The encouraging future of e-commerce in Pakistan

Although a late entrant in e-commerce, the industry's future in Pakistan looks positive with the market expected to reach over $600 million by 2017, reports Tech in Asia

Pakistan, although a late entrant to the world of e-commerce, has recently recorded a massive rise in online shopping trends and other e-commerce businesses. Such exponential growth trends over the past few years – with $30 million being spent on online purchases currently – depict a highly positive picture for the future and the size of Pakistan’s e-commerce market is expected to reach over $600 million by 2017.

With many new online ventures springing up rapidly and existing businesses recording unprecedented growth rates, there is still a lot that needs to be done to reach the true e-commerce potential of the country and compete with other big players of the region. Several factors are responsible for drastically changing shopping trends over time and driving the growth of e-commerce in Pakistan.

One of the most important factors in the equation is the rate of internet penetration in Pakistan. Pakistan’s internet enabled population is limited to around 30 million users today. This, however, is expected to rise up to 56 million users by 2019.

Along with increased internet penetration, 73.2% of the entire population also have access to mobile phones. There is also a recent surge in smartphone usage with an estimated 9 million smartphone users in Pakistan. Both the rise of internet penetration and the declining costs of smartphones have accounted for this rapid rise in smartphone usage in Pakistan. 

With such easy access to the internet via affordable smartphones, e-commerce trends in the country are expected to boom in the near future. 

Even though Cash-on-Delivery (COD) payment methods continue to remain widely popular in Pakistan and account for more than 95% of online purchases, other promising initiatives such as branchless banking  and Inter Bank Fund Transfer (IBFT), are also underway.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.