Pakistan is a country known for having a very dynamic consumerism and our market metrics and indexes keep astonishing the world. Although we boast the required synergy, it is surprising that we haven’t yet been able to mark a National Shopping Event for the local Pakistani households.
The world admits that Pakistan has a very lively market. Pakistan was allotted the ‘Emerging Market’ status just a few months back and hearing the news, the Pakistan Stock Exchange immediately shot to being the Asia’s best performer. Bloomberg, an internationally renowned market watcher, calls us a pleasant surprise while, last year, Wall Street Journal termed Pakistan as a star pick for foreign investments.
These facts have always been seconded by the physical landscapes of our markets. The commercial areas of our cities have always turned out to be one of the busiest areas. You would find people rushing to the brick-and-mortar markets and e-markets. Be it a shopping sale or a new season launching spree, Pakistanis are ready to spend the right money on the things they find equally worthy.
People from across the globe have started to regularize their market momentum. We can see countries and cultures organizing their own shopping events on annual basis. A famous market concept Black Friday traces its roots back to the United States where it was originally started to celebrate the start of ThanksGiving season and the sales usually lead up to Christmas. Australia’s Click Frenzy and Malaysia’s MYCyberSale are also well known worldwide. Our neighbor country India also enjoys many shopping events. One such sale is conducted on the occasion of their religious event Diwali and is known as “The Great Indian Sale”. Snapdeal Unbox and Big Billion Days are other such sales conducted around the said event.
As the markets from around the world have now turned electronic with a major part of shopping being done at the comfort of one’s home, Pakistan has also taken the effect. These websites have, since then, introduced many such sales. Many websites keep launching flash sales, and despite the time window is way limited, the websites reportedly get great responses.
A few years back, Black Friday also made its way to Pakistan. As expected, the concept quickly caught the attention of Pakistan masses and response from Pakistani population was enormous. Although there were a few glitches, the event showed a domain which had remained untapped, a domain with great potential. Black Friday is not a part of our business cycle. It is, in fact, a borrowed American event which corresponds to the American Culture. What if, we as Pakistanis come up with a shopping event of national scale. An event which matches our culture and hence becomes a celebration of our masses. One before Eid, perhaps.
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