Groceries online
E-commerce is making inroads towards a broad swathe of products and the grocery retail industry is no exception. According to the Kantar Worldpanel Report 2016, sales of groceries through e-commerce platforms reached $48 billion globally and it is projected that by 2025, grocery e-commerce will grow to nine percent of the market and be worth $150 billion worldwide.
Following suit, Pakistan’s e-commerce industry, which currently has a value of $30 million and the potential of reaching $600 million by 2017 (source: GSMA study), has been witnessing an increase in the e-grocery trend. Currently at a nascent stage and evolving, it is difficult to gauge the size of the online grocery market in Pakistan; however, considering the $48 billion global retail market, the growing population and tech trends, one may say that it could grow to be worth millions.
Groceries are categorised into packaged or perishable items that include fresh produce (fruit and vegetables), and there are currently over 20 e-grocery stores (most of them start-ups) operating in Pakistan, among which the most well-established include Tazamart (an Arpatech Technology Ventures company), Pakistan Grocery, QuicknEasy or QnE (Premier Agencies), Cartpk, Mycart (IBL Group), Gomart, MandiExpress (Laborforce.pk), GrocerApp and Sabziphal. Tazamart, QnE and GrocerApp offer both packaged and perishable items while Sabziphal and MandiExpress deal only in fresh produce.