LAHORE: Kaymu.pk, the leading online marketplace, revealed online shopping trends of Pakistan highlighting areas all over the country that the website has served till date. As of now, Kaymu has catered to over 260 cities, towns and districts. Certainly, this is not limited to the urban cities, but e-commerce has also made its way to the tier 2 and tier 3 cities which are now responsible for over 50% of total sales for Kaymu. These include areas like Turbat, Lakki Marwat, Chiniot, Rohri, Panno Aqil and various others. Meanwhile, Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad/ Rawalpindi make up only around 46% of total sales.
Additionally, almost 60% of Kaymu users use the Kaymu app or mobile web, as opposed to only around 40% using the desktop version. In 2015, the mobile device was only responsible for almost 18% of the website’s entire traffic. The smartphone revolution coupled with the user-friendliness of the Kaymu app are key reasons for this surge in mobile usage to access Kaymu.pk. App downloads for Kaymu as of now stand at around 1 million and Kaymu expects this shift in app usage to continue further.
Other insights revealed include that 51% of the buyers are female while 49% are males. The top selling categories include fashion categories, health and beauty items, and electronics and mobile phones.
Last year, Kaymu.pk introduced online business to business (B2B) wholesale services in Pakistan, with over 120 wholesalers from various verticals including clothing, electronics, cosmetics and various product categories. Almost 50% of wholesale orders are from small cities and towns, by retailers with small kiryana shops, adding products that may be new to their respective cities to the otherwise limited variety in their stores. These include power banks, LED watches and selfie sticks making way to Gujranwala, Sialkot, Rahimyar Khan, etc.
Of course, there are also those who are buying in bulk from Kaymu wholesale and selling individual units on Kaymu at per unit profit. Imran Sohni from Sialkot, for example, ventured into this as he did not find good quality mobile phone chargers and data cables in the nearby markets. He sources them from Kaymu at wholesale prices and sells individual units at per piece margin on Kaymu as well as in his hometown.
With the lack of accessibility to big wholesale markets such as Shah Alami in Lahore and Bolton Market in Karachi, online wholesale has opened up greater avenues of income for those, especially in the smaller cities.
Online buyers in the country are dedicating more of their time, and budget to online shopping and sellers are moving fast to absorb the advantages offered by online retail. With e-commerce increasingly becoming a part of Pakistan’s buying habits, retailers have an incredible opportunity to use the digital platform for reaching more customers as well as more products.
