Online Shops Lie About Their Inventory and This is Killing E-commerce Industry in Pakistan!

How often have you come across a situation when you were told that the item you selected to purchase from an online store is actually out of stock? Or your order got notably late because of some procedural delays? Or that your order got cancelled altogether due to some system errors? If you’ve faced any of these situations, than you are not alone.

A whole lot of consumers — who despite all the odds trust Pakistani online shops — undergo similar situations and their orders are either delayed or are never delivered. This can get uglier if you have paid in advance, such as through credit or debit cards because refund can take weeks, or even months.

Here is why it all happens:

Online shops lie. They lie about the items they display on their websites. They pose as if they are Walmart of Pakistan having thousands of items mentioned on their websites but in reality they don’t stock anything with them. I know a few stores that don’t stock a single item but their web-stores are filled with variety of products ranging from dresses to electronics to sports and medicine.

These huge looking online-shops buy products from open-markets only after an order is placed with them. This is how they avoid large-scale investments, which is wise, but this whole practice causes delays or cancellations and ultimately these shops earn disgruntled customers causing serious mistrust among the masses.

Majority of online-stores buy products from open-market only after an order is placed

One of my friend once ordered a  product from Daraz.pk, and paid with a credit card in advance. The order took more than 15 days instead of 4-9 days of advertised delivery time, which I believe is a deal breaker. Upon investigation we found out that Daraz actually had to order the product from Dubai and it took them over a week to have product with them to finally get it dispatched to the customer.

A similar situation arose just this week for Abdul Sattar Ansari who ordered one split AC (Air Conditioner) that was offered on promotion with 25% discount. Instead of getting the delivery of AC, he was instead told by Daraz that the order was cancelled due to a system error and his money (around Rs. 30,000) will be refunded.

After 15 days of initial payment, Mr. Ansari is still awaiting a refund and matter is reportedly yet not resolved. He is planning to sue to company for holding his payment for this long for no reason.

Daraz told me that delay in Mr. Ansari’s refund is due to banking procedures and it will be cleared as soon as it will be possible. But my real question that why a promotion was put online when Daraz didn’t have sufficient inventory went unanswered.

Daraz said that they are a marketplace and the vendor went out of stock when the promotion went viral. They had ultimately no stock and hence had to cancel orders.

Orders are cancelled or a different product is deliberately delivered when online stores can’t arrange ordered product from open market

Unfortunately, these incidents aren’t rare and aren’t specific to Daraz only. As I explained above, almost every online story tend to display products that they don’t have with them.

Since online stores have usually thousands of products listed with them on their websites, prices of several products go high and they find out about hiked prices only after getting the order when they go out to market to buy them. Instead of bearing the loss, online-shops tend of cancel the order altogether and whole exercise of fire-fight between store and customer is repeated.

Almost every online-store understands this and they know that their deeds have to be corrected but to win over competition they aren’t able to straighten their acts. In return, an already struggling industry is getting hurt and those select people who used to trust online shops are losing their faith too.

Lying about inventory to win-over the competition will one day kill the e-commerce industry altogether and these online shops won’t have any customers to tell a single lie.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • I had similar encounters with Daraz, they suck big time! Ruined two of my orders and spam me daily. They have worst website which doesn’t even send you order updates. So outdated business.

    • yeah, many of them lied about their services and products, some are selling re-furbished with tag Brand New …

  • I ordered a watch from Daraz, Symbios and 3 others site but they first booked my order and the next day all have same answer that OUT OF STOCK
    pathetic online stores

    • Agreed. I learned the hard way. Better to call before registering an account providing all your details when you can’t get anything out.

  • get in line E-commerce… Education, Health, Power Sector, Railways etc etc.. are still waiting to be corrected in this junk of corruption ridden country….

  • Splendid article. I had a similar experience with Daraz.pk. it turned into a nightmare when they not only misrepresented their offering and also refused to reply to my calls and mails. I had ordered Sony pulse elite headphones for 10,000. They sent me the wrong item twice. Later on I warned about pressing charges against them on basis of fraud and misrepresentation. I got my real item delivered after a month.

