Daraz & Femprow trying to activate women contribution in Pakistan

The partnership between Daraz and Nadia Patel Gangjee’s social enterprise – Femprow is set on terms where they will facilitate the newly registered female sellers to establish their shops on the platform and therefore, boost their growth in terms of sales and reach with the help of Daraz’ monthly userbase of 6,000,000. These customized trainings are targeted to help these sellers improve in the areas of business ethics and the importance of social media along with other basic guidance required.

Femprow’s growing community of women entrepreneurs also got more than 150 female entrepreneurs to register from their platform who will be facilitated with this partnership to establish stores on the biggest online marketplace in Pakistan.

Femprow is a social enterprise to help advance women’s professional growth and economic empowerment through offline and online entrepreneurship education, capacity building, business and community support. Femprow also works with strategic partners to provide visibility and access-to- market to women-owned businesses. The organization has been supported by Facebook Community Leadership Program and is a #SheMeansBusiness implementation partner for Facebook in Pakistan.

Daraz announced the launch of Ibtida in March on women’s day with the mission to empower local female entrepreneur through its platform. Since then, 2000+ female sellers have registered for the program who will be enabled to establish online shopping stores. The initiative came with benefits for female sellers as they will have access to Daraz University which is a customized learning center to help sellers belonging to different cohorts improve their performance.

Nadia Patel Gangjee, Founder & CEO, Femprow, at the signing said, “Despite women comprising 50% of our population, Pakistan has one of the lowest rates of women entrepreneurs in the world – only eight percent of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are owned by women and there are large gaps in women’s access to finance. Femprow has been focused on advancing women’s economic participation through business education and enterprise creation, growth and support. We are very excited about the partnership, which will help women scale up their businesses through increased reach and sales on Daraz’s platform.”

Pakistan’s eCommerce market size in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021 witnessed a growth of over 35 percent which shows the consumer adaptability towards online businesses. Most stores gain sales from their mobile web store/eCommerce platforms. This shows the immense potential in domestic buyers and sellers which can improve and grow.

Ammar Hassan, CMO, Daraz, at the signing said, “more than 50% population of Pakistan comprises of Women. Most of them are not contributing in the GDP of Pakistan. Daraz aims to boost the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the women of Pakistan by showing them a way to sell online. I am really excited about this partnership and I hope we can scale these efforts to bring sizable impact.”

Daraz has a seller community of more than 90,000 on the online platform. These initiatives bring a unique and diverse product range for the customers.