Daraz, South Asia’s leading eCommerce platform and Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, have forged a partnership to power Pakistan’s digitalisation. The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to appoint Daraz as a partner to offer Alibaba cloud computing services in Pakistan.

The signing of the MOU is witnessed by Her Excellency Ms Rukhsana Afzaal, High Commissioner for Pakistan in the presence of Mr Bjarke Mikkelsen CEO and Founder of Daraz and Mr. Derek Wang, General Manager of South Asia and Singapore, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. This move is in line with the Pakistan government’s ‘Digital Pakistan Vision’ to bolster the IT industry by building a digital ecosystem.

Alibaba acquires Pakistan’s eCommerce platform Daraz.pk Founded in 2015, Daraz Pakistan is one of the most well-known brands in Pakistan. Daraz has more than 40 million active monthly users and over 100,000 active sellers. Daraz University, Daraz’s online learning centre, offers personalised and localised courses covering all areas of the e-commerce ecosystem. It gives small and medium enterprises the skills to unlock their business online. Together with Alibaba Cloud’s leading cloud computing capabilities, such as networking, and artificial intelligence, both parties will support Pakistan’s digital economy with higher adoption of cloud services.

“We are glad to partner with Daraz to bring digitalization opportunities to Pakistan, and by offering our proven cloud computing services, we are confident to support Daraz in building up Pakistan’s digital momentum to benefit the wider ecosystem,” said Dr Derek Wang, General Manager for South Asia and Singapore, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

Daraz’s purpose is to uplift the communities where we operate, and through digitalisation, we can play a significant role in growing the digital economy in Pakistan. We look forward to increasing cloud adoption in the public and private sectors in Pakistan and making Alibaba Cloud accessible to SMEs and B2B sector in Pakistan,” said Mr Bjarke Mikkelsen, Daraz Chief Executive Officer.

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The IT market in Pakistan has been flourishing in recent years, prompting the need for a reputable service provider capable of providing end-to-end IT solutions and services.

Daraz, the largest seller and customer base in Pakistani ecommerce, is pleased to announce the launch of its new Enterprise business segment, “Daraz Tech,” which aims to provide enterprise-level support and services to potential clients through cutting-edge IT solutions and services. Daraz Tech’s goal is to fulfil Alibaba’s requirements by digitally transforming the region’s enterprise IT infrastructure and services. Alibaba’s cutting-edge technical capabilities and broad industry knowledge enable Daraz Tech. Our team is well-equipped to give the best personalised solutions to meet the IT needs of local businesses.

Enterprise customers may now acquire cost-effective IT hardware and related solutions with a smooth purchase experience and priority delivery through Daraz Priority delivery service (DEX) within their budgeted expenses.

Furthermore, Daraz (Alibaba Group), in collaboration with Alibaba Cloud, is bringing globally known Alibaba Cloud Services to the Pakistani market, marking an important milestone for the Pakistani IT Enterprise ecosystem. Daraz will provide direct access to Alibaba Cloud Services for public and private sector organisations, SMEs, and startups. Daraz Tech will provide Alibaba Cloud certified sales, pre-sales, and support to customers across the country. Daraz will also work closely with Alibaba Cloud’s startup programme, which will provide Pakistan’s startup environment with a variety of incentives and tools.

Alibaba Cloud also offers pay-per-use cloud services such elastic compute, data storage, relational databases, big data processing, anti-DDoS protection, and content delivery networks (CDN). It is the largest cloud computing firm in China and Asia Pacific, according to Gartner. In its April 2020 report, Gartner puts Alibaba Cloud first in Asia Pacific and third among the world’s top three CSP providers. Alibaba Cloud features data centres in 24 different regions and 74 different availability zones throughout the world.

Daraz Tech will also provide Enterprises with a variety of Infrastructure solutions available through its services offering, including but not limited to IT hardware (Servers, Routers, Switches, Firewalls, LED Monitors, Laptops), as well as a variety of IT managed services options via our established Partners and teams.

“Daraz Tech will be a new approach towards empowering organisations with globally renowned Alibaba Cloud services and IT infrastructure solutions through our recognised partners,” said Mr. Ali Raza, Division Head, Alibaba Cloud Pakistan, a seasoned professional in the IT industry. Daraz Tech intends to provide entire end-to-end solution delivery to its potential clients, in addition to local support and services and seamless distribution channels.”

This good news shows that, thanks to the tenacity of our business community and the government’s continued backing, Pakistan’s reputation as a contemporary and technologically imaginative nation is gradually improving.

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Alibaba acquires Pakistan’s eCommerce platform Daraz.pk

Alibaba has expanded its e-commerce operations into South Asia after their acquisition of Daraz.pk in an undisclosed deal.

