Talk with Abid Beli – founder of Beliscity.com
If you have ever tried to get some thing online you it would be hard to assume that you don’t know of beliscity.com In my knowledge (which might be flawed) they are one of the older online retailers, now the space being crowded with a lot of others and some like shophive.com giving some serious competition.
So how did beliscity come into being? what were the original business model? I got a chance to talk to about his venture.
Here is a peek into his mind, the most fascinating thing about the whole background is the adaptability, how he turned around his business from one thing to other based on change of environment, for all young entrepreneur there are real jems in his answer specially the ones struggling to break out or effected by any type of down period.
Also the other most inspiring thing is his love for country and his un shaken believe in its growth, and he not only believes it but projects like http://www.iownpakistan.com/ shows that he does not back down when time comes for action.
G n W> Beliscity is one of the very first online retailers, how did this idea occur to you? Also do we have a sizable internet userbase for making such a venture successful?
Abid Beli> It’s a long story but I’ll try to make it short, Beliscity.com started with online internet hours selling concept as I am running a company with the name of Belis netcity with 36 internet companies dealership & 6 internet companies distribution ship & Beliscity.com very comprehensive website for internet users to select internet packages but in Year 2000 lots of Internet companies closed because of Bandwidth prices low down by PTCL & because of that I face a big loss & closed all operations and sit back at home with my only system & Beliscity.com website, In 2001 I started selling few products through Beliscity.com as well as VOIP Devices & Cards like Yapjack, Komodo, IPStar & Net2phone, Then I add laptops & few unique products on it which is not easily available in the market. After 6months I change complete business module of Beliscity.com from internet hours selling to hardware selling. I have lots of my internet hours customer email data so I used it for new Beliscity.com & gradually its become a Biggest online retail shop in 2years period.
G n W> You also have your warehouses listed, how much of our current consumer still prefer to touch a commodity before buying, what is the ratio of online vs over the shelf sales ?
Abid Beli> We were open our display in 2005 at Sasi Arcade Clifton for our those customer who want to see products before buying but we closed it in 2008 because of few reasons. When I started that business then yes people want to see the product first but always use to say them that buy from market as Beliscity is purely online retail shop & we are not giving demo of our products, Now a days as we have good customer data base and also getting referral business so now 15 to 20% people call us & said that we want to see product first otherwise our 70 to 80% customer buy from us without touch or see any product physically.
G n W> Do you think most of our consumers still are vary of providing their banking details (Credit card etc) to an online entity, do you see this hesitation going away ?
Abid Beli> We are not accepting credit cards online, Our payment system is very easy & convenient, We offer Cash on delivery & Credit card charge facility for our karachi & Lahore customer, Our riders deliver the products & collect cash from them or charge their card on the spot, For other cities we offered online banking deposit system. We are going to offer very soon COD & Credit card charge facility all over Pakistan inshallah
G n W> How much of a hurdle in business growth is caused by absence of an online money solution (Paypal) ?
Abid Beli> Paypal is not giving seller protection for Pakistan shipping so we are not using it for our Pakistan customers yes we are loosing our 20 to 25% business because of online money solution but at least we are in peace & not facing any fraud issues.
G n W> With these newer money transfers solution like EasyPaisa coming in do you see an exponential growth in transactions or will it not change any thing?
Abid Beli> Yes we are in touch with them & very soon Easypaisa option available on Beliscity.com
G n W> We are seeing a steady growth in number of Online Retailers, are all of them competing for an existing number of customers or is the customer base also increasing?
Abid Beli> I think we need still more online retail shop & just an small advice for all of them that please its not a subzi mandi ( type business be professional & show your educated attitude do competition on quality services not on prices, Secondly because of new online retail shops new customers also attract on online shopping.
G n W> How much YoY growth in terms of sales (just percentages) has Beliscity seen since its inception.
Abid Beli> Our Growth is mashallah till 2007 was too good but after closing our Dubai office as well as our display our sales graph was down till mid of 2009 but now mashallah again its growing day by day in % I can say that its increase 10 to 15% per month.
G n W> Opportunity wise our internet user base is growing rapidly with more broadband users every month how big of an opportunity is an online business geared towards our local community.
Abid Beli> Its growing very fast not because of more broadband users its growing because of Petroleum prices & Traffic system as in big cities people are thinking that try to buy online first but if the product not available online then they are going to markets otherwise they avoid it also online retail shop offers good prices as compare to local markets.
G n W> On a personal level you are involved in a lot of social uplifting work, can you tell us a little about those, and how do you find time for those being the CEO of Beliscity.
Abid Beli> We started a group on facebook with the name of I Own Pakistan & that time We are only focusing to spread positivity of Pakistan through upload good images & videos about Pakistan as we feel that our nation mindset is so negative about Pakistan after 9/11 but now mashallah again our Nation specially our youth doing so good, Through I Own Pakistan Platform we launched Green News Pakistan Project then PYR appointed me as a Board of Director of their organization, Then We started Green Baba projects as well as Creative awareness of Unjustice VIP or VVIP Movement in Pakistan & Lets Revive neighborhood communities, All these activities running from facebook & twitter, We also organize few events for Dr.Aafia siddiqui & also celebrate Quaid e Azam birthday on their tomp with more then 15 youth organization last year. Last Year 14th august we also distribute Pakistan Flag Badges in our members & this year we are trying to make historical celebration of 14th August inshallah. Now about the question that how can I find time for these activities then my answer is that if Pakistan alive then Beliscity alive so I need to do work for Pakistan as well as Beliscity.com
G n W> What piece of advice you would like to give to our aspiring and budding entrepreneurs who are evaluating or working on Ideas which are targeted for Pakistan?
