It has been widely reported that Pakistan is likely to feature in the list of allowed countries for Amazon sellers. It could well mean that now Pakistan nationals will be able to create their Amazon account after using their Pakistani details.
Even though Pakistan has one of the largest yet under developing manufacturing eCommerce markets in South Asia, the country was the only South Asian nation not listed among the 102 countries on Amazon’s platform. Among other various reasons, the absence of e-commerce laws, lack of government support, and unstable currency were the barriers that had been impeding the world’s largest e-commerce company to approve Pakistani sellers.
While revealing the news, in his felicitation note, the founder of Extreme Commerce– Pakistan’s largest community of online sellers– Sunny Ali expressed,
“The new era of Ecommerce boom for Pakistan is about to start. Get your agencies ready for more business, you are about to get flooded with Pakistani manufacturers and brands who would need your services to take them to Amazon. Do your best, do not let the brand Pakistan down ever again please.”
He went on to appreciate the key figures whose efforts were behind this huge leap forward. Sunny Ali admired Ms. Aisha Moriani (Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce), Mr. Shoaib Sarwar (deputy Consul General, Consulate General Pakistan, Los Angeles), Omer Gajial (Ex Amazon Category Development Head for Amazon North America division), team members of NECC (National Ecommerce Council) and Badar Khushnood from Pakistan Software Houses Association for their earnest support to this cause.
Sunny Ali, himself, has also been a vocal supporter of bringing the Amazon online services to the attention of the Government and the public alike. He currently has an online team of over 600,000 members in Pakistan, where the aspirants are trained to learn necessary skills for excelling in the online market.
Prior to this move, due to not being approved by Amazon, the Pakistani sellers were compelled to rely on hacks and other ways around to get their work done. Many sellers have the final resort to use VPN services to gain access to Amazon seller central accounts from abroad – an online portal where the merchants can buy and sell products. Pakistani sellers also follow the practice of setting up overseas bank accounts and finding overseas business partners for their businesses.
“It (Amazon approval) will hugely impact the exports ratio of the said country. In Pakistan, the government’s first official e-commerce policy was only put in place in 2019, with the aim of introducing banking services and other infrastructure necessary for e-commerce.” An economy expert said to Freelancepur.
The decision of Amazon has been welcomed open-heartedly by Pakistan’s online community. The country’s economy has been crippling for many years and this Amazon approval is seen as a revolutionary decision by the netizens.