PANDEMIC-ELEVATES-E-COMMERCE-IN-PAKISTAN

Pandemic a blessing in disguise for web based businesses. Even though the history of ecommerce in Pakistan goes back 2 decades. Predictions of us inheriting the laziest form of shopping were made even before the word ecommerce was known.

By Rubab Batool 

Since, the human race made no real effort on its own to acknowledge such kind of transactions the universe thrusted the Novel Corona Virus on us through which we appreciated something that has been right under our noses all this time.  Due to the fact that online banking has not had a strong foot hold in Pakistan and almost all the online stores have an option for COD (Cash on Delivery) this gave many a people a preference to order online.

If looked closely through a fish lens at two of the top contenders of ecommerce- Foodpanda & AK galleria. Seeing as how it developed in the past 2 years under the reign of Covid is an excellent example to understand the true impacts of the pandemic. This time period became the *Survival of the fittest* for business operating online.

Came June 2019 when Foodpanda hit its first million orders little did they know that within a year their order numbers will be multiplied by 4.5 times its previous number. Back-of-the-envelope estimations propose that the day by day spend on food orders from the stage is in the ballpark of Rs76.5 million every day, making it a month to month spend of Rs2.3 billion. Along these lines, the compound rate was genuinely high, given that Foodpanda is the greatest player, is demonstrative of the development paces of the business in general. In addition to food delivery it started a new venture on grocery shopping which is named *PANDAMART*.

After looking at the business that allows us to stuff our faces with delicious food, now let’s catch a glimpse of a business that makes it possible for us to keep up with the latest fashion trends *AKGALLERIA*. A website that permits its consumers to shop from well-known brands like ALDO, VINCCI, MANGO, NEXT etc., on affordable discounted prices.  This web based brand came into being in 2017 and with not much publicity it never caught the eye of the public. It took a little time for akgalleria to grapple the sudden turn of the number of orders they started receiving in 2020. Keeping in mind that they were in business with international brands abroad. The revenue sky rocketed to $4 Million from 2019 to 2020. As the retail stores were not producing enough profit, online store had its back and acted as a cushion to save it from its doom. The revenue increased 40% in relation to the post corona fiscal year.

These examples of businesses have now aspired plenty more to step into this recently active red ocean.