Daily Times

Chief Executive Officer of eBay, has termed Pakistan among the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the world. In a Facebook Live session of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Devin Wenig was asked a question regarding his thoughts on Pakistan and emerging markets. “It’s the fastest growing markets we have around the world. Anywhere where wealth is growing, and technology is being adopted, e-commerce is being adopted like crazy,” said Wenig in his remarks also carried by a section of media here. The eBay CEO said that the perfect opportunity for e-commerce was in countries where people were growing in wealth and did not have access to goods. When asked as to why eBay was not in Pakistan, Devin Wenig said eBay did not have a local Pakistani version. However, there were customers shopping from the country on various eBay sites.

Last year Anusha Rehman, Minister of State of Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan, had stated that Pakistan would soon invite the technology giants including eBay, Amazon, etc. to Pakistan, but no significant development has been madein this regard despite the passage of IT policy. On the flip side, this has resulted in a boom for the local startups to fill the gap of the ever growing e-commerce market. Following the auction of 3G/4G licenses in 2014, Internet penetration has increased manifolds, and the latest figures suggest that approximately 37 million people are using the services which are expected to grow further in coming years. With the expansion of internet user base came, the emerged the e-commerce market. Over the past few years, a positive trend has been seen in online shopping as other than the eBay and Amazon equivalent, many retail, as well as other brands, have been moving to online market. Many international trends including the Black Friday sales have made a mark in Pakistan and figures suggest a healthy growth in the industry.

While the growth of e-commerce is a positive sign, payment mechanisms remain a major hindrance for the entry of world e-commerce giants in Pakistan. Pakistan is a cash reliant country where the number of people using the banking channels for transactions remains low, and the operating e-commerce sites have been relying on cash-on-delivery as the primary source of sales. This is where both the private sector and the relevant government ministries come in to ensure the financial inclusion of people as well as securing the online payment methods.

The recent stats from the online shopping portals suggest a positive trend in the use of online transaction methods, and the international e-commerce giants will be monitoring the situation closely as Pakistan is one of the fastest growing markets with a healthy spending power. Therefore, steps need to be taken to expand the financial inclusion of people not only through conventional banking but other mechanisms including mobile wallets, branchless banking, etc. *