Daraz Black Friday: Credit and debit card sales rose 28%

Digital payments may become more prominent as e-commerce develops, but it comes down to trust.
Published December 25, 2015

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KARACHI: Daraz's Black Friday shopping frenzy saw an important shift in Pakistan's e-commerce market ─ from cash payment on delivery towards more efficient digital payments.

Before the event, less then 5 per cent of orders on Daraz were prepaid with credit or debit cards but on Black Friday, a staggering 33pc of orders were placed with digital payments.

Easypay with its extra discounts gave customers an incentive to use digital payments, showing more Pakistanis are comfortable making prepaid orders.

With prepayments, customers avoid having to stash large amounts of cash every time they order online.

From a logistics perspective, operations become faster, easier and safer and delivery riders don't need to worry about having accurate change, and counting and depositing the cash collected.

It seems certain that digital payments will become more prominent as the e-commerce market develops, but the speed of this transition is a question mark ─ it all comes down to trust.

Daraz says building trust with customers is not a hurdle, but a top priority.

"It is our duty to show our customers that prepayments on Daraz.pk are safe and easy. We offer a 7-day return policy and with new and innovative payment systems like Easypay, it has become a lot easier and safer to return money to our customers. And importantly, there are no extra charges to the customer for using any of the Easypay payment options," Daraz.pk CEO Muneeb Maayr says.


The best thing about Easypay is that the payment system is not designed just for the 26 million people in Pakistan who hold debit or credit cards, but for every single Pakistani.


"Easypay offers great value to all of our customers because of its flexibility and ease of use. It allows our customers to use their credit or debit cards, they can pay directly with their Easypaisa Mobile Account, or they can go to any one of the 75.000 Easypaisa shops across the country to pay their Easypay token," Maayr says.

On Black Friday, payments through Easypaisa shops enabled easy and convenient payments for transactions across the country, including remote places like Gilgit and Kotli, he says, adding that the option is important as it enhances the promise of convenience ─ "The core of our value proposition", Maayr says.

"Because of the clear advantages of digital payments, Daraz will start offering its customers an extra Rs 300 discount on all prepaid orders above Rs 10,000," he says.

The Daraz Black Friday shopping frenzy broke all e-commerce records in Pakistan on November 27, raking in 55 times more orders than an average day on Daraz.pk.

Due to the exceptionally high number of orders and excitement, the overwhelming response on Black Friday posed challenges as the Daraz website had to handle an unprecedented amount of traffic.

Naturally, there are things that can be improved to make the shopping and payment experience even more seamless but overall, the event marked the beginning of a great shift towards a safer and easier future in e-commerce.


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