Pakistan - beholding growing number of 40 million smartphones with digitally connected clientage - is poised to hit $1 billion e-commerce delivery industry within next five to ten years. "Let me throw in some facts as over past five years, developments in e-commerce and online retailing space have driven noticeable growth in Delivery Services industry," Salman Wassay, a Telecom Guru turned Entrepreneur said.
He exclusively spoke about his take on "shared economy" and uber-ization of service industry landscape of Pakistan, a telecom portal - Pro Pakistani reported. Salman Wassay, who started Couch Potato - a delivery service said Pakistan is also poised to hit US $ 1 billion in e-commerce revenue by end of 2018 which means deliveries, lots and lots of deliveries.
The e-commerce cannot grow without growth in last mile delivery, and that's where companies like Couch Potato come in. There are also currently 40 million smartphones in Pakistan and the numbers are growing at a phenomenal rate.
This momentum is expected to continue with a now digitally connected consumer, looking for lower prices, greater convenience and a seamless experience when buying and receiving products.
"There's bound to be giants, doing a lot of things, but services like ours, focused on just deliveries, will have an edge of their own," he said. Salman Wassay said mobile Internet really has changed things in a big way here in our country. Telecom was how people connected, now its apps.
"Internet-enabled apps for communication, services, buying, selling, sending and receiving. The Shared Economy is making day to day needs more accessible. It is a great time to be here. We're seeing the people of Pakistan become tech savvy at a phenomenal rate which will change many things about our way of life in the next 10 years," he said. He said Social Sharing Economy offers immense value, especially in underdeveloped nations if used correctly. At its core, the "Shared Economy" is literally just sharing of resources between people. Derived from not-for-profit initiatives, the on-demand economy has quickly appeared on global business landscape and has evolved into a collection of firms that connect millions of consumers with other private citizens for goods and services on-demand. With mobile apps, the uptake has been unprecedented.
He said as most of Pakistan is already experiencing first-hand, Uber and Careem are sending ripples through the country with their ride-sharing service.
Salman said, "The service lets you catch a ride in most major cities of Pakistan. We haven't seen many other services using the shared economy method picking up the way the major players have, which is a concern for me. I believe the mindset is currently being changed and with time more services will appear on landscape. With these services growing I'm keen to see the positive impact on customer services in our country."
Answering a question, Salman Wassay said, "We started Couch Potato with a belief that people should do more meaningful things with their time." He said for people who would rather not run menial errands after work and for those who want to spend time with family instead of rushing to pick up the eggs.
Being headquartered in Islamabad, we have done over 75,000 deliveries in Karachi and Islamabad since inception. Our deliveries have included food delivery, package deliveries like laptop chargers or documents, shopping locally, shopping from other cities, and some fun deliveries like birthday balloons and presents.
"We partner with young people with motorbikes, enabling them to use their extra hours to do some extra work and earn. Riders we team up with are part of a trusted community and take regular trainings in-house," he said.
When asked are Careem and Uber their competitors, Salman Wassay said, "I wouldn't say they are our direct competitors, but we do share a very similar model and appeal to a similar audience. Although Careem has recently moved into delivery domain through bikes in Pakistan, we're not worried. There is enough to go around with industry constantly growing and going through changes every day; regulatory and otherwise."
"As I mentioned earlier, the word is they are moving into delivery service space, but I can't be certain. The only thing my team and I are focused on is bringing absolute best last mile delivery experience to people of Pakistan," he added. On a question future of Couch Potato, Salman said Pakistan is one of the world's largest youth bulge countries with 56 per cent population (age 15-64) in productive age group, adding that "We will continue to enable communities with a line of products and affiliations that will link in with Couch Potato."
He said several local and international parties have shown interest in collaborating, investing, and potentially buying Couch Potato.
"We are speaking to a few large Logistics Service Providers, to see how we can take this brand and delivery service all over Pakistan and the rest of the world," he maintained. He said, "I'm very much looking forward to where industry is going because technology is allowing us to imagine things which we couldn't before. I see Pakistan as an over $1 billion hyper-local delivery and e-commerce delivery industry in next 5-10 years. I see good things for our future."
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