Kathmandu, August 27

Daraz, the largest e-commerce portal in the country, is planning to engage five million users by 2022 in Nepal.

Organising a press meet here today, Daraz shared its plans of expanding its business in Nepal. While Nepal is in an infant stage of e-commerce, the number of users of such online shopping portals is gradually increasing. Hence, Daraz plans to engage more users in the coming days.

While speaking during the press meet, Bjarke Mikkelsen, global CEO of Daraz, said the online shopping site is contributing to the government’s plan of transforming Nepal into digital Nepal.“We firmly believe that in the next 10 to 20 years, digital technology will fundamentally alter many parts of society from commerce to politics to culture,” he opined. “Our purpose is not only to embrace the change, but to proactively create change and welcome a better future for Nepal.”

As per him, there are around 75,000 users of Daraz in Nepal at present. Currently, Daraz is delivering more than 100,000 packages every month all over Nepal, thereby creating around 5,000 jobs and every month 500 new sellers are being educated through Daraz University.

“There are 2,000 sellers associated with Daraz in Nepal,” he informed. “We already have 100 riders in six cities for delivery services while indirectly around 500 riders are now employed by Daraz in the country.”

He further projected that Daraz will drive 100 per cent annual growth of the e-commerce market for the next four years. Similarly, the site also plans to have 20,000 active Daraz sellers who will be educated through Daraz University. “Daraz University is a platform where entrepreneurs can learn how to use Daraz to expand their businesses,” he added.

Likewise, Daraz also plans to create 100,000 jobs in the marketplace and introduce digital payments to five million customers by 2022. “Most Nepali users prefer ‘cash on delivery’, which actually makes our work difficult,” he said. “Therefore, we always encourage our customers to use e-payment.”

The site also plans to fully digitalise the logistics ecosystem with real-time visibility for customers regardless of location.

Responding to the future plan of Daraz, Buddhi Prasad Upadhyaya, undersecretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said that to digitise the country, the government has brought National E-commerce Strategy. “The Cabinet has recently approved this policy and we are in the process of implementing it,” he said, “This policy will help to digitise Nepal and gradually encourage Nepalis towards e-commerce.”