Trademor Marketing (Pvt) Ltd was recently awarded a Scale-up Grant worth PKR 23.6 million by the USAID Small and Medium Enterprise Activity (SMEA). The Grant duration will be from Aug 25, 2021, till May 31, 2022.
Trademor, one of the authorized channel partners of Alibaba.com in Pakistan, enables Pakistani SMEs to grow their business through e-commerce. Its forte lies in helping local businesses export their products to a global community of buyers on the world’s largest business-to-business and business-to-consumer online marketplaces such as Alibaba.com and Amazon.com.
Due to limited growth opportunities, traditional small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan have to rely on conventional methods for their expansion, such as slowly building a customer base and increasing their brand’s reputation over time.
An additional obstacle is the lack of information about the growing e-commerce industry and methods that can help businesses thrive in such a competitive environment.
In this competitive landscape, Trademor is helping businesses grow to revitalize the stagnant economy in specific regions. Not only does it enable companies to grow their revenue exponentially, but it is also providing new job opportunities to Pakistanis of all ages.
Over time, Trademor has established offices in Karachi, Islamabad, and Sialkot and has onboarded more than 1,000 SMEs on Alibaba’s network of sellers.
USAID SMEA supports development initiatives in the ICT, hospitality, textiles, agri-business and processing, light engineering, and logistics sectors with a strong emphasis on supporting women-owned/led businesses, aiming to create jobs, sales and exports, and private sector investment.
Through the additional funds received through the Scale-Up Grant, Trademor will expand its operational capacity in six additional locations that include Wazirabad, Faisalabad, Lahore, Multan, Taxila, and Peshawar to onboard new SMEs on both Alibaba.com and Amazon.com.
The total amount allotted for the expansion of this project is PKR 42 Million, out of which 55% will come from the Scale-up Grant provided by USAID SMEA.
These funds will contribute to buying essential ICT supplies to support the cost of personalized capacity-building for SMEs for onboarding onto Alibaba and Amazon (these funds will not contribute to direct payments made to either Alibaba or Amazon).
Moreover, these funds will also be used to conduct digital marketing campaigns, develop promotional and training videos and strategize to position the brand for global market exposure, which is a key aspect when you’re trying to stand out amongst the crowd.
Trademor’s goal is to help SMEs understand the necessary requirements for documentation and other legalities essential to carry out a business activity for a manufacturer to sell their product on various global marketplaces.
As part of the onboarding process, Trademor will assist SMEs in posting premium quality products on their store that will help increase visibility as well as traffic and construct a mini-site that acts as a storefront on sellers’ Alibaba.com accounts.
Moreover, Trademor will also be providing full account management by allocating VAs (Virtual Assistant) to its clients (for an additional charge), who will be assisting in account maintenance and identifying potential markets and leads for the locally manufactured products along with providing all essential services needed to have a running account on Alibaba.com and Amazon.com.
To ensure complete information transfer to the manufacturer, training regarding KWA (Key-Word-Advertising) or PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns, product launch, high-quality product listing, and keyword hunting will be provided.
In an era of globalization and rapid technological change, Trademor, through this grant, will act as a ladder for Pakistani SMEs to expand their businesses worldwide.
This makes it a perfect opportunity for traditional SMEs in Pakistan to break out from the conventional methods of expansion and comfortably rely on Trademor to play its part as their partner in growth.
