Terrabiz Conferences and the Chainstores Association of Pakistan (CAP) jointly hosted the first Future of Retail Business Summit (FOR2022) in Karachi on 8 March with the central objective to bring Pakistan’s diverse retail sector onto one cohesive platform.
The conference was supported by Pakistan Fintech Association, P@SHA, and A.F. Fergusson & Co. as Knowledge Partners. It was chaired by illustrious speakers, including industry leaders from retail, brands, e-commerce, fintech, and taxation such as Steve Dennis (bestselling author on Amazon), Nadeem Hussain (PFN), Amir Paracha (Unilever), Saira Awan Malik (TCS), Faisal Riaz (Dolmen Mall), Seema Aziz (Sefam), Shamoon Sultan (Khaadi), Ehsan Saya (Daraz), Ibad Ahmed (PandaMart), and M. Azfar Ahsan (Board of Investment) who was also the Guest of Honor.
Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood commended the conference in a special video address at the summit and spoke about how the event will play a critical role in shaping the future of retail in Pakistan.
“The retail sector contributes 18 percent of the GDP, employs 16 percent of the workforce,” he stated and added that the retail sector is critical to fueling supporting sectors such as construction and transportation. He also mentioned that the growth of the retail sector is a strong indicator of development and progress in Pakistan.
Industry stalwarts used the platform of cross-sector key stakeholders to identify areas where collaboration could be made, and improvements could benefit growth. The aggregate representation of business and technology-enabled the participants to envision how they could create the future of their retail brands and be part of this accelerating ecosystem.
Retail giants such as the founder of Bareeze, Seema Irfan, and the founder of Al Fatah stores, Irfan Shaikh, shared insights into the challenges they had had in building brands and serving customers in Pakistan.
An underlying theme that was highlighted beside the future of retail is how resilient brands survived the challenges of the pandemic and became more customer-centric upon reopening.
