Payment, export papers and shipping for Indian stores that sell abroad on video
TL;DR Counterwalk is a back office for Indian saree and ethnicwear stores that already sell to families abroad over chat-app video. It collects payment from overseas, photographs each parcel against the order, files the export paperwork and ships. Stores pay a fee per shipped order and skip building export skills themselves.
India's foreign ministry counted 3.73 crore overseas Indians in January 2026, including about 61 lakh in the USA, 43 lakh in the UAE and 13 lakh in the UK[1]. Weddings and festivals still pull a good chunk of them back to Indian stores for sarees, lehengas and kurtas, but a trip home is expensive and rarely lines up with the occasion.
So what do they do now? They improvise. A cousin visits a shop and sends videos on a chat app, or the family trusts some unknown seller on social media.
There's no reliable way to pay a small store from abroad, check that what was shown is what gets packed, or get it shipped with export papers. I found no public figure for how much of this buying happens.
Counterwalk does not run the video call. The store keeps its own customers and its own way of selling. After a call, the salesperson creates an order in Counterwalk's app and sends the buyer a payment link that accepts foreign cards. Once it's paid, a Counterwalk runner collects the goods and photographs each piece in daylight against the order so the buyer can approve it before dispatch. Then the runner packs it and Counterwalk ships it under its own export registration with tracking. Returns from abroad go through one consolidated route instead of separate courier fights.
I reframed the seed, which pitched immersive virtual malls to fight online boredom. One big tech company's VR division lost about US$19.1 billion in 2025 alone, and around US$80 billion since late 2020[2], and headset shopping hasn't reached ordinary buyers. Research on livestream shopping found that the seller showing the product was the one source that cut buyers' uncertainty[3]. Stores already do that on video and it's everything after the call that breaks, so that's where Counterwalk sits.
The store pays a fee per shipped order, or a small share of order value, for sales it couldn't otherwise close. The buyer abroad pays the store's price plus actual shipping. I found no public benchmark for what Indian stores pay for export fulfilment of single parcels, so test fee levels with ten stores before you build anything.
Video calling is free and every age group in Indian families is used to it. Vendors abroad have shown that one-to-one video selling works for brands - one video-commerce vendor sells drop-in and pre-booked video consultations to retailers[4]. And exporters now get their importer-exporter code online from DGFT, tied to their PAN[5], which makes shipping small parcels simpler.
There's no public figure for Indian ethnicwear bought abroad through video calls. The narrowest firm number is the buyer pool of 1.78 crore NRIs and 1.95 crore persons of Indian origin[1].
That vendor reports twice the order value and 30% higher conversion from video consultations[4]. Those are vendor claims without a stated method though, so I wouldn't lean on them.
Tonnes of stores already sell over chat-app video and ship through a local courier, one parcel at a time and often without export papers. Video-selling software serves large brands and stops at the sale[4]. Showcall, another idea in this directory, runs the video call itself. Large jewellery chains run their own support and returns[6].
The gap is the unglamorous part after the call, for stores too small to run an export desk.
| Difficulty | Moderate (39/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹40–80 L |
| Time to launch | 4–6 months |
The software is simple. Parcels and paperwork are where it gets hard, because you're collecting from many small shops, matching what was shown on video to what gets packed and keeping duties predictable in each country. Returns from abroad are slow and costly too. Expect the first months to be mostly hand-holding.
Yes, you need export registration before the first parcel leaves, because Counterwalk ships under its own name.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI classify goods for customs or estimate duties on its own. A wrong code means held parcels and an angry wedding family.
Want to work out the AI layer for Counterwalk? Talk to Yash →
I like this for a founder with export-logistics experience who can win over traditional shopkeepers. If you want a pure software business then look elsewhere. First prove that ten stores send you every overseas order for two months, and that colour complaints stay rare.
Plan for roughly ₹40–80 L, mostly on runners, packing, the order app and early shipping volumes.
Yes, you need an importer-exporter code from DGFT, and payments from abroad should go through a licensed payment aggregator. Check destination customs rules for each country.
Yes, wherever small shops sell to a diaspora over video calls. Check your own country's export registration and payment rules first.
The free Counterwalk validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the export and consumer-law checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for buyers and stores, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Counterwalk or something close to it? The make-or-break work is keeping the cost per parcel low while stores ship only a few each week, and that's the kind of unit maths I help founders work out. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.