Daraz.pk was founded in 2012 by Rocket Internet and today it operates in Pakistan as well as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Rocket said in a statement that Alibaba has acquired the entire Daraz business.

Alibaba acquires the entire share capital of Rocket Internet’s Daraz.PK Business. The acquisition is the second time Alibaba has bought a Rocket company, the first being Lazada in Southeast Asia two years ago.

The deal’s financial details were not disclosed. In mid-March, it was reported that the acquisition talks were ongoing.

Pakistan have a population of over 190 million which is good for Alibaba to make business.

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With the increasing rate of e-commerce sites life has become easy. Daraz.pk and Kamyu are considered to be the leading sites in the e-commerce industry.

Recently, German investor company Rocket Internet announces the merger of Kaymu and Daraz. The two e-commerce giants have merged their services and became a larger site for the people.

Daraz Groups announced today that the new combined site will be – www.daraz.pk- and both the sites will be doing business under one name and one leadership.

Bjarke Mikkelsen who is the CEO of Daraz Group, said,

“The Daraz we see today is the best of the two businesses that came together mid last year and we owe a big part of our success to the people and learning coming from Kaymu. Thousands of high quality Kaymu sellers are now selling on Daraz and most of them are already doing significantly more business now than they ever did on Kaymu.”

According to Daraz,

“We will continue to work relentlessly to raise the standards of eCommerce service solutions by ensuring that millions of Pakistanis benefit from 100% purchase protection, with fast-growing assortment of original, genuine products, safe and secure payment options, and free and easy returns.”

The merge has come as great news for the people who buy online. The two sites provided the best goodies and now after they have merged it is a greater platform and thus would benefit the customers more.

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Some Online Stores Selling Fake Mobile Phones in Pakistan

Buying online stuff has become a trend and this is adding to the easy lifestyle of people. In a very short interval of time many e-commerce sites have sprung up and have become famous. The people can now buy almost everything online by sitting at home via single click. This has lead to a huge online market. From pets to grocery, everything is available on these online stores.

Along with the ease there is just one thing to consider and that is the reliability of the product. The reputable are Daraz.pk, Yayvo, and HomeShopping.pk etc that are Amazon structured Market places are very reliable and have maintained to ell authentic products. Unfortunately, some other sites have lost all the credibility due to unauthentic selling.

In case of mobile phones, grey channel phones were started importing into Pakistan.

Currently, Pakistan has two types of mobile phone selling online sites. These are:

• Non-Type Approved Mobile Phones,
• Counterfeit Mobile Phones (replicas of original phones).

Here is a detail of some online stores selling the non-type approved mobile phones and replicas in Pakistan.

Telemart.pk:

The online store operates from Karachi and sells both the non-type approved and the replica phones to the customers of Pakistan.

iShoppoing.pk:

This grey channel sells mobile phones without official guarantee.

Here we must mention that there is a difference between HomeShopping.pk and iShopping.pk as HomeShopping.pk provides both phones with and without guarantee and give the choice to customers to choose.

The other names include:

1) Zimruh Online Shopping Store,
2) Clearance Sale.

The list is long but we have just tried to cover some names here in order to keep the customers aware so that they may not become victim of Fake Mobile Phones fraud.

Before you buy anything online, please keep in mind:

• Buy from leading online stores only,
• Never pay upfront to stay away from fraud,
• Price comparison,
• Confirm order over phone; don’t only rely on emails or messages.

Online shopping is of great help. It saves time and energy and the above article is just to let you know that there are frauds and manipulation in this and you need to be aware of them to stay on the safer side.

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Top 5 Most Popular Online Mobile Stores in Pakistan

Online E-commerce stores play a paramount role in promoting goods through technology. In today’s age of technology, and how fast it is progressing, almost everything is digital. Pakistani’s are now going online for almost everything, be it booking flights or grocery shopping.

Initially, the growth of E-commerce in Pakistan was slowed down owing to many factors. One of these factors is resistance to change and the second; trust deficit. However, the launch of cash on delivery service and better judging abilities of the customer has revolutionized the novel E-Commerce industry. Consequently, the resulting changes have been pervasive, encompassing and irreversible.

Even with the growth in E-commerce industry in Pakistan, however, people still don’t feel entirely comfortable buying electronic devices or smartphones online. It’s understandable though since some sites do deliver fake devices and have no return policies. But if you know where to look, you’ll find the most amazing discounts on the top-most quality mobile devices.

And if you don’t know where to look then I’m here to help. I will be reviewing Top 5 Online Mobile stores in Pakistan in this article for you. Do check out these stores as some of these offer different payment options, return policies and everything that shows your fears for online mobile stores away. Let’s start.

