Pakistan eCommerce Landscape

wordsmithess · Oct 9, 2013

Summary:

In an effort to create a proper online payment system in Pakistan, a survey is being conducted for a clearer picture of eCommerce in Pakistan. The survey can be accessed here: Pakistan Ecommerce Survey - Formstack

Details:

The survey is very specifically focused on the "type" of an E-Commerce user in Pakistan. To get a better understanding of the anatomy of the e-commerce ecosystem, we need to understand to whom we are serving, and in as such, the information we have asked, helps us and those who will use this data have a better understanding and appreciation of the audience that currently exists today in Pakistan, whom we would classify as an Online Shopper.

What exactly is this survey trying to do?

Assume you are a Product Manager at Facebook Payment in California. Your immediate boss say, "Lets look at Pakistan and see if deploying Facebook payments in Pakistan makes sense?" - alternatively, you could be a Product Manager in VISA Pakistan or HBL and the same question is asked "Shall we deploy Online & Mobile Payments in Pakistan?"

Now, internally to these organisations, you would be provided with a Report to fill in. Most of these companies already have a report in a standard template format. Your job is to fill it in and get a picture, size, semblance, altitude, structure, form (nomenclature aside) of the Country and what its E-Commerce scenario looks like. Now - herein lies the problem. Where's the data? Do you know of any source? I would love for you to share it with me.

This is exactly what we are trying to do - collect data points (many of them, this survey represents a single datapoint, we have about 12-15 more data points to collect to get a very accurate picture). So if people contribute towards this survey, you contribute directly towards the good of the economy, by having provided the relevant statistics or estimated statistics, extrapolated datasets for Product Manager worldwide to work on.

We plan to share the raw data with everyone else, including some big name companies like PayPal, Amazon, Facebook, Google, American Express and Mastercard (these are the companies that we or rather I have been talking to). The raw data we will publish, will obfuscate the Name and the Email addresses. Should one of these companies want to audit randomly 10-12 people from the raw data, then the names and email addresses will be supplied. Other than the stated use, we have no further use for your Name/Email and we do not plan to share this list with anyone else.

I hope everyone will pitch in.

Hassan Aftab · Oct 9, 2013

First, and done.

wordsmithess · Oct 10, 2013

PCftw · Oct 10, 2013

Just submitted mine. I really hope what you're trying to do here, bears fruit. But all this will be for naught, if the government doesn't revise its current attitude of dealing with these companies...

wordsmithess · Oct 10, 2013

PCftw said:
if the government doesn't revise its current attitude of dealing with these companies...

We are working very closely with State Bank and they have shown a willingness to facilitate this process. This is just one step out of many that are in process and planned. It all started with this: Open Letter to the President of PayPal |
The main aim is to provide Pakistan with a convenient and secure payment system; whether that would be Paypal or our own localized version remains to be seen.

PCftw · Oct 10, 2013

wordsmithess said:
We are working very closely with State Bank and they have shown a willingness to facilitate this process. This is just one step out of many that are in process and planned. It all started with this: Open Letter to the President of PayPal |
The main aim is to provide Pakistan with a convenient and secure payment system; whether that would be Paypal or our own localized version remains to be seen.

I read the page you linked to. That was a well-written letter. It's been quite some time since you wrote that, have they given you a positive response yet? I didn't see any mention of a response from them. Could you share how many submissions you have received yet?

Also, to everyone reading this, it took me hardly 2 minutes to fill out the form. It won't be possible to get anywhere without a collective effort, so kindly take a couple of minutes to help out. Even if it doesn't get PayPal here, at least it'll be publicly accessible data that might prove useful in the future.

wordsmithess · Oct 11, 2013

PCftw said:
That was a well-written letter. It's been quite some time since you wrote that.

Actually, that's my boss.

wordsmithess · Oct 11, 2013

PCftw said:
have they given you a positive response yet? I didn't see any mention of a response from them. Could you share how many submissions you have received yet?

They replied, through back channels and unofficially. Suffice to say, we can't divulge the correspondence. But. Their main concern: they do not have ANY data about Pakistan because no one bothered to collect any.

The submissions have been abysmal so far. I don't understand why people are reluctant to fill out a form that does not even ask them for their name.

babushka99 · Oct 11, 2013

That Open-Letter to Paypal was authored by myself. I did receive a reply from PayPal, via the back-channels, and there are some Pakistanis who are high-up in PayPal looking at this cause as well. Long story short, PayPal will be in Pakistan probably 2015 or 2016. This is the way their roadmap reads right now for emerging markets and relaunching their products &/or services in existing markets, etc. We can debate this to the end, but that is the way it stands.

What the current survey is trying to do, is to provide Product Managers and others access to information on Pakistan. There is virtually no information present with respect to Pakistan and E-Commerce. In the absence of such data, decisions by other companies cannot be made. Gut feeling and heresay is fine, but they need data. This survey, which would measure (in some sampled sense) the "Anatomy of E-Commerce in Pakistan) is one of the many surveys and data-points we are gathering (on a pro bono basis, free for all to use), so that we amass enough information about Pakistan for others to make good use of. Heck, we need to use this ourselves. Without data, we are practically blind.

What is sad that it only takes 2-3 minutes to fill out, yet people are not actively participating. Maldives did such a survey (which was closed) and managed to get 8,000 responses out of a population of 300,000 out of which about 80,000 or so have Internet access. Dubai based e-tailers got 2,000+ responses. With 30 Million (supposedly) Internet users in Pakistan, we can't seem to break 1,000 respondents to fill it out.

