Comment by Riaz Haq on February 20, 2021 at 7:47pm

#Unilever’s #Pakistan #Delivery Service Partner blueEX Plans #IPO on #KSE to Expand Network. #Karachi-based courier service plans to sell new shares equal to 25% of the company within the next two months. #ecommerce #economy #tech https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-19/unilever-s-pakis...

Universal Network System Ltd., a Pakistan courier service that counts the local units of Unilever Plc and Nestle SA as clients, is planning an initial public offering to expand its network and bolster its technology backbone.

The Karachi-based company, which operates the blueEX courier service, plans to sell new shares equal to 25% of the company within the next two months, said Chief Executive Officer Imran Baxamoosa. He didn’t disclose financial details.

The initial share sale will make it the first logistics company to list in Pakistan and lure investors to a business that’s crucial for the nation’s booming e-commerce industry, according to Topline Securities Pakistan Ltd., financial adviser for the IPO.

“There is some crazy exponential growth that is being foreseen right now,” Baxamoosa said in a phone interview. “We have grown organically so far but now it’s about time that we get aggressive.”


The courier company that started by handling cargo in 2005 entered the e-commerce business six years later by going door-to-door and convincing companies to start online sales. It even made websites, back-end software and set up a call center for its clients.

It now has about 1,000 employees and over 350 vehicles. The company will use the proceeds to boost its network fourfold. It will also add servers and other IT equipment.

The nation’s e-commerce industry is in its infancy but is growing rapidly as internet and smartphone penetration jump, according to Ruchir Desai, fund manager at Hong Kong-based Asia Frontier Capital Ltd. The pandemic could be a big trigger for the market, he said.

The company handled 2.1 million shipments and 4.5 billion rupees in cash deliveries in the year ended June. It has grown annually by about 70% on average since 2012. The company forecasts revenue will rise more than three times to 4.3 billion rupees in fiscal 2023, according to Baxamoosa.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 15, 2021 at 1:06pm

Amazon, the e-Commerce giant, has recently added Pakistan to its approved sellers list, making it the 102nd country on its platform. This is expected to open up new opportunities for young men and women enabling a new breed of entrepreneurs to join the export market.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40091975

An important milestone, now Pakistani merchants will be able to sell their products on the platform with ease. It will mostly benefit Pakistan-based merchants who want to sell their products abroad. Amazon has a huge network. The potential of the marketplace on Amazon is three times bigger than any other e-Commerce platforms.

There are over 2 million people selling on Amazon worldwide. Almost anyone can list an item for sale on Amazon, whether it’s something you’ve purchased wholesale, made yourself or simply a product you no longer want.

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a business model that Amazon offers, which really is a game-changer for online businesses. Through the FBA programme you send your product inventory in bulk to an Amazon warehouse and when a customer purchases your product, Amazon packs up the product and sends it to the respective customers.

When you are selling products via FBA you do not have to fulfil individual orders, manage returns, or deal with customer service on issues regarding deliveries. You can send in hundreds or thousands of items to Amazon warehouse at the same time instead of running to the post office every day to ship your orders.

One is advised to start with ordering small inventory at first. This approach enables you to test a product market and check whether the products you intend to sell belongs to an interesting niche and has the potential to get sold.

Targeted keywords are said to make a difference and these are so important in Amazon listings. With the right keywords in titles and descriptions of your products, you will, it said, quickly see your product searches relatively on the top and they will start getting sold well. It is recommended by Amazon experts that you get key insights, clear directions and a complete walk-through on how to sell well on Amazon FBA from Pakistan right now with Enabler’s training courses.

Firstly, you are expected to have to look at your competitors and find the profitable products relating to your product niche. Also you are recommended to do your research and look at Amazon’s best sellers as well. Moreover, you can use tools and services like AMZ Scout or Smasher to get all the related data of the products you are interested in like their competitor Intel, monthly sales and more.

