The space of online shops is becoming some what crowded. Though it’s still open but if you map it to number of people who have internet access and even from them identify the ones who will ever buy a thing online its a pretty slim audience that these online retailers are fighting for.

Seems the site is backed or is another venture from the people who are behind Mustakbil which is a job site. They are starting initially with Laptops. digital cameras and multimedia projectors. Technically speaking there is no major innovation and i believe there can not be a lot of changes from one online retailer to other, the only things which can be a diffrentiating factor would be the payment and delivery modules, because in our country where few people with credit cards and fewer still comfortable with online credit card transaction, and most of all the absence of any merchant services in Pakistan the only innovation they can provide is through the payment and delivery services.

Beliscity and Shophive have been creative in shipment and charges by offering payment on delivery in Karachi and Lahore respectively, there is no such thing being offered by etail and the only way you can pay is by check or bank transfer which in my opinion would not induce a lot of confidence in buyers.

I am still surprised that with easypaisa, UBL Orion and Mobilink Genie services available we still are relaying on bank transfers. Probably there are still issues with access to these services for Merchants, i guess some of our readers can shed some light on this.

For etail I would still say they leave a lot to be desired from inventory point of view and payment and shipping, being based in Islamabad and the fact that the other two competitors don’t have a delivery in that area they could have started with such a service for the Twin Cities at the least.