One of the biggest international platforms for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, Alibaba.com, has up to 85% of Pakistani sellers headquartered out of Sialkot.
Alibaba.com spoke on Thursday at a sellers’ event held by the global B2B platform. According to Muhammad Sadiq, the manager of Pakistan’s business growth, there have already been 3.2 million postings from Pakistani sellers. With a 63 percent market share, the garments and clothing category has the highest concentration of Pakistani merchants, followed by the sports, entertainment, health, and medical, as well as the tools, hardware, and minerals categories.
Multiple prospects were highlighted by speakers from Alibaba.com for exporters, manufacturers, wholesalers, merchants, and retailers in Karachi to connect with the global platform’s digital B2B buyer base. There were about 700 registrations for the summit.
Alibaba.com offers micro and small and medium companies (MSMEs) a broad spectrum of digital, one-stop, integrated B2B services for international trade, according to the company’s Country Head Song Song, who spoke via Zoom.
In terms of paying suppliers, Pakistan has surpassed all other foreign markets as our top supplier market, he said, urging local companies to go outside of their home markets and “be discovered by more than 40m-strong global online buyer community on Alibaba.com.”
Only 3.3 percent of all Pakistani exporters on Alibaba.com are located in Karachi, he bemoaned. These relationships ought to alter. I encourage all Karachi exporters to use the export e-commerce route, he said.
