Only In Pakistan

It’s great to see Pakistani eCommerce growing so fast! Thanks to increasing 3G penetration, decreasing smartphone prices and the increasing awareness of technology, more and more people are beginning to shop online. According to figures from Tech in Asia, The Express Tribune and Rozee.pk, the eCommerce market was worth $100mn in late 2015. Experts predict it will be worth $600mn by 2017, and an awe-inspiring $1bn by 2020.

I tend to take such figures with a pinch of salt, to be honest. As someone who’s building a product serving this very industry (PriceOye.pk), and working closely with leaders within it, I feel eCommerce isn’t growing fast enough to match the heavy predictions set by these projected figures.

Among many other issues, I believe one fairly important reason why people remain hesitant in shopping online is because they simply don’t trust them. Bad news spreads faster than good news, so you’re more likely to hear someone share a poor online shopping experience than a great one. Online stores are selling products over an incredibly wide spectrum of shopping experiences, and prices.

And that’s where comparison shopping services come in. They empower online consumers to quickly find the right product at the best online prices from the trusted stores. This is what I’m working on at PriceOye.pk. We’ve started with mobile phones, enabling you to find lowest prices in Pakistan for them from stores we personally know for sure can be trusted.

Price comparison services are the need of the hour. By acting as protective middlemen between consumers and online stores, they help close the trust gap that’s keeping our eCommerce industry from blooming rapidly.