How to open a shop in Uzbekistan: step by step, 2026

This page is for anyone about to open a shop: eight steps from the idea to the first sale. Every statement about the law links to an official source and was re-checked on 4 October 2026; the rest is practical advice. It is not legal advice: open the source yourself and talk to an accountant before you decide.

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The short answer

Opening a shop comes down to eight jobs. First you register — as an individual entrepreneur (a sole trader) or a legal entity such as an LLC — and settle your tax regime. Then come the premises, a fiscal till, product marking rules, equipment and stock. Keep the books from your first delivery and at the end of the month you will know where the profit went.

The step people most often overlook is the legal form: the list of activities open to an individual entrepreneur leaves out retail of medicines, jewellery, building materials, alcohol and tobacco. If you plan to sell any of these, settle the form before you register.

1. Registration: sole trader or LLC

Before you can trade, you register as a business. This step settles two things: the legal form you trade under, and where you apply.

You can apply in two ways: online through the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services (my.gov.uz) or in person at a Public Services Centre. The registration itself is carried out by the Public Services Centres (explanation on lex.uz).
An individual entrepreneur is registered in real time, within 30 minutes — that is what the same explanation says. It gives no time frame for a legal entity.
The activities open to an individual entrepreneur are listed in Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 6 of 7 January 2011. Retail of food and non-food goods is on the list, with exceptions: building materials (cement, slate, timber and wood products), alcohol and tobacco, all petroleum products, articles of precious metals and stones, audiovisual works, sound recordings and computer software, new imported cars, and pharmaceutical goods.

Our practical takeaway (not a reading of the law): if your main goods are medicines, jewellery, building materials, alcohol or tobacco, trading as an individual entrepreneur may not fit. These trades may also need a separate permit or licence — check the exact requirements with the relevant authority or a lawyer before you register.

2. Choosing a tax regime

We deliberately quote no figures here: rates and thresholds change with amendments to the Tax Code, and an out-of-date number would cost you.

The Tax Code covers value added tax (VAT) and turnover tax in separate sections. Which one applies to you depends on your income and the kind of business.
Read the current wording on lex.uz, find the official explanations on soliq.uz, and choose the regime together with an accountant.

An accountant will ask for your expected monthly takings, purchases and costs. Keep the books from day one and those numbers are ready: the sales, gross and net profit report.

3. Premises and rent

This part is not law — it is a practical list to check before you sign a lease.

Foot traffic: count how many people pass the door in the morning, at midday and in the evening. Even one day of counting beats a guess.
Nearby shops: what they sell and what is missing. Being next door is fine, as long as your range is not an exact copy.
Put the lease in writing: the term, the rent and its currency, who pays the utilities, repairs and the deposit — all on paper.
Power: fridges, freezers and scales all run at once. You need internet too — cloud bookkeeping software, BuySale included, works over it.
Deliveries: where the supplier’s van can stop and how heavy sacks get inside.

4. A fiscal till: online cash register or virtual till

The tax system sees a payment through a fiscal receipt. That receipt comes from a fiscal till, not from ordinary bookkeeping software.

Under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 943 of 23 November 2019, a business that takes payments from the public must give the buyer an online cash register or virtual till receipt confirming the payment (item 30 of the Regulation).
An online cash register is a device that issues fiscal receipts; a virtual till is software that does the same. Both send the receipt to the fiscal data operator in real time (definitions in item 2 of the same resolution).

Which to choose, and how a till and bookkeeping software live together — see do I need a cash register and fiscal till vs. software.
BuySale is not a fiscal till: it issues no fiscal receipt and is not connected to the tax system. It runs alongside your fiscal till and keeps your stock, credit and profit.

5. Product marking and IKPU codes

Both are till requirements, but worth knowing before you open: they affect what you sell and which till you need.

Some product groups — cigarettes, beer, medicines, water and soft drinks, for example — fall under mandatory digital marking: the Data Matrix code on every unit is tracked in the Asl Belgisi system. Which group applies from which date, and what happens at the till, is on the marking page, every date with its source.
IKPU (MXIK) is the identification code from the single national electronic catalogue of goods and services. The catalogue lives at tasnif.soliq.uz, and the code is printed on online-till and virtual-till receipts.

BuySale is not connected to Asl Belgisi, does not read Data Matrix and has no IKPU field on the product card — these requirements are met through your fiscal till.

6. Equipment

Buy equipment after you choose the software, or an expensive device may not work with it. More on shop equipment: what you need now and what can wait.

A phone

In a small shop it can be the till, the stock book and the scanner at once: the camera reads barcodes.

A fiscal till

An online cash register or a virtual till — see step 4. This one is a requirement, not an option.

A card terminal

From your bank, to take card payments. BuySale does not connect to it: the sale is simply marked as paid by card.

A scanner

Optional — the phone camera will do. With long queues a USB scanner on a computer speeds things up.

Receipt and label printer

If you want them. Receipts go on 58 or 80 mm rolls, labels on A4 sheets or rolls — through the browser’s print dialog.

