PakEcomConnect December & Event Report

Pakistan eCommerce Consortium is a Facebook community of a little over 350 members who work in the local eCommerce industry. It functions as a close knitted support group where members ask questions, share knowledge and opportunities and talk about the issues faced by the eCommerce players in Pakistan.

The group is run by Anum Kamran (Founder & CEO – Buyon.pk) and Kamran Shamim (CEO – Apex Solutions) and a couple of weeks ago, they announced the first ever meetup for their members which was hosted by Anum Kamran (Founder & CEO – Buyon.pk).

The meetup happened at Center for Entrepreneurial Development (Aman-CED) inside IBA’s main campus on Saturday, 16^th December, 2017 and was attended by some really prominent names in the local eCommerce industry along with a special guest who flew in from Chine to attend the meetup.

The two hour long discussion touched almost all sore spots of the industry, including lack of e-payment solutions, taxation, logistics, and fraudulent practices followed by some of the local industry players where they sell low quality and counterfeit products and create a general mistrust in customers.

Abid Beli (Founder & CEO – Beliscity and Delivery Walay) spoke about his experience of starting the first ever eCommerce store in Pakistan back in 2001 and the issues that are still faced by sellers even after 16 years. Cash on Delivery is still preferred by the customers which increases risk for the seller and we still see so many cases of returned deliveries. Another dangerous trend is seeing a surge in counterfeit products sold by some e-stores, they show and charge for original products but deliver cheap knockoffs.

Saad Jangda (Founder & CEO - Symbios.pk) said that customers now have the power to make informed decisions by making comparisons and this creates a tough price-based competition among different eCommerce businesses. He spoke about his experience of starting the first Cash on Delivery offering e-store in Pakistan and their collaboration with TCS.

Shayaan Tahir (CEO –Homeshopping.pk) spoke about the challenges of managing social media and the ways in which businesses can enhance customer satisfaction by being honest and empathetic. He also mentioned that directly connecting sellers to customer can make a business lose control over product quality.

Shehzad Rah(Director – Paxi) stressed on the importance of educating customers and helping them with making informed choices. This can also help in reducing the number of returned orders and help business grow better.

Anum Kamran (Founder & CEO – Buyon.pk) shared the future goals for the community and spoke about the importance of collaboration and creating a better ecosystem so that better business models can emerge out of it. She also promised to host more meetups in the future so that members can seek advice, find mentors and create partnerships with each other.

The discussion concluded with following pointers:

• Establishing a neutral body to monitor the progress and unethical practices/customer complaints against the business.
• Collaborating with other business entities and federal governments for eCommerce policy framework.
• Better Payment Solutions are on the top most priority.
• Better logistics and tracking systems for quick delivery and feedback.
• Improving Social Media presence and practicing active listening for gathering valuable insights.
• Undocumented Facebook businesses and their impact on the overall industry. 

The discussion was moderated by Anum Kamran (Founder & CEO – Buyon.pk) and NoorJehan Arif (Co-Founder - Mushawar Consulting) and few other women members also attended and participated in the discussion.

Community meetups are an excellent way to create better connections and hunt for solutions and opportunities and I think this step taken by PEC was an excellent idea. Anum Kamran (Founder & CEO – Buyon.pk) and her team were an excellent host as always and they are looking for people to join in the mission.

Do you run an eCommerce business or want to start one? Join PEC right now!