By Basit Rahman
Over the past decade, there has been a huge increase in online shopping. According to an e-Marketer report, Online shopping worldwide accounts for about 10% of retail sales. Research shows that Pakistan has huge potential to become a leading online shopping country in Asia. A lot of Pakistanis prefer buying online, there has been an increase in online food stores, grocery stores and huge retail online shopping stores. Pakistan’s ecommerce business is expected to generate about $1 billion by 2020.
Why is there an increasing trend in Buying Online?
The rise in business to consumer business is a major reason. Online platforms such as Getnow, Telemart & Buyoye have increased the business to consumer market in Pakistan. Online market places like these have increased the potential reach of businesses to consumers of all age and gender. Before Daraz came to Pakistan, everyone wondered how online shopping used to feel like.
Another reason for the increasing trend of online shopping in Pakistan is the easy of access to 3G/4G internet. Since the launch of fast mobile internet, Pakistan has seen an increase in mobile internet users. Affordable internet makes it easy for the almost anyone with a smartphone have an online presence. There are approximately 55.4 Million mobile phone users with High-Speed internet in Pakistan. With most of the users between the age of 18 and 27.
Globalization is also a factor that increases the number of online stores in Pakistan. Everyone is in touch with what’s happening globally because of social media. Pakistanis are in touch with global trends and are eager to explore new products. Social media has also increased the number of online buyers in Pakistan. There are a lot of businesses with pages, they use these pages to reach to millions of active Pakistanis on social media. These businesses have also used ads and re-marketing to target social media users. The garment and clothing industry has seen a huge increase in sales through social media.
Online shopping in Pakistan has been seeing an increase in trend, and business analysts expect the market to increase even more. There is a lot of potential that many investors see, and that is why a lot of big investors are working on creating various online platforms to sell their products. To some extent, the CPEC project has also lead to the investment in social media in Pakistan. Many investors see the potential of Pakistan to become a leading online market place.
