KARACHI: As last minute Eidul Fitr shopping picks up pace, activity on the online shopping landscape is seemingly muted. Not many discounts or good deals are available online and what is there on sale are mostly outdated items, according to the feedback given by many shoppers who have enjoyed huge discounts during the Black/White/Blessed/Big Friday sales.

Though Karachi traders are eyeing a sales target of Rs60 billion for this Eid, however, no estimates are available for online sales during the said period. The biggest online sales benchmark remains Daraz.pk’s 2017 Black Friday (later renamed to Big Friday) sales which crossed the Rs3bn mark. However, even this site turned down the request to share numbers related to Eid shopping.

Talking to Dawn, a mobile phone vendor, who also sells via e-commerce websites, says that mobile sales always increase in Ramazan.

“It’s a convenient gift item. However, more and more people are going online to avail discounts though many sites don’t offer much on Eid. The same models which are at my shop get sold after a lot of barging but a ‘20 per cent off’ sign online attracts way more buyers who often end up at my store and ask for the same deal,” he says, adding that he often allows this online-to-offline sale because it saves him the commission that he has to give on each sale to the website.

“For Eid shopping, almost everyone sets aside money. Online retailers/websites need to look into expanding the discounts and services during Eid. If Black Friday can make it big in Pakistan, why can’t this be done for Eid?” the vendor continued.

Talking to Dawn, Saman Javed, Head of Marketing Communications Daraz.pk, said there is definitely a spike before Eidul Fitr. “Our Eid sales in the last few years have always been very successful. Our best categories at this time of the year are of course ‘Fashion’ and ‘Beauty’. Surprisingly, the ‘Phone’ category does really well as well and revenues go up. Another category that sees a spike is the ‘Home and Living’ category where sales shoot up 2x as people revamp their homes before Eid,” she said.

However, she stressed that Eid sales shouldn’t be compared to Black Friday as “that is a completely different league”.

Talking to Dawn, ‘Studio by TCS’ Director Sahar Ahmed, said that there is an increase in sales during Eid.

Studio by TCS is an online platform that was launched in February 2017. It offers some of the best Pakistani fashion which can be booked via the website and shipped to any part of the world.

“We are catering to the international market — predominantly the Pakistani diaspora. It’s a platform where they can engage. Sales pick up during Eid.” She noted that even last year in May/June, sales picked up. “Our sales are the highest in this month, much higher than the shadi season.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018