A Digital marketing agency consists of professionals that handle the digital marketing for your business and manage it effectively, this is one of the top benefits of hiring digital marketing agency. It’s not possible to promote someone else’s business until you know how to promote your own brand. A digital marketing agency is a playmaker for any business when it comes to selling online. There is no limit to the work that is being done digitally. It can enhance the capacity of a business in several dimensions.
They possess some extraordinary skills in bringing out the best for a business operating online and this is how they can promise good results even if a business has started initially. They know how to run advertisements efficiently. The benefits of hiring digital marketing agency is that you get promised results as the agency has high learning about the trends of marketing and know well how to make a business successful online.
Hiring Digital Marketing Agency Will Increase Performance
A digital marketing agency is rigged out with these performance indicators mentioned below:
Innovation
Creativity
Communication
Value Addition
Return on Investment
Innovation
A digital marketing agency consistently improves in how all of their work is done and successful management and deployment of resources. Shaping up the online experience and influencing a person to buy a product or a service.
Creativity
A digital marketing agency comprises of a team that puts in combined efforts in creating the WOW factor for any business or its audience. There are no barriers to imagination, which as a result helps the team in providing distinctive ways to create and deliver something new entirely.
Communication
Communication is of vital importance for any successful digital campaign, with proper understanding of a client’s objective. Real time working for a communication channel that holds complete authenticity. The use of social media for feedbacks, either appreciating a business or having complaints while there is no mediator.
Value Addition
Digital marketing agencies utilize the internet well and adds value for their customers as they start purchasing online. Coordinating with the business and its clients all at the same time. Many brands are using this strategy on social media platforms to promote their sales and special discounts for consumers who are on their list for frequent purchases.
Return on Investment
Hiring digital agency means that you have made the right investment these days, as the agency will be more efficient in running the marketing campaigns, managing the marketing budget. A relatively less amount spend can bring a lot of new customers, assist in moving to new markets and generate more revenue.
When done appropriately, digital marketing can show its true punch. Doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
With all these performance indicators listed above, the top benefits of hiring digital marketing agency are:
You’ve someone to keep you informed about the latest trends.
You’ve someone to take care of your digital marketing strategy in a reliable manner.
Your focus stays on growing your business.
An Expert takes a look on your marketing, from an objective point of view.
When you make a decision about working with an agency, find the one that suits your business’s culture.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, e-commerce refers to commercial transactions conducted electronically on the internet. A more specific definition would be the selling of various goods and services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions.
e-commerce started back in 1991 when the internet became available for commercial transactions and the trend grew slowly until 1995 when the US National Science Foundation allowed commercial enterprise to enable market penetration. This gave way to the process of development and growth. Change-makers such as eBay and Amazon came into being and took over the market, reaching a staggering $150 billion within a matter of years. Today, Amazon is valued at more than $1.5 trillion, employs over a million individuals, and pays large sums in taxes. It has shaken the US economy in the last decade – there is no doubt that e-commerce is the future of retail.
However, while the e-commerce industry has the potential to offer countless social and economic benefits to third world countries, there is a lack in its implementation and use. For Pakistan, these benefits could potentially be access to healthcare through virtual checkups and prescriptions, access to education through online classes and material, and products otherwise unavailable in remote regions.
This case study will therefore focus on the growth of the e-commerce industry in Pakistan, struggles of its implementation and use, and scope for potential future growth.
Specifically, the latter portion of the study will delve into struggles faced by brick mortar retailers in Pakistan and the driving force for digital advertisers to enable greater market penetration. This will be shown through the real-world example of Shopistan – a digital advertising company based in Lahore – and its success with a major clothing retailer -Bonanza Satrangi.
Part 1: Pakistan’s E-Commerce Industry
Growth Through The Years
The market statistics of Pakistan’s e-commerce industry serve to depict its rapid growth and potential to fast-track the economy, becoming a major chunk of the country’s GDP. Although this industry and its facilities have not been fully utilized, promise of its growth is depicted.
Since 2016, the e-commerce industry has grown by 3395%, with cash on delivery far out-weighing online purchases consistently. According to Statistica, the e-commerce industry is projected to reach US$3,904m by the last quarter of 2020. Furthermore, the biggest subsection of the industry, Fashion and Apparel, has a projected market volume of US$2,748m with 69% of market revenue.
The biggest player in 2019 in the fashion sector is gulahmedshop.com, with a revenue of US$35m. This is followed by khaadi.com at US$32m and alkaramstudio.com with US$22m in revenue. The remaining 4 sectors of the e-commerce industry as per the e-commerce DB are Electronics & Media (13%), Food & Personal Care (9%), Toys, Hobby & DIY (5%) and remaining (4%).