    Take this with a grain of salt. Your experience might differ but if you ask my opinion. Daraz.pk is all smoke and mirrors. Great marketing and SEO optimization but zero delivery. I can show all the coresspondence between Daraz.pk email support and myself.

  • Hahahaha
    I can understand why the example of Daraz.pk used here.
    I am also tired of their spammy abadvertising

  • I too once ordered from Daraz.pk and got a wrong item ordered delivered false advertising. It took them almost a week to get the item back and the a month at least to give me a refund

  • For the same reason, we (Monet Pvt Ltd) launched the Product “Swipe2Pay” – So that people only pay from their card when the order is delivered on their doorstep.

    • how do you know that daraz is a large scale store? just because they list thousands of items?

      • 1. Backed by a big company (RocketVentures)
        2. Very Popular
        3. The Best eCommerce website in Pakistan (functionality,design)
        4. Better Customer Service than other stores
        5. Has its own App
        6. Very Good Packaging

        These are all signs of a good and large company.

    • There are some genuine sellers with great service. Here’s an example of it: games4u.pk

      I’m a big fan of video games.

  • I had a lot of experience with Daraz. Too much reliability I must say. Once, the item was out of stock worth Rs. 21000 and I was given a Rs. 1000 apology voucher. I am a satisfied customer of Daraz!

  • It is just me or anyone else also think that daraz’s promotion is all about gathering data of people who can afford air conditioners or mobile phones even at 25% off? later spam them as much as they can?

  • The reason of failure I feel that Everyone think that to design a creative, integrate it with e-commerce software, putting the images from various site. Few calls to dealers who own the products. and Start Online Store. Online store is just another Interface or outlook of Store you are selling online. rest all the Real World Challenges are their and work the same way.

    If the Warehouses provides direct access to each Online Store the challenge might be reduce of Stock Out. Else for each product you have to at least booked or buy limited quantity and keep the site updated.

    Its required complete team to start with to make it as successful business.

  • Ordered Galaxy Core Prime G360G(4g version) from Daraz but received G360H/DS which is 3g dual sim version.

  • Had a similar incident with homeshopping.
    Ordered a 55 inch tv paid the full amount 140000.
    But order was cancelled sayin ” the vendor was sellin replicas so we cant offer u in that price instead u have to pay full price “.
    It was a pain gettin payment from them. Their call centre is pathetic had to google to get the number of their ceo shayan.
    Also ordered some items from amazon paid the full amount its been 2 months still the item is not delivered.
    This was my last order from them bye bye homeshopping.

    • Please share your order number and we shall have you updated right away . Refunds with HSN are usually made in less then 2 days sir however im glad that it was done and for your import based products yes they have a time line and at times get delayed please share order number so we can assist you right away .

    • From my experience. Homeshopping isnt dishonest, their prices are steep but they do fulfill on their promise.

  • Ordered a Tissot watch once on Daraz discount but later they said they cant get the product from the vendor at this price so my amount my paid to me a month later.

  • Daraz always served me good, but once my order of a phone didn’t ship in 6 days so I had yo cancel that order, and talking about homeshopping I never order things from them anymore, one time they claimed full accessories with the phone but sent clone head phones instead, again ordered two more phones, refurbished though, the accessories were clone and both of the phones are dead now, the worst thing is they don’t let me post comments on those items so others can get vigilant, they never allow such comments, what a pathetic approach!

    • sir did you buy the phones under warranty of HSN if so How about we give you new ones or the dead ones ? accessories can be fake it times with the refurbished ones however we have a 7 days return policy which works im sure you are a witness to that yourself. Your post must be in the disques section and that is used for questions and answers leave a feedback for the product and I shall approve right now for you as that is every customers right

      • Tum logon k chithay bhi bht hn mere pass… order kia kerte hn milta kia ha… ordered htc chacha mila order status… ordered s3 new mil s3 refurbished… order s4 new mila s4 verizon… order hp touchscreen new mila refurbished… discount k pese kabhi wapis bheje hi nahi

        • share order number and we shall call in right away to resolve if we owe to any thing we would be happy to help right away sir.