It is also recommended that you photograph your product from different angles, including close ups, in operation mode, and its scaling size picture too. Also, you can add 3D images and videos of the product to make it more engaging. Amazon allows up to 250 characters to be used for product titles, but that does not mean that you have to use all the 250 characters. Optimize your bullet points about the description of the product, so that when the customer lands on your product page, they should see all the details regarding the product. Publish reviews: If 200 people are saying product 1 is great and very few people are saying anything about product 2, then guess which one of the products you are going to get?

Pakistan’s e-Commerce industry is emerging rapidly and has the potential to strengthen country’s economy. The existing ICT infrastructure is linking remote areas to mainstream.

At the National e-Commerce Council, a policy framework discusses the views and concerns of all stakeholders and makes recommendations based on them. The proposed policy framework tends to facilitate freelance service providers, existing e-Commerce businesses and encourage entities involved in traditional commerce to venture into e-Commerce, thereby improving prospects of productivity, generation of new employment opportunities and enhanced levels of consumer protection.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 23, 2021 at 7:12pm

Amazon adds Pakistan to the seller list, allowing Pakistani businessmen to sell globally

https://ohionewstime.com/amazon-adds-pakistan-to-the-seller-list-al...


E-commerce giant Amazon has added Pakistan to the list of sellers and qualified Pakistani entrepreneurs to sell on the platform, the Commerce Department announced Friday. The ministry said it will give Pakistani manufacturers access to a global e-commerce platform on Amazon, opening up a new chapter in the supply chain that Pakistani manufacturers can sell directly to their customers. “This marks the achievement of the national e-commerce policy milestone, Amazon This listing will enable manufacturers to respond to customer needs, design new products, deliver high quality at competitive prices, and access new market segments.

“It created a great opportunity for Pakistani entrepreneurs,” said Eric Broussard, vice president of Amazon International Seller Services, in a message by connecting to and forming part of a global e-commerce network. I did. As of today, Pakistani entrepreneurs have announced that they are eligible to sell on Amazon. We want to work with Pakistan’s dynamic business community, including small and medium-sized sellers, to help connect with customers around the world. Commerce Advisor Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said the Commerce Department will continue discussions with Amazon’s focus groups to further guide Pakistan’s business community to take full advantage of this opportunity.

He said that to get the most out of it, you need to do a lot of hard work in training, quality assurance, logistics improvements, payment systems, customer relationship management, and more. Pakistan remains off Amazon’s seller list despite its presence in neighboring India, and Pakistani retailers who want to sell their products on the market will have to register themselves from other countries. I will. After being added to the list, Pakistani merchants will be able to easily sell their products on the platform. However, it is reportedly time consuming to take full advantage of it. The Commerce Department initially shared the names of only 38 exporters with Amazon for registration.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 1, 2021 at 7:15am

#Alibaba-backed #Daraz #ecommerce to double retail volume next 5 years thanks to its lead in emergent #SouthAsian markets. Online retail accounts for just 2% of GDP in 5 countries( #Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar & Nepal -- vs 20% in Indonesia
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-01/alibaba-s-south-...

Daraz has invested more than $100 million in Pakistan and Bangladesh over the past couple of years. Some of that has gone into building its own delivery network. It now handles about 70% of its deliveries and has delivered more than 150 million packages since it started. It plans to offer logistics as a separate service as well, and is testing buy-now-pay-later services in Sri Lanka before a wider rollout.

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Daraz Group, the e-commerce retailer backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., expects to continue doubling retail volume over the next 5 years thanks to its lead in emergent South Asian markets.

Daraz should maintain a compound annual growth rate of about 100% in e-commerce deliveries, sustaining the pace of the past four years, Chief Executive Officer Bjarke Mikkelsen said in an interview. Revenue growth has also doubled on average in the same period, he said.

South Asia’s e-commerce markets are picking up as venture capital firms ramp up investment. Online retail accounts for just about 2% of the gross domestic product in the five countries in which Daraz operates -- Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal -- compared with 20% in Indonesia, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker said.

“We really see the digital economy take off,” Mikkelsen said at his Karachi office overseeing the Arabian Sea. “There’s plenty of runway.”

Daraz has amassed 35 million users in the five countries and expects to hit 100 million active customers well before 2030, he said. They will feed into Alibaba’s target of reaching 2 billion global consumers by 2036, about a quarter of the world’s current population. The Chinese e-commerce leader has built a portfolio of companies from Turkey to Russia and Asia to help achieve the target.

