E-Commerce Growth Specialist — International Payments + Meta Ads (WooCommerce, Leather Goods Brand)

North & Stitch is a premium leather goods brand based in Pakistan, currently selling two SKUs — a handmade leather duffel bag and a full-grain leather jacket — on a WordPress/WooCommerce store. We're targeting customers in the US and UK. The store and product pages exist; what's missing is a working international payment flow and a Meta ads engine that actually converts. We're looking for one specialist (or a very tight two-person team) who can own this end-to-end: get us a checkout that works for international customers, then drive and optimize paid traffic against it. SCOPE OF WORK International payment gateway integration (priority #1) We're a Pakistan-registered business, which means Stripe and PayPal-as-merchant aren't directly available to us — this is the core problem to solve, not a standard "add a payment plugin" task. We already have a Payoneer USD receiving account and a local PK gateway live, but neither gives a US/UK shopper a native, trustworthy checkout. We need someone who has specifically solved cross-border checkout for a Pakistani or similarly-restricted-market merchant before — e.g. via Payoneer Checkout, a registered US/UK entity + Stripe, a payment aggregator that supports PK merchants, or another proven route. Please don't apply if your plan is "I'll just connect Stripe" without addressing PK eligibility. Deliverable: a checkout on northandstich.com where a US/UK customer can pay by card (and ideally PayPal) without friction, funds reaching us reliably. Meta ads management We have an existing Meta Ads account with active campaigns for this store that are currently underperforming (high cost per result, burning budget without proportional sales). Need a full audit of current campaign structure, targeting, creative, and pixel/conversion tracking, followed by a rebuild/optimization plan. Ongoing management: campaign structure, audience testing, creative iteration, budget allocation, scaling what works. Must be comfortable with Meta Pixel/Conversions API setup on WooCommerce and reading store-side conversion data, not just ad-manager metrics. Store optimization (CRO) Review and improve product pages, trust signals, checkout flow, page speed, and mobile experience to convert the international traffic once it's flowing. We will not do fake reviews, fake scarcity countdowns, or fabricated social proof — any CRO recommendations should be honest (real trust badges, real reviews once available, real urgency only). WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Proven experience helping a Pakistani (or comparable emerging-market) merchant sell to US/UK customers online — this is the single most important qualifier. Hands-on WooCommerce experience (plugins, checkout customization, theme-level tweaks). Meta Ads media buying experience with verifiable results (please share case studies or screenshots of past account performance, anonymized if needed). Working knowledge of cross-border payment options for restricted markets (Payoneer Checkout, Wise, payment aggregators, offshore entity setups, etc.). Clear communicator — we'll need regular short updates, not just a dashboard link. TO APPLY, PLEASE INCLUDE: A specific example of a Pakistani (or similar-market) merchant you helped set up international payments for, and what solution you used. A brief teardown (3-4 bullet points) of what you'd check first on our Meta ads account, just from the description above. Your proposed approach and rough timeline for the payment gateway piece specifically. Generic proposals without answers to the above will not be considered.