We can say all what we want (you and I), but at the end, it will just be opinions. Whether this survey will do good or not, whether the questions are pertinent or not, whether the sample size is small or tiny, etc. it all comes down to walking-the-walk, rather than just talking about.

Those of you who have filled it out, I am eternally grateful. For those who might be on the sidelines, I implore you to please fill it out and do your part. Every submission counts. As I have said it time and time again, Drops make Oceans.

Thank you in advance.

Best Regards,

Faisal Khan.

Hassan Aftab · Oct 11, 2013

@Blastwave, @K3yser Can we have this thread stickied or tagged 'Important' for a short while?

r3aper · Oct 11, 2013

^Dude you tagged them wrong
@BlastBabe

I have filled the form as well.

wordsmithess · Oct 11, 2013

r3aper said:
I have filled the form as well.

Thank you!

abobobilly · Oct 11, 2013

DONE.

I hope you guys succeed in this sacred endeavor.

assasin42o · Oct 11, 2013

Submitted.

wordsmithess · Oct 11, 2013

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

abobobilly · Oct 11, 2013

[MENTION=38614]wordsmithess[/MENTION]! Are you guys publicizing it via Facebook and other means like Twitter, Google Plus or other forums like PakWheels?

I'd say lets just spread this like fire and hope we get more responses. We aren't gonna get it only from PakGamers.

wordsmithess · Oct 11, 2013

abobobilly said:
@wordsmithess! Are you guys publicizing it via Facebook and other means like Twitter, Google Plus or other forums like PakWheels?

I'd say lets just spread this like fire and hope we get more responses. We aren't gonna get it only from PakGamers.

We have shared it on Facebook and Twitter. We post about it twice a day at least.

But somehow people don't fill it. I really dont know why. And about Pakwheels, no, we haven't shared there. If you have an account, you can do it.

abobobilly · Oct 11, 2013

wordsmithess said:
We have shared it on Facebook and Twitter. We post about it twice a day at least. But somehow people don't fill it. I really dont know why. And about Pakwheels, no, we haven't shared there. If you have an account, you can do it.

Its not a surprise. People can take 5 mins out to watch a Facebook Video but won't take out ONE for filling out a Survey form. Doesn't even take a genius to fill it out :\

Anyway. Since you guys are onto something, i think the least i can do is spread it further via MY Twitter, FB and PW. Lets see if we get any response.

wordsmithess · Oct 11, 2013

abobobilly said:
i think the least i can do is spread it further via MY Twitter, FB and PW. Lets see if we get any response.

Thank you so much!

PCftw · Oct 11, 2013

wordsmithess said:
Actually, that's my boss.

Ah, OK OK

wordsmithess said:
They replied, through back channels and unofficially. Suffice to say, we can't divulge the correspondence. But. Their main concern: they do not have ANY data about Pakistan because no one bothered to collect any.

The submissions have been abysmal so far. I don't understand why people are reluctant to fill out a form that does not even ask them for their name.

I can understand the unwillingness of a company to enter a market without any information. Hopefully, this endeavour will change all that.

babushka99 said:
That Open-Letter to Paypal was authored by myself. I did receive a reply from PayPal, via the back-channels, and there are some Pakistanis who are high-up in PayPal looking at this cause as well. Long story short, PayPal will be in Pakistan probably 2015 or 2016. This is the way their roadmap reads right now for emerging markets and relaunching their products &/or services in existing markets, etc. We can debate this to the end, but that is the way it stands.

What the current survey is trying to do, is to provide Product Managers and others access to information on Pakistan. There is virtually no information present with respect to Pakistan and E-Commerce. In the absence of such data, decisions by other companies cannot be made. Gut feeling and heresay is fine, but they need data. This survey, which would measure (in some sampled sense) the "Anatomy of E-Commerce in Pakistan) is one of the many surveys and data-points we are gathering (on a pro bono basis, free for all to use), so that we amass enough information about Pakistan for others to make good use of. Heck, we need to use this ourselves. Without data, we are practically blind.

What is sad that it only takes 2-3 minutes to fill out, yet people are not actively participating. Maldives did such a survey (which was closed) and managed to get 8,000 responses out of a population of 300,000 out of which about 80,000 or so have Internet access. Dubai based e-tailers got 2,000+ responses. With 30 Million (supposedly) Internet users in Pakistan, we can't seem to break 1,000 respondents to fill it out.

We can say all what we want (you and I), but at the end, it will just be opinions. Whether this survey will do good or not, whether the questions are pertinent or not, whether the sample size is small or tiny, etc. it all comes down to walking-the-walk, rather than just talking about.

Those of you who have filled it out, I am eternally grateful. For those who might be on the sidelines, I implore you to please fill it out and do your part. Every submission counts. As I have said it time and time again, Drops make Oceans.

Thank you in advance.

Best Regards,

Faisal Khan.

Thank you for your efforts in this regard. I'm hopeful this thing will pick up speed. I'll try and get a few more people to fill out and submit the form as well.

wordsmithess said:
We have shared it on Facebook and Twitter. We post about it twice a day at least. But somehow people don't fill it. I really dont know why. And about Pakwheels, no, we haven't shared there. If you have an account, you can do it.

[MENTION=38614]wordsmithess[/MENTION] It'd be nice if you could update the original post with a link to the Facebook page for this project, so that those who are willing, can easily share/spread word about this via Facebook.

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