There is no active plan but “it’s a possibility” that more investors may be brought into the company in the future, said Mikkelsen. Alibaba-backed Trendyol drew capital from SoftBank Group Corp. and two Gulf wealth funds in August.

Daraz was the largest player in South Asia excluding India, said Ali Farid Khawaja, chairman at KTrade KASB Securities Ltd. “In Pakistan, there is no e-commerce company that even comes close to them,” he said. “Besides the scale, they are the only one which has made supporting infrastructure, including warehouses and logistics.”

Daraz has invested more than $100 million in Pakistan and Bangladesh over the past couple of years. Some of that has gone into building its own delivery network. It now handles about 70% of its deliveries and has delivered more than 150 million packages since it started. It plans to offer logistics as a separate service as well, and is testing buy-now-pay-later services in Sri Lanka before a wider rollout.


But competition is intensifying. Pakistan’s startup industry has drawn more than $300 million of funding this year, most of that going to potential rivals in e-commerce.

“Even though there are competitors coming up in different verticals, our biggest growth opportunity is from the digital economy to grow,” Mikkelsen said. The industry is “still at an early stage.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 21, 2022 at 5:17pm

Chinese company SpeedaF rolls out nationwide logistics services in Pakistan

https://www.app.com.pk/global/chinese-company-rolls-out-nationwide-...


The Chinese company which has rolled out nationwide logistics services across Pakistan was likely to cover about half of its population in February, Sun Chao, head of Speedaf Pakistan said on Friday.


“Moreover, we also provide China-Pakistan cross-border logistics services and warehouse and delivery services in Pakistan,” he said in an interview with China Economic Net (CEN).


As a leading logistics services provider plowing emerging markets, Speedaf initiated its business layout in Pakistan in September 2021.


Up to now, express delivery covering all the four provinces of Pakistan has become available.
“When a Pakistani buyer puts an order of a certain Chinese product online, which can be bought in Pakistani Rupees, what he needs to do next is only to wait for the parcel to be delivered to his doorstep. On the other hand, we collect cargo at Chinese ports, transport them with our own customs solutions, sort them out in Pakistan, and carry each parcel to the customer’s home”, Sun Chao explained.


To support logistic demand from cross-border trade and local online consumption, high-standard warehouses with a total area of over 7000 square meters have been set up in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Multan. This figure is still expected to rise.


“The warehouse management system allows receipt of cargo by container and delivery by piece, providing convenient options for e-commerce businesses and offline wholesale clients’, said Sun Chao.


Following the domestic delivery model in China, Speedaf Pakistan offers both economical and standard express delivery options in Pakistan. For parcels to be delivered within a city, customers can choose to receive on the very day or on the next day; for inter-city delivery within a province, packages can arrive on the next morning or later on the next day; for inter-province demand, there are overnight delivery and Third Day Delivery.


Speedaf has established close cooperation with major e-commerce platforms in Pakistan with a special focus on electronic communication equipment, intelligent security products, and 3C products (computer, communication, and consumer digital products). In addition, customized services are also available such as the return, examination, and replacement of goods, less-than-truck-load, and cash on delivery.


“Pakistan is a populous country with over 200 million people, 3.94 percent increase of GDP even amid the ravaging pandemic, booming e-commerce industry, favorable polices for investment, and sound road network linking major cities which provides convenience for logistic transport. Underpinning our business is the deep attachment between the two peoples and the two economies, Sun said.


“With an expected 200 service stations in over 50 cities in Pakistan, we will provide at least 2000 employment opportunities for local people. They will be trained to become professional talents.”


The e-commerce sector in Pakistan is progressing in leaps and bounds. The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on e-commerce Aon Abbas Buppi has said that Pakistan is aiming to increase e-commerce trade volume up to $9 billion by June Building on the e-commerce boom, we will expand coverage and shorten the delivery time to bring further convenience to Pakistani people, said Sun Chao.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 18, 2022 at 7:29am

Alibaba extends logistics arm to Pakistan for e-commerce unit Daraz | TechCrunch


https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/17/alibaba-logistics-arm-pakistan-da...


