Imagine if you
could visit any online retailer in the world, buy what you like and have
it delivered to your doorstep in Karachi or Lahore in a week.
It
would open you up to Amazon, eBay, Walmart and hundreds of other
e-retailers in America and Europe, allowing you to buy directly from
their online outlets at the listed prices and receive products at your
home in a maximum of eight days.
Sounds too good to be true?
Our initial sentiments were just as skeptical — but a new venture on the block promises to deliver exactly that. Read: 15 start-ups that are changing the way Pakistanis live
Asif Seemab, the founder and CEO of pkship.com explains how the startup will deliver on its big Unique Selling Point.
PkShip CEO Muhammad Asif Seemab
A first in Pakistan?
This model is not novel; entrepreneurs have employed it in other countries. But for Pakistan, this is a first.
PkShip
users are given addresses in the US, the UK, Germany and China.
Whenever they visit an online retailer and make a purchase, they will
get their products delivered to the closest global address, from where
PkShip will send them the packages to their address in Pakistan.
This is different compared to outlets such as homeshopping.pk, shoppingbag.pk, and yayvo.com, who deliver products from Amazon and eBay without customers making the purchase directly.
We test the service
No one has really offered this before, so we decided to test the service to find out if it really is all that it promises.
While we can vouch for PkShip’s punctuality, there were multiple issues we encountered.
We
ordered an electric toothbrush with separate heads, priced at around
$49 on Amazon. The package weighed about 0.5kg, which according to the
shipping fee table on PkShip, should cost us $15 to transport to
Pakistan.
The customs or import duty on a toothbrush is 20 per
cent of the price. For all prospective buyers, it is essential that you
go through this document on the FBR website to know what you will be charged as duty.
Per our calculation, 20pc of $49 equals around $10. That puts the total price of our purchase at $74 ($49+$15+$10).
But
here’s the catch. We ended up paying around $90 for the purchase. Turns
out we missed the 15pc sales tax and the 6pc income tax in our
calculation.
At the end, we paid almost $16 more than what we had set aside for the product.
Hidden charges?
At first glance, it appeared to us that the sales tax and income tax
would be included in the costing. Having to pay the ‘unknown charges’ at
delivery was a disappointment to say the least.
But how could have this been avoided? And what does it mean for PkShip’s customers?
While
the service is a first for Pakistan, there is a corollary. Customers
will have to be selective about what they want to buy because not every
purchase will end up making economic sense. Buying an iPhone and getting
it delivered via PkShip would be a good idea. But that may not hold
true for other goods such as our electronic toothbrush. Also read: Innovate and Lead: Pakistani startups with brilliant ideas
And
this is where Seemab’s vision of “educating his customers” will have to
come into play. Unless customers are shown they will end up paying less
through PkShip, the service will fail. It seems a lot more work needs
to be done.
Will an upgraded user interface help?
We certainly think so. Their website is still very basic and one has
to focus to understand how to go about making an actual purchase. It was
also very surprising that there is no calculator on the website to
allow customers to determine how much a certain purchase will end up
costing them.
In our case, we were caught unawares of the sales
and income taxes, despite having done considerable research on the
service. An on-site calculator would have certainly made things more
transparent.
How do they ensure products are cleared without delay by Pakistan customs?
Seemab tells us they have partnered with FedEx, UPS and DHL, three of
the largest and most renowned courier services in the world, to take
care of customs clearance and payment of duties.
“These courier
companies go by the books so there is no reason the customs department
will stop our shipments. The courier companies will pay customs duty on
our shipments (on our customers’ behalf). We pay them (courier
companies) after clearance and charge the same amount to our customers
along with the shipping fee. It’s as simple as that,” says Seemab.
“PkShip
is paying huge money to these courier companies in order to complete
the customs documentation to ensure timely clearance at customs house.”
So
there is no avoiding the duty then, which is not so much of a hassle if
timely delivery, without any damage to goods, is ensured.
“The
rule of thumb is that the prices of branded products will always be
cheaper on the brand’s own outlet/website. So our business model is
eliminating the middle-men to pass on maximum savings to the final
customer.”
Seemab says the venture is also going to empower the ‘Deals’ page at pkship.com to save customers’ time in finding “deep discounted products across the globe.”
“We’re
writing power algorithms in order to update our page for deep
discounted deals.” In this way, PkShip also aims to help users in
finding goods that can be delivered at their doorstep cheaper than from
anywhere else on the web.
In the first three weeks since their launch in Dec 2015, PkShip had 500 registered users.
“We expect to grow in volume soon,” says Seemab.
Our verdict
PkShip is a new service for Pakistan’s online shoppers and there is
no doubt that their business model holds the potential to change the
dynamics of Pakistan’s retail industry.
Kudos to the team behind the venture, but if this service is to become mainstream, there is much more that needs to be done. Do you want your product/service reviewed? Email us at web@dawn.com
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