1- Daraz.pk

First on my list is Daraz.pk that began in 2012 as an online fashion retailer. Now, it has evolved into a general marketplace of brands; selling items ranging from electronics to home appliances to fashion, and many other product categories. The company came in with a bang and as compared to their competitors became the no.1 online shopping store in Pakistan.

Since its launch in July 2012, Daraz.pk has amassed 360 brands on its site, and 14,000 clothing and accessory items – for both men and women – are now being sold there. Concerning mobiles, Daraz is known to introduce new mobile brands in Pakistan. Such as the new launch of Elephone S7, which is exclusively available at Daraz. Daraz also has a special week dedicated to mobiles called the “Mobile Week”.

Regarding absolute numbers, Daraz is delivering over 1,000 items daily with a very responsive and fast customer support ranging from 500-1000 employees. In my personal experience with Daraz, the response was excellent, the products I ordered were 100% genuine with no issue at all. Some people on Twitter, however, have complained about a few delays in delivery, but they eventually were resolved by Daraz.

2- Cellistan.com

The leading Mobile Phone eStore in Pakistan first emerged in March 2016, out of Islamabad. Cellistan is an exclusive E-commerce store dedicated to Electronics like Mobiles, Mobiles Accessories, Gaming consoles and their respective games.

The store has recently introduced gift cards such as iTunes, Google Play, and PlayStation cards. Cellistan promises to give genuine products first-hand without any interference of a retailer and delivers on that pledge. They are purely a Business to Customer company, so there is no third party seller involved, unlike many other online stores.

The company offers mobiles at cheapest rates, so if you are looking for best mobile phone prices, they are your perfect match. Cellistan is also an authorized retailer of the famous American brand, Anker. All their products are 100% original and come with a seven days return policy.

The reviews available online show how quick and friendly the customer support of Cellistan is.

The reason for Cellistan to be at number 2 on my list is because of their dedicated focus on the mobile industry. On top, Cellistan is the first E-Commerce store to accept Bitcoin. Almost no other eStore in Pakistan offers payments through Bitcoins, which shows how Cellistan is a leading revolutionist in the E-commerce industry of Pakistan.

3- HomeShopping.pk

HomeShopping.pk is one of the top Pakistani online retail stores. A full range of products is ready to be purchased with just a click of a button, at extremely affordable prices. Homeshopping has gained a lot of recognition for their work in Pakistan and thus get over 100,000 hits every day.

Started on 9 July 2008, the company turns nine years old this year, enabling us to trust and recommend it.

The major issue for the users and costumers was the old design of the website which has now upgraded to new user-friendly interface with a list on the left-hand side of all the types of products they have to offer. The site has a huge variety of mobiles phones including new and “refurbished.”

Homeshopping network provides their one year HSN warranty, which is a plus point. However, it does cost a bit to get the warranty. For example on the new Samsung Galaxy S8, a one year warranty will cost you 2,000 PKR. In most customer reviews I’ve read, the client’s support of HomeShopping is very responsive and helpful. One thing to note is, like Daraz, HS is also a B2C based site, meaning they allow other local sellers to sell on their platform which might cause problems.

4- Yayvo.com

Yayvo, an e-commerce store backed up by the name of TCS, sells a huge range of local and international brands. Released in 2012 the company promises that every product they sell is authentic, and is handled and shipped by the TCS delivery promise (well at least that is what “they” say.)

When you visit the website, the layout and design tab in different columns with latest offers. It’s easy for a person who uses the internet on a daily basis but may be a bit hard for someone new to the age of technology.

Moving on, like many eShopping site Yayvo is both C2C (Customer to Customer) and B2C (Retail) based, so again even with strict checks on 3rd party sellers, a customer can run into issues. According to the recent customer reviews, some were positive but some negative too.

Most negative reviews were from customers originate from issues like slow support response, improper and incomplete advisement and delivery of fake products. Apart from that Yayvo is a great place to shop your newest mobile gadget online, at low prices with a fast delivery service provided by “TCS” itself.

5- Kaymu.pk

Kaymu is an online marketplace founded in 2013, providing localised C2C and B2C products in Africa, Europe, and Asia. This online store is based in 35 countries in total and enables local sellers and buyers to make deals on new and used fashion items, mobile phones, jewellery, and home appliances.

Upon visiting the website, one can see a broad range of products available, but Kaymu does not offer first-party product sales, so it’s only connecting different retailers with the consumers taking petite responsibility for the products the retailers may ship.

Such practice leads to fake products of low quality on Kaymu. After reading a few customer reviews, we found that important problem customers were facing was the delivery of false and damaged products and inadequate response on returns and refunds, which in conclusion lands this website on the spot with number 5.

Here’s a little comparison of Online Mobile Stores prices of the Galaxy S8.

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