Cainiao, the logistics service operated by Alibaba, is launching two automated distribution centers in Karachi and Lahore as its first entry into Pakistan, it announced on Friday.

Alibaba’s overseas expansion has manifested in a mix of investment and integration over the past decade. In 2018, the e-commerce titan boughtPakistan’s e-commerce platform Daraz for an undisclosed amount. It controls the online shopping service Lazada, which is neck to neck with Shopee in Southeast Asia, and owns a stake in Turkey’s Trendyol as well as Indonesia’s Tokopedia.

Founded in 2012, Daraz was born out of the internet venture builder Rocket Internet like its sibling Lazada. It delivers to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and other countries in the region. Daraz declined to disclose how many active users it has, only saying it has “served a potential user base of 500 million people” and grew 85% in gross merchandise volume (rough metric for sales in e-commerce) over the last two years.

The smart distribution centers will come with a suite of Cainiao’s in-house tech like electric control units, software-based programmable logic controllers (PLC is critical for warehouse automation but traditionally is hardware-powered, Caniao told TechCrunch) and a computing solution that promises to combine the capabilities of cloud and the speedy runtime on the edge.

The suite of warehousing solutions, said Cainiao, could reduce manual labor by half and increase human productivity by 100%.

Given Alibaba’s far-reaching footstep worldwide, it won’t be surprising to see Cainiao following the parent into more countries. Cainiao already operates nine large overseas distribution centers across Europe, Asia and the Americas and has plans to ramp up operations in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Europe, the company’s vice president of technology Ding Hongwei said in a statement.

Integrating Cainiao into Alibaba’s sprawling e-commerce portfolio indeed looks to be the plan.

“Logistic network development is a priority in our globalization strategy as logistics is the fundamental infrastructure supporting a high-quality consumer experience based on integrated product supply from cross-border and locally,” Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba, said on the firm’s December earnings call.

“Cainiao has been developing logistic network in Southeast Asia and Europe, leveraging the commerce use cases presented by Lazada, AliExpress, and the Trendyol.”

AliExpress is Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platform that mostly connects Chinese sellers to global consumers.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 20, 2022 at 7:06am

Rider is taking a nimble approach to e-commerce logistics in Pakistan | TechCrunch


https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/19/rider-is-taking-a-nimble-approach...

Rider’s new funding will be used on its in-house tech, including e-commerce enablement tools like plug-ins and built-in wallets to help SMEs, which Allana said are mostly owned by women, grow their businesses.


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Rider is on a mission to provide online shoppers in Pakistan with “Amazon-like” next-day deliveries. The Karachi-based company announced it has raised $3.1 million in new funding from Y Combinatior, along with new investors i2i, Flexport, Soma Capital and Rebel Fund. Returning investors included GFC, Fatima Gobi and TPL E-ventures, along with Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi. This brings RIder’s total raised to $5.4 million since September 2021.

Founded in 2019 by former UPS Pakistan executive Salman Allana, Rider is building a network of sorting hubs, delivery centers and a digitized fleet. The platform enables sellers to offer next-day delivery with route optimization, live tracking and scheduling for buyers. The company claims that since their pre-seed investment round in September 2021, monthly revenues have grown 110% and they have doubled their customer base to 650 online sellers. So far, Rider has delivered 3 million parcels across 60 cities in Pakistan. It currently runs a network of 16 hubs that cover 60 cities across Pakistan, which Allana said accounts for about 60% of e-commerce demand in the country.

Allana told TechCrunch that growing up in Karachi and spending his early career in sub-Saharan Africa meant he was used to poor supply chains and logistics services. “If you ordered something online, you accepted the huge risk it might never show up,” he said. When he moved to London to study for his MBA, he became “obsessed” with Amazon delivery. “How could an order I placed at midnight be at my doorstep the next morning? I believed there was a clear and large opportunity to bring this service quality to online sellers in Pakistan and eradicate ‘parcel anxiety’ for all online buyers in Pakistan—including myself.”

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