In this era of digital advertising, online procurement, selling and marketing, the idea of businesses dependency on their physical presence has changed altogether. A physical address is no more deemed as a requirement for doing business, especially if you are selling a product.
With the advancement of our e-commerce sector, several businesses in Pakistan have successfully made their impression by making the customers visit their web portals. Regarding this, a proper online presence is now a preferable mode to deal with customers.
The year 2013 was a big year for e-commerce in Pakistan. There are many ventures with aim to establish digital channels for shopping and consumer facilitation. Though it is still a developing concept given the country’s current position as many of us are still accustomed to the same old way of buying things – going to the market, visiting shops, bargaining to get a good deal, and coming home with the product mainly due to the convenience, reliability and trust which lacks in case we have to make online transaction for the products we order online.
Considering the global e-commerce landscape, Pakistan still need to cover quite a distance to level-up with these giant revenue making sources. Nevertheless, Pakistan Startup Report has documented the growth of online startups in Pakistan on general grounds.
The report mentioned the three major international organizations investing in Pakistani start ups; Rocket Internet, Naspers and Schibsted Media Group, the last two among these have both invested in the classified sector with OLX.com.pk and Asani.com.pk, respectively. Let’s review what Asani.com.pk — an online classified portal — has in store for us.
Asani.com.pk is a categorized site that lets buyers and sellers contact each other by providing them a channel for the second hand goods.
The website ensures quick response to the customers’ queries and allow them to thoroughly review the product they are interested in. With over 9,000 ads posted on the website, it is gaining traffic and approval of the classified sector as well as the people associated with the platform.
Asani.com.pk is a venture by Norway based Schibsted Media Group that operates in 30 countries with nearly 6900 employees. Online classifieds is the nugget of Schibsted Group but in addition they also offer media related products like newspapers, publishing, multimedia and mobile in developing markets across 6 continents.
The foresight and future aim of the Schibsted Group to have a concrete presence in Asia has resulted in the creation of Asani.com.pk and the current investment proposition in Pakistan with Telenor.
Asani.com.pk need to look for ways to ensure that their database is safe. The same concern that bounds the biggest companies like Google, Amazon or Yahoo; Information protection. For this the site repeatedly remind the customer to be careful while making a purchase or sharing his personal information with the seller as it is a channel that allows the buyers and customer to connect and contact to each other and holds no further entitlement in the task.
In the online context, OLX.com.pk is the strongest player for now, with significant investment in advertisement to raise awareness about the OLX brand.
Asani.com.pk, on other hands, is growing its customers’ circle and has proved to be quite a competition among the web portals of classified ads that include adverts.pk, dekho.com.pk, local.pk, citybase.com.pk and many others. But considering the sheer will and intention of Schibsted Media Group to stay in Pakistan in order to mark a successful global business hull sure gives Asani.com.pk an upper hand among all the competitors.
