Business News Update: Daraz is the leading e-commerce platform in Sri Lanka. After successfully achieving their goals for 2019, the outlook for 2020 is even more encouraging. Celebrating their 3rd anniversary last year, the brand’s key campaign – November’s 11.11 Sale.sale broke records. The rest of the Daraz ecosystem complemented the 11.11 surge, with popular pushes like Avurudu Waasi, Mobile Week and the Grand Christmas Sale.
Over the last year, Daraz recorded 155% growth in revenue. Starting 2019 with 250,000 products and 2,000 orders daily, Daraz is now at 12,000 orders per day and nearly a million products to choose from, and expects a three-fold increase on those numbers within 2020.
11.11 is positioned as the world’s biggest online sale day – and in 2019, Daraz received a record-breaking 120,000 orders in just 24 hours – double that of 2018. For this year, the brand hopes to amplify this four times over.
Daraz is also a catalyst in creativity, innovation and fueling an up-to-date consumer culture, inspiring Sri Lankans with access to global trends as they pop up. Daraz Mall, the dedicated channel for authorized authentic designer products with warranties operates with 280 brands at present, and is projected to host 550 brands by the end of 2020. D-Select, a private fashion label launched in 2019, sells affordable mid-range active wear.
The Daraz Stores initiative, an assisted e-commerce concept where consumers can place orders on Daraz by visiting an affiliate Daraz store in their neighbourhood, opened the world of online shopping to its biggest audience yet – tapping into the challenging, predominantly offline rural segments of Sri Lanka. The brand currently has 200 stores islandwide, and is expected to hit 1,000 stores over this year.
Daraz also launched Samsung mobile phone Galaxy M30S – and will continue to premiere global products for exclusive purchase via the platform. Other exciting initiatives for 2020 include creating a virtual supermarket called D-Fresh, with same-day delivery on everything – including fresh fruits and vegetables.
DEX is the brand’s own logistics arm that carries out over 300,000 deliveries a month. With customer convenience as top priority, DEX allows returns to be dropped off at 120 locations currently – this will increase to 500 drop-off points this year. DEX’s warehouses, currently at 50,000 sq feet and equipped with cold storage facilities is supported by 75,000 sq feet of operations spaces – which is gradually being increased to 105,000 sq feet to ensure faster, more seamless deliveries. During November 2019′s 11.11 sale, 310,000 packages were delivered during the campaign period. In a bid to empower SME logistic ventures, DEX launched the Logistics Marketplace – a collaborative delivery process that gives the brand greater geographical reach. Logistics Marketplace has now partnered with 9 companies in the eastern region.
Daraz has a 30,000-strong seller community. This number is projected to reach 50,000 within 2020 alone. To empower rural entrepreneurs, Daraz recently signed an MoU with the Department of Samurdhi Development to uplift local industries and community-based businesses. As part of this programme, workshops and trainings are conducted islandwide – initiating a more diverse range of sellers into e-commerce. These relationship-building outreach ventures resulted in 90% of Daraz’s seller base actively participating in 11.11.
Daraz employees nearly 1,000 people – spread primarily across operations and logistics. The driver base has increased from 100 to 400 over the course of last year, and the brand is now actively encouraging female delivery associates to join their ranks – creating more opportunity and promoting inclusion.
“I am very proud of what the Daraz team members have achieved in 2019. Outperforming all set targets shows that both Daraz and the market in general is ready for e-commerce in Sri Lanka to reach a higher plane” Rakhil Fernando, Managing Director Daraz
With an incredible promising 2019 in its wake, Daraz is poised to conquer 2020 with its signature humble and purposeful approach to business, one that moves quickly and evolves everyday – and harness its potential to transform Sri Lanka as a force to be reckoned with in the e-commerce world.
