Digital Media & Ecommerce Adoption in Pakistan
November 07, 2017
Badar Khushnood, cofounder at Bramerz, delivered three sessions on e-commerce and digital marketing to MBA students at the Lahore School from 31st October to 2nd November, 2017. Badar is an alumnus of the Lahore School, class of 1998.
His talk was wide-ranging and covered various aspects of e-commerce and digital marketing in general and Pakistan in particular.
Badar noted that Pakistan was at a take-off point in e-commerce. He shared very interesting digital media and ecommerce statistics especially related to the Pakistani market. The population is large (200+m) and young (~70% under the age of 30). Pakistan had 50 million internet users, with some 130 million mobile connections and 47+ million users of 3G and 4G. The habits of young Pakistanis have changed as reflected by their touch point of mobile phone to access information.
This reflected the world-wide evolution of shared economy: The largest taxi company in the world had no taxis (Uber), the largest accommodation service has no real estate (AirBnB), and the largest retailer has no inventory (Alibaba).
He pointed out that to leverage above opportunity in Pakistan, students must equip themselves with digital media and marketing skills. They, at a minimum, must study and acquire popular digital certifications e.g. Google AdWords and Google Analytics. Badar mentioned that in order to run a successful ecommerce store online in Pakistan, a brand needs to have a scalable and secure technology backed by demand generation using social media marketing. In order to fulfill incoming orders, the ecommerce platform must have stable and consistent inventory levels and integrated local digital payment and logistics partners.
Badar highlighted Fishry.com – a venture by Bramerz which helps Pakistani companies, irrespective of their size, to use setup their stores online in the fastest possible time with zero upfront cost. He advised students to consider becoming thought leaders, to run their own entrepreneurial ventures, and to persevere. His advice to companies was to remain true to the brand identity and to shift fragmented marketing campaigns to narratives. And do tons of testing with all possible permutations and combinations.
Badar received a very warm applause from all three sections, and a collection of thank you notes, which reflected both the pride, and gratitude, of the Lahore School’s students to listen to an alumnus who was doing so well and sharing his knowledge with those who are on the cusp of real life.
Labels: Alumni, Guest Speaker
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11/07/2017 11:31:00 AM,
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