Early and Current Struggles
Through the years, Pakistan has faced acute problems in reaping the benefits of the global e-commerce boom.
One of the dominating factors include a low literacy rate of 60% (as of 2019). This is defined as a person age 15 and above being able to read, write and comprehend simple phrases. The lack of literacy impairs users from filling the required paperwork needed to access mobile networks, data packages, and internet browsing and e-commerce applications.
Furthermore, remote and rural areas in Pakistan lack broadband with larger numbers of users depending on slow dial-up connections. Although the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has had many policies aimed to spread 3G and 4G connectivity, most recent being the Rolling Spectrum Strategy, it has been a slow uphill climb. As can be seen on a data coverage map, 3G/4G coverage pertains to major metropolitan areas primarily in the Sindh and Punjab provinces along the Indus river, as well as populated regions of KPK. However, significant areas of interior Sindh, Tharparkar, Balochistan, and Jammu & Kashmir lack 3G/4G connectivity. The below map is of 3G and LTE coverage by Jazz (Global Telecom).
Part 2: Shopistan’s Success
Digital Marketing in Pakistan
A digital marketing company’s primary goal is to fulfil 3 aims for the client: increase online presence, perform market research and integrate online profiles and platforms. In greater detail, they aid in website design, optimisation, content curation, SEO, social media marketing, placement of online advertisements, among others.
Over the last decade, Pakistan has shown promising growth in digital advertising revenue. The swift growth in broadband services has enabled access to web browsing, social media and e-Commerce markets in remote areas. As a result, overall digital advertising spend has risen by 15% in 2019 to $856 million, with the majority being spent on social media advertising and search advertisements. This is a persistent change with average 13% year-on year-growth.
Furthermore, according to Magna Advertising, digital advertising revenue grew by 32% in 2019 to $103 million – 12% of total advertising revenue. Yet, with the outbreak of COVID-19, the Magna Advertising Forecast predicted that Pakistan’s emerging market will see a 6.3% reduction in spending. However, between Above The Line (ATL), Below The Line (BTL), and digital it was clear that digital advertising was a winner in the situation. Many corporations and businesses drastically reduced their spending on print, radio and television advertising – instead quickly seeing the potential of digital marketing and diverting their funds. Without overextending, businesses have subtly begun developing brand images and reframing their websites to provide better customer journeys. Overall, post COVID-19, it is expected that digital advertising spend will grow rapidly and businesses across Pakistan will pay greater attention to their return on ad spend.
Bonanza Satrangi and Shopistan
Bonanza was founded in 1975 as a textile company, focusing on childwear and winter clothing for women. Since then, Pakistan’s textile industry flourished and Bonanza established itself as a major player in Eastern wear. In 2012, Bonanza ventured into a women’s exclusive line named Satrangi.
Over the years, Bonanza grew rapidly to establish 80 brick and mortar outlets across Pakistan. However, their online presence did not grow at the same pace. Nida Siddiqi, head of e-commerce at Bonanza Satrangi, recalls that their initial PHP website had an “out-dated look”, “experienced frequent crashes” and “was not able to display advertisements”. These problems are common with a majority of e-commerce websites for traditionally brick and mortar retailers in Pakistan and are often the pain reason for the lack of online retail. In order to begin reconstructing their digital presence, Nida initiated talks with Shopistan.
Nida Siddiqi and Bonanza Satrangi decided to start fresh on their online presence and revitalise their strategy with a sole focus: customer journey. On this journey, after meeting countless digital marketers and website designers Nida’s team came across Shopistan.
Shopistan is a leader in Pakistan’s e-commerce marketing space. Incorporated in 2012 by Ali Aziz, it quickly gained traction and grew exponentially. Currently, Shopistan has 200+ employees and numerous established clientele such as Hush Puppies, Metro, Beechtree, Master and Chase Up. Impressed by their services, Bonanza Satrangi signed onto Shopistan’s one-time process.
Over the next carefully structured 9 weeks, they transferred Bonanza Satrangi onto a Shopify platform, set up their customised storefront, added support for both desktop and mobile apps, developed a site map, onboarded products, curated content, trained Bonanza Satrangi’s team to use the storefront and finally launched the website. As Nida recalled, “Shopistan’s team worked diligently and the outcome was leaps and bounds ahead of our previous website”. Furthermore, the switch from previously using Magento to using Shopify was a major upgrade. While Magento frequently experienced crashes, long product onloading times, and required a lot more maintenance – Shopify worked smoothly, crash-free and offered far more features. “As all change, this shift was difficult at the time but looking back – it was much needed” Nida recollected.