      • I don’t want to leave any feedback now, and yes those refurbished phones hadn’t 7 day replacement warranty, only 1 day checking was there but how could i check it in one day, thing is when you guys claim that accessories are complete why not tell if those are original or clone

    • We would like to offer you a free Rs 5000 voucher to give us another try and we assure you we shall not let you down !

  • this is also funny thing DR. aamir liaquat comment here :P

    is koushi mai rahman Malik ka Apple ap ko howa

  • i ordered 2 products from kamyu.pk and when i recieved them .. both the products were defective and second hand .. after that i returned them to their repective address charging me 830 rupees for single product ..both product returned cost was 830+830=1660 . i waited for 2 months calling them on daily basis for asking my products .. they r not returning my money nor they r sending me products .. and they r saying that we r not responsible for return cost .. actually that cost is for replacing the products not returning cost . and total cost of both products r 5700 excluding return cost. now after 3 months .. i recorded that money as a bad debt .. because they r just lieing and not returning my money back .. so 5700+1660= 7360 total loss .

  • I ordered a Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 from kaymu.pk offered by vendor giftsmine.com. They said they were delivering original mobile, but I received a korean clone without any charger, handsfree or accessories. Complained for a refund on kaymu but received no refund or exchange. Pathetice kaymu service of daraz.

  • I ordered a laptop on homeshopping, and after lapse of 3 months I am still waiting for it to be delivered.

      • Selling products without actually having them in your stock. So there is no risk involved in this type of business.

  • It happened with me also and i contacted you long time ago to mention this issue. Thanks for doing an article on it :-)

  • Same thing happened to me, ordered few shirts and at the last moment they (daraz.pk) cancelled my order mentioning some shitty reasons.

  • Dear proPakistani, Please make sure that typographical and grammatical mistakes are not repeated in your articles. I have seen them quite often

  • I had the worst experience with Bytes.pk, these guys just take orders but never deliver them, or probably they are too much techy to dispatch through a drone that never reach you!

    So far as Daraz is concerned, I had a good experience buying fashion items.

  • I personally purchased selfie stick once from daraz.pk and this is what they did.
    Called next day for credit card verification.
    After verification took 4 days with no response, I asked them about the status.
    They said the stock they have was not qualified with QA and hence cancelling my order and I will get refund in 3 days.
    Next 4 days no response
    I sent them email, again said we are looking into it.
    Again no response. I tweeted them and than they sent refund after detecting payment gateway transaction fee.
    And BTW that selfie stick is still appearing on their website, although I asked them to remove if its not QA qualified.

  • I have twice such an experience with ishopping.pk.

    First time they delivered a phone of lower capacity than the one I had ordered. I returned the package and still waiting to be reimbursed for courier charges.

    Second time ordered a phone for my father. Which they didn’t deliver for three weeks. I kept calling them and two weeks in they said the prices had changed and main koi tawwan karoon. I was like no sir not after two weeks. They did deliver the product but grudgingly and without the Bluetooth headset I had ordered alongside. It’s worse when you are booking orders for someone else

  • This article was such a waste of time. It’s common sense that these ecommerce stores have vendors and suppliers who help them complete orders. Where on these websites does it say that all the stock is in their warehouses?! How have we been lied to or conned in any way? Marketplace is a very common concept. Do some research before writing such articles. I get that it’s fun to write such articles – they attract readers – but this is really bad or out country. If somebody is doing something good and productive with a few exceptions here and there then, we should really cut them some slack. Motivate people who have dared to step into such a tricky market. Appreciate them for doing well and making a place for themselves in a country like ours. Don’t exploit your position man.

    • Looks like you work for Daraz. Accept what’s wrong and try to make your services better instead of giving lame excuses. This is not the first time something like that happened to someone. You guys advertise but don’t deliver. That’s really patehtic.

    • Excuse me mam ! Everyone is talking about DELIVERY TIME , yes you heard it rite Delivery time . After an order is placed it should generally be with the customer before the ETA

    • Have a look around the global markets and then figure out how online stores work. Thank you.

