Technology Catalyzes Online Furniture Business in Pakistan

With ever-changing information technology sector, increasing number of tech start-ups, and new entrants continuously making way to the market, e-commerce culture is taking a whole new business shape in Pakistan.

Technology Catalyzes Online Furniture Business in Pakistan

Internet users

According to a report, internet users in Pakistan were only 133,900 amid the total population of 163,985,373 in the calendar year 2,000. Registering a magnanimous increase, the number of internet users spiked to 12,000,000 in 2006. By 2010, this number increased to 18,500,000 – a surge of 54% in only four years.

Sizeable increase was seen in 2018 with 44,608,065 people using internet in Pakistan. The graphs below paint a clear picture of internet users’ penetration in the country:

 Furniture Business

Online furniture buying

In similitude to these trends, online furniture buying has also registered favorable numbers. Although it is tough to take furniture buying decisions online, but online portals such as Apnafurniture.pk, Daraz.pk and many others have ensured good online presentation, allowing users to take quick buying decisions.

According to Google Trends, searches for online furniture buying increased 97.5% in the past one year from November 2017 to November 2018. This trend is likely to replicate in the years to come.

Addressing the issues

When it comes to buying furniture on internet in Pakistan, logistics is a major concern. However, this concern has been well addressed by various courier companies such as TCS, Leopards Courier, M & P, and Call Courier etc.

These courier companies charge according to the volumetric weight of furniture products, which is calculated as follows:

Volumetric weight = Length x Width x Heights/5000

However, there is a catch here: if the actual weight of a furniture product is higher than its volumetric weight, the courier companies take actual weight into consideration to charge their customers.

Trustworthiness

All online portals selling furniture in Pakistan have to make sure that they maintain trustworthiness among their clients. For this purpose, rating system has been introduced by these portals, allowing buyers to take a safe and informed decision.

Online payments

Technological advancement has also allowed these portals to receive payments online from their clients. Thanks to online payment solutions such as Jazz Cash, Easy Paisa and Sim Sim. Using these services, transparent deals are realized in the online furniture market of Pakistan.

The bottom line

There is still a need to promote online furniture industry, as not all Pakistanis having access to internet prefer to buy furniture online, but all favorable trends seen in the past give hope that more people will shift towards online buying in this fast-changing environment.

By Naveed Iqbal

I am a writing enthusiast and I love to write about furniture, interior decor and real estate.