Reviving South Asia's economy: Daraz extends half a million US dollars in support and services to local SMEs.

With a series of initiatives from waiving of all sale commissions to free training and support services, the leading e-commerce platform has launched its Seller Stimulus program to boost the recovery of the 50,000+ SMEs selling on its platform and empower all local retailers to sell online and re-establish their businesses.
While the total economic impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 in the world is yet to be gauged, the global economy has taken a major hit. It has also become evident that the small-and-medium enterprises (SME) sector, which represent the largest proportion of enterprises in developing economies, will suffer significant losses.
As support, the World Bank and governments of countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar have announced fiscal and monetary reliefs of billions of dollars. However, the support packages relative to GDP are much smaller than in more developed markets, and the private sector has to take responsibility helping SME's through this difficult time.
Contributing to the efforts, Daraz has launched a Seller Stimulus program through which the platform is inviting local retailers to bring their business online in record time and diversify their sales channels and revenue streams beyond traditional brick-and-mortar. The program aims to reinvigorate the SME sector by providing a subsidy of half a million dollars with dedicated one-on-one support and access to free business consultation.
Additionally, Daraz is offering businesses access to free-of-cost education and training on ecommerce operations through Daraz University as the platform focuses on education to ensure sellers can optimize their ventures on Daraz.
"We are confident that the Seller Stimulus program will help thousands of SMEs get back on their feet by leveraging the e-commerce channel. We must stand together with our local businesses in this time," said Bjarke Mikkelsen, Daraz Group CEO.
The new program is offering an expedited sign-up process, enabling businesses to start retailing on the platform as early as within two days. Furthermore, Daraz will not be charging these sellers sale commission (0%) for the months of May and June. Sellers will have access to free analytics tools which will help them optimize their digital ventures and they will also be provided with marketing promotion which will increase the traffic to their Daraz shops. Furthermore, discounted packaging material will be made available to them.

The COVID-19 pandemic may prove to be an unexpected catalyst for growth of the e-commerce industry and Daraz will stand by its core mission to make it easy for anyone to do business in the digital age as the platform has always focused on empowering sellers and businesses.

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About Daraz

Daraz is the leading online marketplace in South Asia, empowering tens of thousands of sellers to connect with millions of customers. Daraz provides immediate and easy access to 20+ million products in 100+ categories. Daraz is a mall, a marketplace and a community for its customers. It is also a university for entrepreneurs, and every month it educates more than 2,000 new sellers on e-commerce operations. To overcome the logistics challenge in its markets, Daraz has built its own logistics company specifically designed for e-commerce operations - Daraz Express (known as DEX) - to raise the standards for the industry. In 2018, Daraz was acquired by Alibaba Group, and is proud to carry its part of the mission to 'make it easy to do business anywhere'. As part of the Alibaba ecosystem, Daraz is leveraging Alibaba's global leadership and experience in technology, online commerce, mobile payments and logistics to drive growth in its markets.

This release was published on openPR.