      • I have. My comment is backed up with a clear understanding of the ecommerce model. Do you think Amazon has all the products they sell in their inventory?! Are you kidding me? NO THEY DON’T. It’s not practical – that’s not how it works and I don’t think any of the ecommerce ventures have ever claimed any such thing. Some things they keep in their inventory, some things they don’t – it’s really common sense. Nobody has been ‘lied’ to :/. It’s a marketplace, that’s how things work – get your facts straight man. Be a little reasonable and logical. But oh well, being unnecessarily critical will get your website attention so you gotta do what you gotta do. I do like ProPakistani a lot but sometimes poorly researched articles are a little annoying to read.

        • I did a little research for an essay I had to work on – Daraz.pk makes about 4000 deliveries across Pakistan in a day – so if 2 out of 4000 orders aren’t up to the mark (poor delivery or whatever) I don’t see why such a huge fuss needs to be created. I don’t see you writing articles about how great someone’s experience was. Those 3998 people who got their stuff, just the way they wanted it, at the comfort of their homes, don’t matter? You live in a country with poor infrastructure and a major lack of logistical facilities – appreciate the people who are trying to bridge this gap instead of trying to pull them down! I am not someone who works for Daraz, I am not someone who dislikes ProPakistani. I am just someone who doesn’t understand why Pakistanis are so critical about everything. Are we really THAT frustrated?

        • > Do you think Amazon has all the products they sell in their inventory?! Are you kidding me? NO THEY DON’T.

          Actually they do. They have some of the biggest warehouses in the countries they operate. And if they run out of stock of a product listed on their site, its status is immediately updated to reflect that. Goes to show you have no idea what you’re talking about.

  • i have also had a very similar experience, i am agreed with the subject of this post, its not an inspiring or attractive buying experience even from the so called No.1 website daraz.pk.
    Business need commitment of serving the customer by delivering a wow experience but probably they dont know this and claiming themself No.1 in pakistan.

  • I have a nice experience with Daraz; as I have purchased 8 products in the last couple of months and got delivery within 4 working days.
    One thing is disturbing to me that once you become customer of Daraz, they really fill your inbox with multiple emails daily. I found no way to unsubscribe such emails.

    • Mark Them Spam or create a filter to send them to trash directly. That’s what i did to avoid their spam.

  • It is good to go to Consumer Courts instead of complaining here and there. Once the company is sued, others will get alert. We don’t know our rights and that is why we are suffering.

  • Homeshopping doing the same thing, 20-25 days delivery, the did not have sufficient inventory, most of their item are imported from USA

  • Grow Up Pakistani Boys, Hamay Tumhary Zarorat Hai Ye Government to Kuch Nahi De Gi Khud Kuch Invent Kar Lo Jis Se Awam Ko Fiada Ho

  • I had a very good experience of online shopping with TCS Connect.In my opinion they are the best so far in Pakistan

  • But i have purchase many electronics devices like smart phone and tablets.The online vendors send me 100% original products but some time they have out of stock but mostly devices availbe…….

  • For me:

    Good Experience: Shophive, beegeek and symbios
    Bad Experience: homeshopping, belisicity (doesn’t exist anymore i think)

  • And now I see why you are abusing them and asking other good :) Cheap way of marketing

    • a·buse
      verb
      əˈbyo͞oz/
      1.
      use (something) to bad effect or for a bad purpose; misuse.
      “the judge abused his power by imposing the fines”
      synonyms:misuse, misapply, misemploy; More

      2.
      treat (a person or an animal) with cruelty or violence, especially regularly or repeatedly.
      “riders who abuse their horses should be prosecuted”
      synonyms:mistreat, maltreat, ill-treat, treat badly; More

      noun
      əˈbyo͞os/
      1.
      the improper use of something.
      “alcohol abuse”
      synonyms:misuse, misapplication, misemployment; More

      2.
      cruel and violent treatment of a person or animal.
      “a black eye and other signs of physical abuse”
      synonyms:mistreatment, maltreatment, ill-treatment; More

      • Where was I abusing?, please think before you write. The chap wanted an example of a good online retailer so I gave one.

