3 Ways to Benefit from Online Shopping Boom in Pakistan

In the past few years, e-commerce especially online shopping has grown exponentially in terms of size and revenue in Pakistan. At this point it is taken to have been tapped to about $10 million dollars, but industry statistics predict it to be a billion dollar industry in the next few years. With the large population of Pakistan and an under-saturated online retail market, many feel that this market stands to grow exponentially. It is safe to say that everyone is a winner in this boom; the individual sellers, retailers and buyers. Individual sellers have the opportunity to make more sales; whereas they usually do not have much reach or funds to generate sales. Sellers are able to make sales through the internet, despite that fact that they may not have traditional brick and mortar stores. You may have seen facebook business where people have catalogues which you can order from online. The home business owners can actually enhance their market by selling online, especially through websites such as Beopar and Kaymu in Pakistan which act as a one stop shop where all sellers can broadcast and sell their goods at profitable prices. Retailers, which are proper companies or operations and may/may not have traditional stores can also benefit from online retail by increasing their reach through social media. In the past few years social media has emerged as one of the most powerful marketing tools for retailers; established retailers appear to be more relevant and contemporary by being available online. They are able to expand their markets and target new markets with growing Pakistani online shopping industry. Retailer using internet as an additional medium for promoting their sales will have a huge competitive edge over those retailers who are still lagging behind in terms of online marketing for their products and services.

For the buyers, it means a lot more variety, range and better prices; since there are a number of online stores in Pakistan, there is also a lot of variety to choose from and that too without the hassle of traveling from one shop to another. Secondly, there is a high degree of transparency on the internet; prices are listed for everyone to see and can be compared with prices given over other websites. In this way people have the power to attain the best prices and deals, as well as complete product information and hence buy the best product according to their budget and requirements.

It is because of the multitude of benefits to all stakeholders that online shopping is proliferating in Pakistan; as more people jump on the e-commerce bandwagon Pakistan’s e-commerce industry will be at par with those abroad.