According to the CEO of Daraz Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group and an e-commerce platform, Bjarke Mikkelsen, the group is laying off 11% of its personnel in order to adapt to the “current market realities.”
Mikkelsen highlighted a challenging market climate, including the elimination of crucial government subsidies in its markets, a conflict in Europe, significant supply chain interruptions, skyrocketing inflation, and increased taxes. The organization has operations in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
Daraz, largest e-commerce retail platform in Pakistan
In 2018, Chinese tycoon Alibaba purchased Daraz, the largest e-commerce retail platform in Pakistan. Daraz was established in Pakistan in 2012. On this platform are 100,000 SMEs in Pakistan.
According to Ehsan Saya, managing director of Daraz Pakistan, Pakistan is the company’s largest market and employs the most people across all Daraz markets.
Saya told a foreign news organization that the group-wide personnel reduction of 11% will also result in an 11% reduction in Pakistan.
When foeign blog agency asked the group for comment on the number of employees who will be impacted by the change and the specifics of the restructure, they did not react right away.
Mikkelsen claimed in the letter that Daraz had grown their active customer base from three million in 2018 to more than 15 million at this time, noting that this was accomplished with “an average order growth of almost 100pc till this year.”
Daraz claimed to have 10,000 employees and access to 500 million customers by the year 2021. Over the past two years, it has invested $100 million in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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