deciding.
Fiscalisation. Retail in BiH is subject to fiscalisation, and selling to an end customer online is retail. Exactly how that applies to online sales and card payments depends on the entity and on how your fiscal system is set up — and it has changed over time. Settle this before launch, not after the first order.
Step 4: Choose the platform
For most stores here the choice comes down to two. WooCommerce means your own hosting, full control and the ability to connect any local service — at the price of owning updates, security and backups. Shopify means nothing breaks and you never think about a server — at the price of a monthly subscription, transaction fees and considerably less freedom around local payments and fiscalisation.
We compared both for this market separately. The short rule: if fiscalisation and integration with local accounting matter most, WooCommerce gives you more room. If you want to sell rather than maintain software, Shopify earns its subscription.
Whichever you pick — do not start from a theme. Start from what one product page and one checkout will look like, because those two screens decide the whole business.
Step 5: Set up payments
This is the most serious local obstacle and the reason many stores here run for months without accepting cards.
Cash on delivery still dominates and you cannot switch it off. Most customers here still choose to pay the courier. The price of that convenience is a refusal rate — plan for it, and price delivery so that undelivered parcels do not eat you.
Card payments require a contract with a bank or processor (Monri and BamCard are the usual choices here). Preparation takes weeks, not days: you will need company documentation, a product description, and published terms of service and a refund policy. Start this in parallel with development, not once the site is finished.
International customers cannot pay you via PayPal the way they expect — check the restrictions for BiH before promising international sales.
Step 6: Arrange delivery before the first order
Delivery inside BiH is a solved problem: BH Pošta, Euro Express, X Express and A2B cover the country and offer cash collection. Talk to at least two carriers and ask for volume pricing — the rate card you get on request is usually better than the published one.
Three things that are easy to miss: who pays for returns, how long cash-on-delivery collections take to reach your account (that is your working capital), and what happens to a parcel the customer refuses. Agree all three in writing.
For shipping outside BiH, prepare for customs paperwork and for delivery cost frequently exceeding your margin. For most stores, year one is the domestic market.
Step 7: Write content that sells
A customer who cannot get an answer will not ask — they will leave. Every product page needs a real photograph (not just the supplier's), a clear price stating whether VAT is included, an accurate delivery window, and a description written for the buyer rather than copied from a catalogue.
For search, original descriptions matter. Stores that copy supplier text compete against twenty identical pages and lose to every one that wrote its own. This is the one part of the job nobody can do cheaply and well at the same time.
Add terms, a refund policy and a contact page with a real phone number. In a market where trust travels by word of mouth, serious contact details are a conversion element.
Step 8: Get the legal basics in place
You need published terms of service, a refund policy and a privacy policy. BiH data protection law requires you to tell customers what you collect and why; if you sell into the EU, GDPR applies to you regardless of where you are registered.
The refund policy is not a formality — the bank will ask for it before approving card payments, and customers read it before buying from you the first time.
Step 9: Launch and measure what matters
Do not wait for a perfect site. Launch with ten products you actually have in stock and learn from real orders.
From day one, track three numbers: how many visitors arrive, how many add to cart, and how many complete checkout. If people arrive and do not buy, the problem is the product page or the delivery cost. If nobody arrives, the problem is visibility — and that is where the real work begins.
Set up analytics before launch, not after. A number you did not measure in month one does not exist.
What comes next
An online store is not a project with an end date — it is an operation that needs someone running it. The first six months decide whether the store survives, and in that period answering customer messages quickly matters more than polishing the design.
If you would rather skip this part and start from a system wired into your accounting and stock from day one, that is a conversation we have regularly.