Scales

If you sell by weight. With a label-printing scale the seller never types the weight — the scale-label guide.

7. First stock and suppliers

Start with a narrow range: filling shelves before you see what sells in the first month just freezes your money.
Agree three things with every supplier: which days they deliver, the minimum order and when you pay — on the spot or later.
If you take goods on credit, keep a record of what you owe: the supplier debt book.
Getting the first delivery in right is the foundation for months of books: the goods-in guide. Items with no factory code get an in-store code from the app — barcodes and labels.

8. Bookkeeping: notebook, Excel or software

A fiscal till produces receipts for the tax office, but it will not tell you what has run out, who owes what or how much profit the month left. That takes bookkeeping.

A notebook: cheap, but counting stock and profit takes hours every month, and if the notebook goes, so do the books.
Excel: it needs a computer and is not linked to the till — you copy every sale by hand. More on software instead of Excel.
Shop software: sales, deliveries, stock, credit and profit in one place. The questions to ask yourself before choosing are in how to choose a program.
BuySale is one such program: a till on your phone, stock, credit and a profit report in Telegram every night. 7 days free, then from 6 630 UZS a day depending on the shop type (pricing).

A plan for the first month

The four weeks after opening are the easiest time to set up the books: habits have not formed yet.

Week 1: every item on the books

Book in every item, give the ones without a factory code their own code and a label. Get into the habit of opening a shift and checking the cash against the books each evening.

Week 2: what is selling

Watch the daily report: what goes fast and what sits. Build your first reorder from the running-low list.

Week 3: credit rules

Decide up front who gets credit, for how long and with what limit. Managing customer credit.

Week 4: first stocktake and net profit

Match the shelves against the books (stocktaking) and record rent and other costs (expenses) — then the month ends with a real net profit figure.

A start-up cost checklist

We deliberately give no amounts: they differ several times over by city, location and shop type. Fill the list in with your own prices beforehand and there will be fewer surprises.

Rent: the first month or months, plus the deposit
Refit, shelving, display cases and lighting
Fridges, freezers and scales — depending on your goods
A fiscal till (online or virtual) and its service contract
Bank charges for the account and the card terminal
Opening stock
Utilities, internet and phone
Wages, if you hire staff
Bookkeeping software — each vendor lists its price on its own site; BuySale’s is on the pricing page
State fees for registration — confirm the current amount when you apply or at a Public Services Centre

What BuySale does on this road, and what it does not

It does not register your business, file tax returns or keep statutory accounts.
It issues no fiscal receipt and does not connect to an online or virtual till.
It gives no legal advice — and neither does this page; it points you to the official sources.

From the first delivery it keeps stock, credit, expenses and profit.
It reads barcodes with the phone camera, so you can start without a scanner.
Every night it sends the sales and net profit report to Telegram.

Questions about opening a shop

What paperwork do I need to open a shop?

First, registration — as an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity, applied for through my.gov.uz or at a Public Services Centre. Then, depending on your trade: a lease for the premises, a fiscal till (online or virtual) and, if you sell marked goods, registration in the Asl Belgisi system (see the marking page). Some goods may need a separate permit or licence — get the exact list from the relevant authority.

Can an individual entrepreneur open a shop?

Yes: retail of food and non-food goods is on the list of activities open to individual entrepreneurs (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 6 of 7 January 2011). But the list has exceptions — building materials, alcohol and tobacco, petroleum products, articles of precious metals and stones, pharmaceutical goods and a few more. Retail of those is not on the individual-entrepreneur list.

Can I open a shop without a cash register?

When you take money from a customer, an online-till or virtual-till receipt is mandatory (Resolution No. 943, item 30 of the Regulation). So without a device you need a virtual till. Ordinary shop software does not replace that receipt — BuySale does not issue fiscal receipts either.

Which tax regime should I choose?

It depends on your income and the kind of business, and rates and thresholds change — which is why we quote no figures here. Read the current Tax Code on lex.uz, the official explanations on soliq.uz, and choose the regime with an accountant.

How much does it cost to open a shop?

The real figure depends on the location, the city and the goods — an article quoting a single number will mislead you. Fill the start-up cost checklist above with prices from your own city: the biggest items are usually opening stock, rent and equipment.

When should I choose bookkeeping software?

Before the first delivery. Enter the stock from the start and your stock and profit figures are right from day one; entering it later is twice the work. Buy equipment after choosing the software, too.

How current is this page?

The statements about the law were re-checked against the official sources on 4 October 2026. The rules change: if you spot something outdated or wrong, write to us via the Contact page — we will check it, fix it and update the date.

Sources, and telling us about a mistake

Every statement about the law above comes from these sources. What we could not verify — state fee amounts and tax rates, for example — we deliberately left out.

Sources — all opened and read on 4 October 2026:

This page is not legal advice and we are not lawyers. For your own situation, go to a Public Services Centre, the tax authority, your accountant or a lawyer.

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