Daraz Accelerates DEX’s Expansion Across Pakistan’s Logistics Sector

For years, Daraz Express, or DEX, was primarily known as the delivery network behind Pakistan’s largest online marketplace. Its role was to move e-commerce orders through sorting facilities, intercity routes and last-mile operations before completing delivery to customers. That role is now expanding. Since formally launching its last-mile delivery solution for businesses outside the Daraz marketplace in November 2025, DEX has recorded 6X growth and built a portfolio of more than 200 brands. The expansion reflects the company’s ambition to position itself as a third-party logistics partner for Pakistan’s growing direct-to-consumer and online retail market.

The network has recently onboarded several prominent Pakistani brands, including Sapphire, Sana Safinaz, Khaadi, SAYA, Nishat, Generation, Edenrobe and Saeed Ghani. They join a broader portfolio spanning fashion, lifestyle, beauty, personal care and other retail categories.

“DEX was built to solve the challenges we encountered while scaling e-commerce in Pakistan,” said Ahmed Tanveer, Chief Logistics Officer at Daraz. “Over time, we developed the physical network, technology and operating experience required to manage large and fluctuating parcel volumes. The natural evolution was to make those capabilities available to businesses beyond the Daraz platform.”

Launched in Pakistan in 2018 as Daraz’s dedicated logistics arm, DEX initially focused on giving the marketplace greater control over a part of the customer journey that had historically depended on external courier companies. For an e-commerce business, delivery performance can directly affect customer confidence. Delayed shipments, inaccurate delivery attempts and limited order visibility can undermine the experience even when the product and online purchasing process meet expectations.

“E-commerce logistics is different from conventional parcel delivery,” Tanveer said. “It requires coordination across pickup, sorting, linehaul transportation, Cash on Delivery collection, delivery attempts, customer communication and returns. Each part of that journey affects the final customer experience.”

DEX has since expanded its footprint to more than 100 cities in Pakistan and established its own linehaul network connecting major urban centres. The company says it can support local deliveries within 24 hours and inter-provincial deliveries within 72 hours in eligible locations, while maintaining a successful delivery rate of more than 90%. According to Tanveer, however, the company’s key differentiator is not coverage alone. DEX’s central proposition is built around automation through its Smart Distribution Centres in Karachi and Lahore, which the company describes as the first facilities of their kind in South Asia. The centres use automated sorting systems to route parcels according to their destination and delivery requirements. These automated workflows can process more than 10,000 parcels per hour, while the two facilities have the combined capacity to handle up to one million parcels per day.

“Automation is one of the strongest advantages we bring to brands,” Tanveer said. “It allows us to manage higher volumes with greater speed and accuracy while reducing the operational pressure associated with manual sorting. It also gives us better data to plan capacity, monitor parcel movement and identify bottlenecks.”

That capability becomes particularly important during major campaigns, seasonal collections and product launches, when brands may generate several times their normal order volumes within a short period. “Peak campaigns taught us that logistics capacity cannot be planned around average daily volumes,” Tanveer said. “The network must be able to absorb sudden increases without compromising sorting accuracy, shipment visibility or delivery timelines.” He added that the growth of DEX’s portfolio to more than 200 brands reflects a broader shift in Pakistan’s retail landscape as established businesses invest in their own websites and direct-to-consumer channels.

“The growth we have seen shows that brands are looking for logistics partners that understand e-commerce rather than simply transporting parcels,” Tanveer said. “They require systems that can support campaigns, provide visibility and maintain service standards as their online businesses scale.” For DEX, serving external brands also changes the nature of its responsibility. In a direct-to-consumer transaction, the delivery rider may be the only physical representative of the brand that the customer encounters. “The last mile becomes an extension of the brand experience,” he said. “The delivery interaction influences how customers perceive the business, so the logistics provider must understand that it is representing the brand at the customer’s doorstep.”

Cash on Delivery remains another central part of Pakistan’s e-commerce market, making the speed and transparency of merchant settlements an important component of the logistics proposition. DEX offers multiple COD settlements each week and gives merchants visibility over their payouts. “Cash flow is one of the most important concerns for a growing online business,” Tanveer said. “The commercial cycle is not complete until the payment has been collected, reconciled and returned to the merchant.”

Tanveer believes DEX’s experience within the Daraz marketplace, combined with its automated infrastructure and growing external portfolio, provides a strong foundation for serving Pakistan’s wider digital-commerce ecosystem. “We see DEX developing into a broader logistics partner for businesses across Pakistan,” he said. “The long-term opportunity is to provide the infrastructure, technology and operational scale that allow brands to reach more customers, improve the delivery experience and grow without having to build their own nationwide logistics network.”