Growing local businesses through Daraz
Amid easing economic activity, COVID-19 has fronted a surge in e-commerce and speeded digital transformation with businesses across the board turning to pandemic-proof e-commerce sales for basic survival.
Data don’t lie when analysing their exponential growth during the pandemic where consumers could not stop buying through this website. “Each year during the two years of the pandemic, our business has grown by two-fold. We have received 10 million orders, which is a significantly higher demand than what we imagined during that time,” Rakhil, Fernando, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Daraz Group told the Business Times in an interview.
As lockdowns became the new normal, businesses and consumers increasingly “went digital”, providing and purchasing more goods and services online, raising the company’s retail sales to 50 per cent of the market share, he said.
Because of these consumer behavioural changes, e-commerce has continued to grow, and many brands have been pivoting their business strategies to remain competitive. Mr. Fernando pointed out that Daraz had a part to play in rebuilding the economy, especially in getting small and medium enterprises who look at operating in a really low-cost model efficiently. He added that online retailing is a low-cost barrier to entry creating quite a fast solution to sell online and reach a large audience, selling nationwide, removing gender-based, socio-economic and location barriers. “We’re a great enabler for economy growth and we work on a very level playing field with the flat operating environment.” When Mr. Fernando joined as Managing Director Daraz Sri Lanka in 2019, the platform had 30,000 sellers and now it has grown by 50,000. He added that out of the 80,000 registered sellers, 10,000 are actively selling.
Despite the exponential growth during the pandemic years, the company had seen a difficult last year with business growing on a rupee basis but being an international company, there has been some contraction.
Mr. Fernando added that Daraz has witnessed a big shift in the company’s business in terms of the type of products that people buy. With the shrinking spending power, many are moving away from discretionary spending to more essential spending, which has made the company realign the business in terms of what the customer wants. “The last year was the most difficult. In terms of the visibility of products, and the customers’ ability to spend, we saw many shocks really hit in the last 12 months,” he said.
Many sellers still face limited stock issues. “This is because there are still import bans and as a result inventory limitations,” Mr Fernando said. He was hopeful that the diminishing dollar crisis and fewer import bans will see an increase in the supply side.
On top of these challenges, the company stays constantly innovative to beat the competition, Mr. Fernando added. He also noted that in all the regional markets that the company operates in, e-commerce is hovering at about 1 per cent which is a small part of retail business.
Mr. Fernando said that building an enabling e-commerce ecosystem entails changes in public policy and business practices to improve the digital and trading infrastructure.
Hitad.lk has you covered with quality used or brand new cars for sale that are budget friendly yet reliable! Now is the time to sell your old ride for something more attractive to today's modern automotive market demands. Browse through our selection of affordable options now on Hitad.lk before deciding on what will work best for you!