  • For Gods sake please abandon online shopping through pakistani chors please goto saddar in karachi or hafeez center in Lahore or Raja Bazar in Islamabad or Khan Plaza in Multan and all other related stuff in your viscinity these online vendors knows nothing about e-commerce in pakistan I too had the worst of all experience with stupid daraz.pk I regret it never buy online in pakistan ‘inko abcd ati nae ha online business ki chly han walmart ya amazon of pakistan bunny’ shame on all the vendors.I feel sorry to read each and every persons experience with daraz.pk ughhhhhh

  • Order another product from them and refuse to hand over the money at your doorstep. They can’t do anything.

  • Amazon is world’s biggest E-Commerce site and even India’s flipkart is great too.

  • it happened to me when purchased from myshopping.pk
    They called to confirm order , address etc but then never called me back and never given me an item

  • Like your practices your comment is just another lie. You didn’t write an essay, you work at Daraz.pk in the PR Dept. I believe (a simple Google search confirmed that).

    Also, you have no understanding of how e-commerce works which again goes to show Daraz is run by incompetent people.

    I agree that things go out of stock but if you have taken the order then you must fulfil it. Giving excuses like system glitch is bad practice. Also Amazon has one of the world’s largest and sophistacted warehouses and order delivery systems with fail safe. And even if they screw up, they deliver the item no matter what.

    Please stop spreading lies and start delivering what you promise. Pseudonyms won’t help you avoid this. You’ll have to work really hard along with you team to fix this.

    • Voicing out your opinion is great. But using someone else’s name and defaming them is very unethical. How about using your real name next time you point fingers and come out of hiding. Sounds like you’ve got a good understanding of the e commerce system.. Could it be that you’re an employee of the same company?

      • Exactly my point. There is no need to hide behind pseudonyms to convey your point, especially if you’re an official of a company. I’m glad you understand that but come on, a pseudonym again?

        • Ummm. Just to be clear, Mustafa Changazi’s comment was directed towards you. You are the one who has used his name.

  • Gaming in Pak esp for X1 and PS4 is damn expensive….prices here for older games dont tent to drop…its better to buy digital for those older games which are not “must haves” while others can be bought that have replayable value…..

    I got Ryse Legendary Edition for 3500 Rs off the X1 market while the market price for the normal edition was 5500 legendary would be around 6500

    I got Assassin’s Creed Black Flag for 2500 while the market price is 5500

    I got Tomb Raider Definitive Edition for 1500 while the market price I believe is still around 4500-5000

    The games I actually bought at full price because they were my must haves were

    GTA V 7000 Rs
    Halo MCC 7000Rs
    FIFA 15 7000Rs
    Forza Horizon 6500 Rs

    • I feel your pain, I bought a PS4 at launch and paid a hefty price for it. Digital might be the way to go only if the prices are on sale. Downloading them is a big pain, considering their huge sizes

      Hows the MCC?. I would definitely buy Ryse if I ever buy an Xbox One.

      Great to see to see a gamer. If your on PSN add me up: TheXerome

      • Have always been with Microsoft since 2001 but I wouldn’t mind a ps4 but damn financing one is enough haha….Halo MCC is a good collection sadly the online was not stable in the initial 4 months but now it’s fine but I’m waiting on halo 5 played the multiplayer beta and it was phenomenal!?!?! Ryse is good too….

        If u ever end up getting a x1 add me K1l3l00cl

        I’m just glad u can buy games and run xbox live from pak….sadly 4mb isn’t enough for downloading but 8mb is….but 8mb connection is a ripoff…..online gaming on 4mb is sufficient if it hard wired and not wifi….wifi is ok too but I’ve noticed hard wired and 8mb gave me slightly less input lag….

        • Im impressed by the fact you had owned the Xbox classic. In a way it was a spiritual successor to Sega Dreamcast. Halo CE was originally planed for Dreamcast. I can confirm the online problems regarding MCC. We had many broken games in 2014. I had a big issue with AC: Unity. I had left xbox, after 360. My gamertag is same as PSN. You can check :) .

