Widely recognised as Pakistan’s largest online marketplace, Daraz isn’t just about online shopping; it’s a medium bringing consumers and merchants together.

Meet Ahmed Razzak, one of the thousands of vendors registered on Daraz.pk, as he shares the success story of setting up his mobile accessory shop MoboPro.

The real deal behind e-commerce in Pakistan

A veil of intangibility hangs around e-commerce processes in the local market. While being omnipresent, the area can also feel opaque for a budding entrepreneur. So what actually goes on behind the scenes?

We thought Mobile Week 2017 was a great time to attach a face to these sellers.

We know, for instance, that over 5 million visits were recorded on Daraz during the week long super-sale that was Mobile Week. Transactions increased 175 times as compared to an average day, with over PKR 10 million given away in discounts.

While all these figures are astounding, we decided to speak directly to a top vendor — those vital stakeholders of the e-commerce chain — to see their human impact.

Meet Ahmed Razzak

Ahmed is a qualified Chartered Accountant. A young, unassuming millennial techie who feels entirely at home at the venue of our meeting: the Daraz warehouse.

"I left Chartered accountancy to embrace an e-commerce future at Daraz. I didn’t like taking orders. I do love moving orders though. In the hundreds, on the daily: those are my kind of orders. This is my story."

Like many of the readers here, he’s also a Daraz customer. His first purchase on Daraz.pk was an Infinix Hot Note. Unable to find any accessories for the phone in the market, Ahmed recognised a gap and sought to answer the call.

He left the daily grind of his PKR 12,000 a month Chartered Accountancy job behind to enter the less regimented but no less rigorous world of e-commerce. A novice at first, he set up his company — MoboPro — in 2016.

A humble beginning

MoboPro started from Ahmed’s home. He stored inventory in his room. Now, with robust support from Daraz, MoboPro has secured its position as one of Daraz’s leading vendors in mobile accessories.

"My Daraz trajectory begins at the point of the consumer — it begins with me," says Ahmed. "MoboPro is consumer-led. You’re talking to that (Daraz) consumer now. He just happens to be on the other end of the Daraz ecosystem. I’ve come full-circle."

We assume he has been slogging away on building MoboPro for years.

"One year," he says, lifting a solitary finger for emphasis.

One year in and he is already scaling up his business; the people in his employ are making double of what he used to as a chartered accountant.

The kind of growth MoboPro has experienced in the span of a year alone is indicative of how rousing e-commerce prospects are. As he has moved up in life, with order volumes at Daraz.pk increasing at breakneck speeds, MoboPro has had to move out of its room into a warehouse on Abdullah Haroon Road.

MoboPro began in a single apartment room with an inventory of 50. A year later, Ahmed commands inventory in excess of 50,000 mobile accessories.

That’s dizzying progress in a very short time.

Indeed, when Ahmed registered MoboPro on Daraz, he was the sole supplier of mobile accessories. Now he has an entire company that he is running. The proliferation of competitors incentivises innovation and course-correction. He agrees that with rapidly growing portals like Daraz, vendors have no choice but to stay on their toes.

Fortunately, for Ahmed, this is where MoboPro Vendor Manager, Ali Chandio, steps in.

Vendor Managers serve an oversight role, providing operational guidance and support. This year’s Mobile Week is proof enough: MoboPro’s sales shot up 300% of what they normally move on a regular day, exponentially boosting the company’s visibility and winning them attention on the e-market leader’s heavily frequented website.

In conversation, Ahmed conveys the demeanor of a self-made man who has earned his own way in life. His is a success borne not only of ironclad determination, but of the existing and ever growing e-commerce capacities of Daraz.pk.

"Daraz has the platform and resources. Branding power, clout, and connectivity. Vendors like me have the goods. We have market-sense. We intuit and intercept demand before it comes knocking. Daraz provides enterprising sellers like me an ecosystem that brings vendors to the customers and customers to the goods. It’s synergistic. If you can harness it," says Ahmed.

If. So there’s a catch! A caveat.

"Well, ecommerce (Daraz) is rapidly growing in Pakistan. It’s a fast-moving company operating in a fast-moving, largely fluid sphere of commerce. You’ve got to ride the crest of the wave. Or you’ll miss it and find yourself stranded on the shore. And boy are offline shores drying up. What we do is the future. No turning back."

Ahmed’s bullish sense of prospect is contagious. He’s right. You can’t land-lock a digital landscape.

He is candid about the challenges too. With an e-commerce leader like Daraz expanding at the rate it is, there are bound to be operational delays and the occasional hurdles.

"Listen, I’d be kidding if I said there haven’t been any challenges or uphill days. There have been. The team and I will argue it through, but what’s important is his willingness to work things out and land them to a place of resolution. Daraz is providing you invaluable operational support. I’ve learnt resilience in my time here. It’s vital. But, at the end of the day, what you put into the marketplace, you’ll reap out of it!"

That indeed is a success story worth following!

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