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Express Tribune
29-03-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
SMEs face e-commerce bottlenecks
Listen to article Pakistan's small and medium-sized businesses are trying to catch up with the global e-commerce boom, but their journey is not easy and is riddled with many infrastructural bottlenecks like unreliable internet, payment barriers and a lack of trust in online shopping to name a few. There are various estimates on the current size of the e-commerce sector. According to the Payment and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI), a subsidiary of America's Market Intelligence, the total e-commerce volume in Pakistan in 2024 was $7.7 billion while retail e-commerce amounted to $5.4 billion. PCMI has forecast a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% for e-commerce between 2024 and 2027, with the projected value of transactions expected to reach $12 billion. This growth is driven by a young, tech-savvy population and the rise of business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) platforms such as Daraz, Alibaba and Shopify. For SMEs, which make up over 90% of Pakistan's businesses and contribute 40% to its GDP, going digital is not just an option, it is now becoming a survival strategy. Yet, many business owners say the path to success is far from smooth. Take the example of Sana Ahmed, an artisan who sells handmade jewellery. When the pandemic hit, Ahmed's local sales dropped by 80%, forcing her to move business online. "I started posting my products on social media platforms and online marketplaces, and within months, orders started coming from those cities which I never even visited," she said. Today, 60% of my sales come from overseas Pakistanis in the Middle East and Europe. "However, customers abroad want to pay through PayPal, which is not available here. I have to use bank transfers, which take days in process or opt for cash-on-delivery, which sometimes leads to order cancellations," she added. On the other side, ie, customers, trust remains a big issue. Ali Raza, a Lahore-based online shopper, said he prefers cash-on-delivery for most online purchases. "Last year, I paid upfront for a phone charger that never arrived. Now, I only use cash-on-delivery, even if it costs extra," he said. According to PCMI, in Pakistan 75% of online shoppers prefer cash-on-delivery. This phenomenon is still common as it was 10 years ago. While the digital payment volume, according to figures quoted by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), jumped to 84% in FY24, most of those were in-store mobile payments and not online sales. Economists argue that without secure, user-friendly payment systems, e-commerce growth will stay limited. "Imagine if India had not introduced Unified Payments Interface (UPI) or if Bangladesh did not have bKash, would they have been able to boost their e-commerce industries to current levels," asked Osama Siddiqui, a Karachi-based economist. "Pakistan's Raast system is a good start, but it needs to scale faster," he added. The internet itself is another stumbling block. Pakistan ranked 97th globally in mobile internet speed in February 2025, with an average speed of 25.39 Mbps, far behind India, ranked 20th with 144.33 Mbps and Bangladesh, at 87th place with 37.98 Mbps, according to Ookla's Speedtest Index. In rural areas, the problem is even worse. Usman Khan, who runs a small clothing store in Peshawar, said internet outages cost him sales volume daily. "Last month, there was a 12-hour shutdown in our area, customers could not access my website, and at least 50 orders were canceled. Even when the internet works, uploading product photos takes a much longer time," he said. Such decade-old issues put Pakistan's SMEs and their online presence at a disadvantage compared to regional neighbours. India's e-commerce market, worth $123 billion, thrives on cheap data and widespread digital literacy, while Bangladesh's $7.5 billion sector benefits from tax breaks for online exporters and a robust mobile money ecosystem. Government initiatives, like the 2019 Digital Pakistan Policy and the National E-Commerce Council, are aimed at bridging these gaps. Recent moves include tax incentives for IT exports and talks with global payment platforms. Google Pay has initiated its services from Pakistan recently but it is a one-way method. Nevertheless, SME owners say progress is too slow. "We hear about workshops on digital marketing and B2B methodologies, but they are only held in big cities. How will a craftswoman in Swat or a farmer in Sindh learn these skills," asked Sana Ahmed. Others demand better infrastructure. "The government should treat internet access like electricity or water, it's a basic need for businesses now," said Usman Khan, neglecting the fact that electricity and water are still not available in far-flung areas. Osama Siddiqui added that logistics and shipping costs are also key issues both for domestic and global shipments. Apart from that, with low consumer spending due to hyperinflation, there is a need for SMEs and online businesses to find new markets to survive. There is a huge young population spending most of their time on smartphones. Many like to buy online in every part of the world. "Going online is not easy, however, it is the future. We have to build proper infrastructure and most importantly, build trust among local and foreign buyers. We often see customers who shop on their phones. If we cannot fix our problems, they will ultimately disappear and we may lose a big market," Siddiqui remarked.
