KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 18

Nepal’s leading online marketplace, Daraz, has broken all previous 11.11 records despite COVID-19.

Daraz 11.11, the biggest online sale day in the country, is a 24-hour online shopping campaign organised annually across all Alibaba markets on the 11th of November.

Within the first hour of the campaign launch, Daraz registered sales worth Rs 25.2 million, a 60 per cent increase from last year’s first hour. In addition, Daraz reported 520,000 users during the entire one-day campaign. The campaign also reported significantly higher numbers in online pre-payment via wallet and bank card taking up 45 per cent of the total sales. Overall, 7000-plus sellers participated in 11.11, selling to 27 different cities across the country, exceeding sales numbers significantly compared to last year’s 11.11.

Amongst the notable highlights of the campaign were the Poco C1 and M2 selling out within the first hour of campaign launch.

As the markets remain down due to the pandemic, 11.11 proved to be a boon for many businesses, especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In fact, 23 per cent of total orders during 11.11 were generated by SMEs who went online during the pandemic facilitated by Daraz’s Sahayatri stimulus package.

“Sales events like 11.11 can majorly uplift small and medium sized businesses giving them a platform to sell while ensuring customers can fulfil their shopping needs safely,”

Lino Ahlering, managing director of Daraz Nepal, has been quoted as saying in a media release.

This year’s event garnered even more users, more sellers, more buyers, and faster deliveries than the last two years with the first 11.11 order being delivered already at 8:00am the same day. Daraz is now making sure customers get their orders delivered in a timely and safe manner, for which the company has hired 700 additional delivery personnel.