To date Shopistan is providing ongoing e-commerce management support to Bonanza Satrangi. This includes:
Product Onboarding.
Changes to UI/UX based on customer feedback.
Operational and marketing analytics and predictive analytics for inventory planning and sales.
A brand specific account manager.
Performance marketing including paid marketing, retention marketing and SEO.
Since the change in Bonanza Satrangi’s digital marketing approach with Shopistan, they have seen considerable growth in sales which persisted through the COVID-19 pandemic. With a well grounded digital presence and digital marketing strategy, Nida is focussed on the next steps: refining operations with courriers and setting up a more secure and reliable payment gateway.
Conclusion
With COVID-19 disrupting our lives and transforming the way we conduct business, Pakistan’s e-commerce industries need to adapt. Firms are realising the importance of effective online marketing and retail with the recent e-Commerce boom. Customers are more than ever before willing to purchase goods online than buy from brick and mortar retailers, and firms must be equipped with the correct tools to provide and ease their customer journey. Digital marketing companies like Shopistan are prime factors bringing traditional retailers like Bonanza Sat to the future of retailing. Seeing the success of companies such as Amazon it seems unrealistic to hope for major success without adopting online retailing.
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Shopistan was incorporated in 2012 and raised its seed round from Kima Ventures in 2013. We are a team of over 200+ professionals with a heavy focus on technology. Shopistan is a leader in Pakistan’s ecommerce space. We are going after a market that is projected to be over USD 2B by 2020.
About The Role:
We are seeking a highly qualified Head of Ecommerce to coordinate our various digital mediums and assist our company in reaching specific goals. Head of Ecommerce will be tasked with analyzing user experience data, initiating digital projects, reporting on planned and current strategies, leading effective digital marketing strategies, have hands on advanced experience on Shopify and ensuring that projects are executed within budget. You will play a pivotal role in growing our business, customer base, and improving user experience.
Ideal candidates for this position should be innovative, and web and multimedia savvy. Ultimately, the outstanding Head of Ecommerce should have a firm grasp of the various digital touch points, steer our organization’s digital narrative, and drive highly effective digital campaigns. This is a great opportunity to get hands-on experience working for a growing technology company in a dynamic and fast global environment.
Job description:
Be responsible for end-to-end performance marketing across the lifecycle of the customer experience—acquisition, conversion, analytics and attribution.
Test and establish various customer segments and targeted messages while also understanding which channels are most efficient.
Define how client’s marketing efforts should be focused and where budgets should be directed based on analytics and key KPIs.
Use web analytics and business intelligence tools such as Google Analytics and internal dashboards to better understand the customers and exploit those insights in marketing campaigns.
Set best-in-class practices for each digital marketing channel – social (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Quora, Reddit), SEM/SEO, email, display, ads, traditional media – to drive sales, profit and engagement.
Monitor, analyze, and report on KPIs to ensure marketing initiatives are driving profitable acquisition.
Maximize media spend through rigorous creative testing and optimization.
Aggressively track, measure and report cohorts and conversion metrics across all campaigns daily.
Proactive client management
Design and oversee all aspects of our digital marketing department
Provide strategic guidance on product mix, pricing & promotions etc. based on category/product performance
Work in partnership with cross-functional teams including online marketing, technology, content and the design team to optimize user experience
Measure and report performance of all marketing campaigns, and assess ROI and KPIs
Coordinate with key stakeholders to improve results.
Identify the latest trends and technologies affecting our industry.
Work with your team to brainstorm new and innovative growth strategies.
Design, build and maintain client’s social media presence
Plan, execute, and measure experiments and conversion tests
Provide thought leadership and perspective for adoption where appropriate
Must have expertise / Hand on experience with Shopify
Job Requirements
Bachelors’/Master’s degree with a flair for technology and e-commerce
10+ years of experience of Digital/Performance Marketing and Ecommerce domain
Highly experienced with Microsoft Office applications or Google Sheets for reporting, analytics and presentations.
Excellent communicator in written and verbal form
Extremely versatile, dedicated to efficient productivity
Experience planning and leading strategic initiatives
Why join Shopistan?
When you start at Shopistan, you’ll get exposure to countless opportunities within the organization, and get to work on extremely exciting projects in an international setting.
Work in an entrepreneurial setting that supports openness to innovative ideas.
Work with highly intelligent and driven team members who display a high degree of initiative, motivation and flexibility.
We offer a highly competitive salary, excellent benefits, health and insurance coverage, generous paid holidays, and life & work balance.
The full-time position will be based in Lahore at our company office, in a fast-paced, creative, young, and collaborative startup environment.