Zawya
10-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Huawei excels at MWC 2025 with multiple prestigious industry awards
Huawei and industry partners were presented with the GSMA Foundry Excellence Award for their collaborative work on experience monetization Huawei, alongside bKash, received the GSMA GLOMO "Best FinTech Innovation" award for their transformative digital loan solution Barcelona, Spain: Huawei has emerged as a standout innovator at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2025, taking three prestigious industry awards that showcase the company's technological excellence and forward-thinking solutions across critical sectors. Huawei, together with China Mobile, received the coveted GSMA GLOMO "Best Network Software Breakthrough" and "CTO Choice: Outstanding Mobile Technology Award" for their pioneering Autonomous Networks (AN) solution. This telecom foundation model-powered innovation represents significant advances in the communications industry and has demonstrated transformative results in China Mobile's commercial networks. The AN solution redefines network operations by automating fault diagnosis processes, streamlining complaint handling, and enabling sophisticated network optimization. By implementing intelligent agents and copilots across wireless, core network, and SPN domains, the solution has dramatically reduced troubleshooting time while enhancing service delivery quality. Over the past year, Huawei has applied its telecom foundation model to develop role-based copilots and scenario-specific agents for high-value applications. The ADN Level 4 solution has been successfully deployed across China Mobile's networks in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, and other provinces, increasing fault diagnosis automation rates from 60% to 90% and reducing ticket handling durations by more than 60%. This collaboration illustrates how AI-driven network intelligence can deliver tangible operational efficiencies while improving end-user experiences. In a separate recognition of the company's 5G leadership, Huawei and industry partners were presented with the GSMA Foundry Excellence Award for their collaborative work on experience monetization. Through the Intelligent Packet Core project, Huawei has developed groundbreaking approaches to experience assessment, network optimization, and monetization that address core challenges facing operators in the 5G era. The resulting Intelligent Personalized Experience solution empowers operators to offer premium experience packages with guaranteed service quality across demanding applications such as live streaming and video conferencing. Already in large-scale commercial deployment, this innovation enables operators to create new revenue streams based on experience differentiation rather than traditional traffic-based models. Richard Cockle, Head of GSMA Foundry, praised the initiative for its industry-transforming potential, noting that traditional traffic monetization approaches have failed to keep pace with evolving user requirements. For example, the MyLogo feature, which transforms a network identifier on a phone's status bar into an experience monetization entry point, allows operators to dynamically deliver and monetize premium network experiences. Completing the trifecta, Huawei, alongside bKash, received the GSMA GLOMO "Best FinTech Innovation" award for their transformative digital loan solution. The 'Pay Later' service has become a lifeline for Bangladesh's unbanked population, particularly benefiting rural communities and small businesses by providing instant, paperless microloans. The innovative partnership addresses a critical gap in Bangladesh's financial landscape, where bKash has expanded financial access to 61% of adults, yet 37% of citizens still rely on high-interest informal lenders for urgent needs. Only 9% of Bangladeshi adults have access to formal banking services, making the digital loan solution particularly impactful. The collaboration leverages Huawei's cloud-native distributed architecture to deliver 99.999% platform reliability while incorporating sophisticated data and AI engines for agile financial risk assessment, enabling bKash to offer financially inclusive services at an unprecedented scale. "This initiative has empowered millions of people to attain financial dignity and has accelerated our mission to drive financial inclusion across Bangladesh," noted Mohammad Azmal Huda, Chief Product and Technology Officer of bKash. Maurice Ma, President of Huawei Software Business Unit, emphasized the company's commitment to innovation, "Huawei will continue to invest in product innovation, integrate the strengths of our partners, and create greater commercial and social value for our customers." Huawei's Mobile Money platform exemplifies this commitment, having served 480 million users across over 40 countries with 99.999% reliability while facilitating agile business innovation and financial inclusion. MWC Barcelona 2025 provided a global platform for Huawei to showcase its latest innovations. The awards received at this year's event underscore Huawei's continued leadership as 5G-Advanced deployment accelerates and AI transforms telecommunications. The company remains firmly at the forefront of the industry's evolution toward an intelligent world, driving innovation that creates tangible value for operators and end-users alike. For more information: About Huawei Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have more than 207,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world. Our Vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they're at home, in the office, or on the go. 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