          All ISP are ripoff here. I got 4 mbps fiber optic PTCL. Its a let down. Have you tried changing DNS settings on your console, apparently it boosts download speeds. Google and Open DNS did the trick for me. Definitely wired connection is the way to go. Ill check your gamertag out. Thanks for the positive response.

          • I started off with Atari in pak back when I was young then when I went overseas subsequently sega genesis/super nitendo….n64….Xbox…xbox 360 and now x1….I have hardly played on ps/ps2 or ps3….

            ptcl sadly Is still by far the best it’s been stable for me for quite some months even if it gets messed up it fixes itself cuz I’ve been an irate customer….I am using google DNS settings 8888 8844 I believe….I get 490kbps on torrents and on x1 4-4.8mbps as well….speedtest gives me 4mb exact which equates to 490kbps top….fps games r fine with wifi on 4mb since Microsoft recommends 3mb at least but racing game it has to be 8mb direct can’t be on wifi….I have my router adsl on gmt mode I gives me a lower ping which is 28ms but the actual ping of Microsoft severs is unknown since the speedtest on consol is based off a server in Seattle which gives 300ms ping but online is still flawless….I’m waiting for 8mb price to drop cuz that 8mb cap price 3k is a ripoff with 200gb download limit which I can utilities in 4-5 days…..

  • Guys…! the game changer is going to enter Pakistani e-commerce market soon as the biggest e-commerce giant is going to enter the market. Are you ready to cheez……..?

  • Yesterday, I received my life’s first online product through Symbios. If I read this article before ordering, I will never buy this product, but now I trust the online market. I don’t care either they buy a product from an open market or close market, I need the product at best condition and I got that. I think the above article is required a lot of research. @aamir7:disqus please mention how many orders are placed on Daraz, Symbios etc, how many are delivered on time, how many are gotten in bad quality etc. A person who worked at Daraz was saying that 4000 orders are placed daily on Daraz, of course, there is a room of mistakes. Please write an article on it. Thanks!

  • Recently faced the exact same thing… Received an sms from JJ about the summer gala sale boasting their online store as well. When I checked the online store, everything on sale was “out of stock”! Funny thing is, the stock that they showed on the online page was not available on sale in their outlets and some old and battered designs were up for sale! Just a gimmick to attract customers? I think so.

  • Thats how an ecommerce website works..the worst thing a startup website can do is maintain an inventory. You think Amazon keeps a 100percent inventory? most items they show are also not in their inventory and orders are placed with the vendors, who ship the product directly to the customers, unlike in Pakistan. This concept is known as dropshipping. But agreed, our local websites need to work out a way where the customers are not decieved. As for the premium, dont expect to get the same price as in the market…how will the websites cover their expenses and make money. you are getting a product at your doorstep, you dont have to go in traffic, find parking then visit 4 different shops before you get the right price. They facilitate you and therefore charge a premium. otherwise, they will simply shut down.

  • One of my friend ordered some product from magiclamp pk online store but he till now not received the ordered product after more then a month. Magiclamp pk claim that they ship products from amazon and eBay that is why it get time to reach the product. but I think they should advertise those products on their website which are available at their store and tell the customer frankly about time of arrival of the foreign shipments

  • Wherever I read these issues, the first para is always, I paid in advance via credit/debit card, do you seriously trust Pakistanis that you are paying them in advance and they will deliver it to you. I have had a good experience with Daraz, maybe because I always choose Cash-on-Delivery. I am not blaming all sellers but MOST of them will create some issues for you if you pay in advance. This is just my opinion, but always choose cash-on-delivery as payment method. I know there are some trustworthy sellers as well but, if you use cash-on-delivery method at least there’s no tension, even if the product is out of stock or doesn’t get delivered or takes longer than it should, since you haven’t paid yet. I know it’s not a great choice, because you might not be at home when the product is delivered, and you would need to keep 50,000 in your wallet ( if it’s something expensive like a smartphone or AC), but at least you are not risking your cash. At the end, it’s just my opinion.


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