Abid Beli> A very simple advice for all entrepreneurs, students, professionals & others that what ever you do just remember one thing that we need to build Great Pakistan so try to be Gentle & honest with your customers as well as with your country. Pakistan grow then we all grow, Just leave individual thoughts come out from your fears that you have no future in Pakistan, We have great future with Great Pakistan. Zindabad Pakistan
4:37 am
Thankyou, that was quite inspiring. Flexibility and perseverance are the keywords here… most impressed.
11:17 am
An unexpected, yet interesting interview; I wish somebody could spend time to proof read to improve the quality of the content—very nice, anyhow.
1:46 pm
2:34 am
Quite an inspiring story Abid Bhai!
Need to learn lot of things from you.
10:22 am
Just so anyone reading this article knows. Abid bhai was the originator of the idea really. Theyre not the “older” retailers of their kind but the OLDEST of their kind of online shop. Previously the ways online shops used to work was with limited items/knowledge/scope. People like TCS used to be giving gift items online or websites for “people living abroad, send gifts to loved ones” was the usual thing. Beliscity.com brought about the change in the way they offered services/items/etc keeping the long-term plan and idea in line with the likes of Amazon. Shop hive and many others popped up way after Beliscity.com had already been busy paving the path for them. Cheers Abid bhai!
11:37 am
Really a learnign lesson abid bhai
12:14 pm
hi,,,
my beft friends hoe r u all i think all is good and enjoy the lifi
1:01 pm
good one
2:00 pm
Mr.Abid is a very hard working person and humble at the same time. I have never seen or met someone like him before. Belcity is very reliable I can say that. I pray that this company prolongs and excels.
3:39 pm
Impressive read and i admire what Abid is doing along with others at PYR. To be honest i never knew that this was the person behind Beliscity and with the amount of positivity he has i think he is one of those few people who i think can make a difference.
4:35 pm
I have good experience from BeliCity! and I always wish them success.
6:56 pm
I know Abid from some time over facebook and the Pakistan Youth Revolution Karachi Chapter. But before knowing him personally, I was one of the customer on http://www.beliscity.com The best thing I like about BelisCity is the rates and the variety that is available. No other Pakistani online shopping website has so many things for selling online.
About Abid, he is a hardworking person who made it possible for the 1st time in Pakistan to start online shopping and gaining trust in people of Pakistan that everyone is not a ripper.
9:42 pm
Amazing interview and Best of luck in future and may ALLAH give you success in every field of life.
2:42 pm
Inspiring story.. this shows that when one person wants to do something they will never give up hope. All the best Abid Bhai and Pakistan Zindabaad!
1:44 am
Abid Beli along with his team has been disappeared. God knows how many persons have been looted by Beliscity / eTech. If there are some Victims of this company, they may contact at this address. CRCP (Consumers Rights Commission of Pakistan, Islamabad) ().
2:09 am
@jamal, stop spreading baseless rumors, Abid Beli is very well around and from what I hear about him he is not the one to loot and runaway. The site was down for few days due to Hacking activity but now is back
10:59 am
Don’t buy from beliscity.com they are poor in after sales. I wanted to know about my laptop whether its warranty can be claimed or not, they took around 20 days to come to me!
Even they don’t response properly, I call’em and ask the rates so I can make purchases but in return they will ask you to wait and will answer you that we will call you back but they don’t call.
Poor support!!!!
they don’t know how to run business, they must hire some freelancers or good customer support team. the current one sucks big time!!!!
5:41 pm
In Pakistan the e-commerce website are not doing well infact ……Marked as Spam, Thanks Faizan for pointing it out
5:51 pm
@Atif, I hope the incident you are reporting is an authentic one and, you are not some one trying to spread false info.
Because I have had one experience and it was good, as a matter of fact some of the top sites like Beliscity, shophive etc are starting to gain trust from users
5:56 pm
I think “Atif” is just trying to spread hate and rumours about them. I received a notification of the exact same comment on my OLD blog for approval but that was from “Salman”.
As below:
A new comment on the post “beliscity.com, its back – Abid Beli speaks up! Exclusive interview” is waiting for your approval
http://faizanlaghari.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/beliscitycom-its-back-abid-beli-speaks-up-exclusive-interview/
Author : Salman (IP: .219 , 58-27-160-219.wateen.net)
E-mail :
URL :
Whois : http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/.219
Comment:
In Pakistan the e-commerce website are not doing well infact some scam artists have started using internet e-commerce websites as a method of fraud. One of such website is beliscity.com
They sell refurbished and grey market products as new and at price of new. Buyers only realize after getting the product from beliscity.com but by that time they do not accept or refund the product.
In a similar event I purchased mobile phone from beliscity.com and paid full in advance by bank deposit…… [goes on the same way till the very end]
4:46 pm
Faizan thanks for letting us know, the email and ip address were same so I deleted it.
4:59 pm
Beliscity and shophive are doing very well in Pakistan and such sites have gained customers’ trust in a very short period of time. Now, there are several other good e-commerce websites in Pakistan like azmalo.pk, homeshoping etc. and I hope that e-commerce will gradually expand a lot in coming days.
3:21 pm
I have good experience from symbios.pk azmalo.pk and these are good e-commerce websites in Pakistan
5:03 pm
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