Who is in charge of delivering your packages? How does your purchase come to you when you order something from Daraz, or make an impulse buy from the latest Instagram thrift store, or buy a pair of shoes online from a retailer because you don’t have the energy to go to an outlet?
Easy. It is picked up by a delivery service and delivered to you in as little time as possible. The website will tell you how long it will take in business days, and the delivery service will notify you when the box has been picked up, when it is on its way to you, and when it will be delivered. The most likely scenario in Pakistan is that you will pay cash-on-delivery (COD) for your purchase.
You may believe that the procedure is straightforward. What you may not realise is that significant money is at stake in the seemingly easy industry of eCommerce logistics, and a number of firms are vying for the title of undisputed King of eCommerce logistics. Pakistan’s eCommerce sector is still small, but it is predicted to be worth USD 5 billion. Prior to Covid, the global average for eCommerce transactions as a percentage of overall retail was around 15%. In comparison, eCommerce sales in Pakistan range from 1% to 2%.
The potential, on the other hand, is enormous. Pakistan has a massive population, and there has been a concerted effort in recent years to make people more comfortable with a digital Pakistan. While eCommerce is still in its infancy in Pakistan, there are already established markets such as Daraz, PriceOye, and Telemart, and there is plenty of room for new marketplaces to emerge and existing ones to expand. So, if eCommerce becomes the behemoth that many expect it to be, handling delivery logistics will become a massive and profitable effort.
The eCommerce logistics market now has a few main types of companies. The first are the major players, such as TCS, the world’s largest logistics company, Leopards’ Courier, and Muller and Phipps (M&P). (Editor’s note: Despite the fact that TCS is twice as big as Leopard’s and M&P, we’ve lumped them all together for the sake of analysis.) Despite the fact that eCommerce in Pakistan is still quite small, these companies are investing extensively in eCommerce delivery. These are the businesses that have firmly established themselves at the top of this fairly little (for the time being) hill. Behind them are companies like BlueEx and CallCouriers, who began as document delivery couriers but have since made a clear shift to just performing eCommerce deliveries. Then there are the businesses that are just getting started. They appear to be ubiquitous these days in Pakistan, in every industry imaginable. All of them are trying to make it, all of them are hungry, and all of them are in it for the long haul. Rider, Swyft Logistics, and Trax are among of the most well-known eCommerce logistics companies.
The summit is unmistakable. Every single one of the aforementioned businesses aspires to be the go-to logistics supplier for online marketplaces. TCS and the other legacy corporations are currently on top because to their sheer size and extensive network, which has been for many years before online marketplaces existed. Others, such as BlueEx and CallCouriers, are in it simply because they were among the first to enter the market. The startups, they suggest, are the true players to function watch() { [native code] } out for. They may be at the bottom of the heap right now, but with the help of technology, they’re quickly climbing the eCommerce logistics mountain. Will they, however, be able to outperform TCS and the logistics’ old guard? Or will they be thrown back down the incline? Profit examines the future of eCommerce logistics in Pakistan, as well as which company is most likely to emerge as the industry’s king.
