E-commerce portal earns big in Friday sale

Reports sales of Rs3b during shopping extravaganza

KARACHI: Pakistan’s e-commerce sales recorded a significant jump during the Friday weekend that was marked by discounted deals and shopping extravaganza, with Daraz.pk - the online platform - alone contributing a revenue of Rs3 billion.

Daraz.pk reported that it made sales of Rs3 billion during the week, translating to year-on-year growth of 200%. It said that the number of orders were 400% higher than the amount last year, while traffic surge on its online portal was thrice as much as in the previous time period.

“This year, the result was beyond expectations and we are thrilled to have broken new ground in Pakistan e-commerce,” Daraz CEO Bjarke Mikkelsen said in an emailed response to The Express Tribune.

The event clocked in 17 million sessions during the week-long sale compared to six million sessions from the year before.

Mobile traffic surged to 76% from 55% in 2016, attesting to increasingly mobile-first nature of Pakistani e-commerce.

Brands in the FMCG category topped sales with 40% of the volume being generated by customers ordering beauty, grocery and other household products.

Unilever sold the highest number of items during the sale, with Nestle and L’Oreal prominent amongst top brands generating millions in sales. L’Oreal launched NYX during Big Friday and Nestle EveryDay bundle was amongst the top highest selling products.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2017.

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