EcomX17: Takeaways From Pakistans First Ever e-Commerce Focused Event

EcomX17 is the first exclusive E-Commerce event to take place in Pakistan. Organized by PASHA & PSEB and supported by Fishry & Microsoft, EcomX17 acted as a platform to gather all the experts, professionals and thought-leaders in the field of E-Commerce in Pakistan to share experiences and work collectively towards the growth of E-Commerce in Pakistan.

Event was graced with the presence of esteemed speakers and panelists from the industry and saw an overwhelming response from the attendees.

The event was attended by professionals from E-Commerce marketplaces (Yayvo, TCS Sentiments etc.), E-Commerce enablers (Fishry, Microsoft, Facebook etc.), Payment vendors (Finca) and multiple known and upcoming brands.

Event promised to act as a supporting ground for conducive policies towards E-Commerce in Pakistan and how the market can be collectively grown by making everything easier for the customers. Issues and challenges related to e-commerce in Pakistan were also discussed at the event and acted as a great networking platform for digital nomads.

Speakers

Shant Oknayan, Facebook MENA

The event started with the discussion on how the consumer behavior has shifted from desktop usage to dependence upon mobile phones. An expert shared how consumers in the USA spend 6 hours of a day on digital platforms and out of these 6 hours, 3 are spent on mobile phones, which is the highest amount of time spent on any media platform.

Moreover, he also elaborated how everyday 3 billion opportunities or moments are created to engage consumers through mobile. He also elaborated on how video content is gaining popularity and is the new way of interaction as brands are moving away from static content.

He concluded by talking about the growth of e-commerce and how 1.2 billion people on Facebook are already connected with 1 business in a foreign country and there some huge opportunities for businesses to connect with a vast audience through the platform of e-commerce.

Ali Khurshid, Facebook APAC

A detailed description of Facebook tools was discussed in the speech. These tools can be used to make a global brand with the help of e-commerce. Some of the tools included were:

1. Dynamic languages
2. Audience insights
3. Facebook business
4. Instagram business

A detailed case study of Daraz and a few other bands were also discussed during the session and how these brands have been able to achieve 85% increase in sales with the help of Facebook.

Irfan Wahab, CEO Telenor

He started his talk with statistics of Pakistan’s connected users which amount to 140 million and how one-third of these people are connected through a smartphone, expected to increase with the introduction of low priced smartphones in the market.

He also told the attendees how 80% of Pakistanis will have access to 4G by 2018. Various projects from Telenor are helping the growth of e-commerce and it was established that Telenor has 40 million customers and 20 million are connected through their banking services.

Sadia Khurram, GM North Careem

Discussion started with how Careem has brought the concept of a virtual market place to Pakistan and is available in 11 cities of the country and it promises to create 1 million jobs by 2020. Sadia also talked about Careem’s vision of women empowerment and how it has provided women with a safe platform for traveling as 60% of its users are women.

Shoaib Khalil, Territory Manager Microsoft

He talked about how 86% of CEOs consider digital platforms as their number one priority and how this decade has seen an advancement in technology to meet consumer demands.

Shoaib also talked about how highly personalized offers with advanced analytics can be used to introduce e-commerce for businesses in Pakistan which are integrated with digital and analog flexibility. It was concluded that Amazon has seen the highest change in market value of 1934% from 2006 to 2016.

Barkaan Saeed, Chairman P@sha

He concluded the event by elaborating the efforts of ministry of commerce and the government in order to boost e-commerce in Pakistan.

There was a panel discussion during the event which was hosted by Sheryar Hydri, Secretary General, P@sha and the panelists included Qasif Shahid (CEO SimSim), Salman Hasan (CEO, TCS Ecom), Raza Rehman (COO Sefam) and Amir Sarfraz (Cofounder Fishry).

There was a detailed discussion on the challenges being faced to bring e-commerce to Pakistan and what can be done to bring more brands on board. All the experts shared their experience of their respective fields and what should be done to bring this shift in Pakistan.

EcomX17 has allowed the masters of the field of e-commerce come together on a platform and share their knowledge with others. Moreover, this event was a hit to network with the experts in the field of e-commerce and was the first of many similar events to come.