With chaos, comes opportunity. A business is successful when it can solve a problem and provide a solution that benefits the end users. Having a plethora of things to order online but waiting days at end to receive the items made Muhammad Uzair Arshad, CEO of BBM take that leap of faith in March 2019 and launch BBM in the 11th largest city of Pakistan, Bahawalpur. A hyperlocal marketplace that made same day deliveries of groceries, food, apparel, electronics, medicines and so much more possible. The launch in Bahawalpur yielded great results and the project was a massive success and then came the pandemic…
The global coronavirus outbreak has greatly affected the way we live our lives. During the pandemic, we’ve all witnessed long queues outside supermarkets as distressed shoppers waited to hoard supplies. Consequently, brick and mortar stores were seen temporarily closing down. Best Buy Mall (BBM) saw the pandemic as a window of opportunity to expand to Lahore. This is when the corporation lifted itself up by the bootstraps while self-funding itself yet again, providing the perfect solution to the grocery store conundrum.
Being the ultimate solution for consumers, BBM also plays a significant role in empowering and enabling brick and mortar stores and businesses by providing the right technological tools for a successful digital transformation. BBM offers many services such as SaaS (Software as a Service), Managed e-commerce, LaaS (Logistics as a Service), BBM Marketplace (a platform for businesses) and Customer Success Centre, offering our clients the most convenient services possible and who doesn’t love convenience, we ask?
E-commerce is an ever-evolving industry and to keep up with it, it is imperative we stay one step ahead of our competitors by leading with authority, rather than being like lazy pandas or hasty cheetahs. Whereas the latter are disadvantaged from having their business partners manually update their systems when it comes to logging price and inventory, BBM benefits from having the right technological solutions that enables it to synchronize its data with its onboarded partners to ease service, and automatically update data as per requirement. We’re proud to have created a need and followed through with it to bring about cutting-edge solutions, including but not limited to, our POS systems. Continually striving to better our abilities and capabilities has allowed us to always stay ahead of the curve.
Here’s what the CEO himself has to say about his journey:
“My BBM journey started off when I was visiting my home country, Pakistan. Having lived abroad, in Singapore and San Francisco for quite a while, I was used to the lifestyle there. The concept of online shopping websites and apps for ordering daily essentials to be delivered the same day was fairly new in Pakistan.
Visiting my home city Bahawalpur made me realise that this notion didn’t even exist there. Therefore, we launched BBM in Bahawalpur first with the aim of empowering and enabling local brick and mortar stores through the BBM Marketplace.
Expanding to Lahore was challenging because the market we were targeting was SEC A, by bringing exclusive and leading brands like AlFatah, Esajees, Naturals, Malmo, etc. on the BBM Marketplace. We started out in Bahawalpur with a series of experiments that worked well in our favour and when the pandemic hit, we knew we had to leverage whatever we had at our disposal to expand to Lahore. Somehow, as bad as the effects it has had on the world as a whole, for BBM, it proved to be a blessing in disguise. There is nothing better for us than to serve our community in the best possible way we can. Our objective was to build a hyperlocal digital mall which would be integrated with multiple businesses as well as provide our clients with ERP and POS services and we’ve done it, for the first time in Pakistan. Now, we’re working on expanding globally.”
Uzair is amongst those unsung heroes who managed to achieve a whole lot in such a short span of time. Having lived long in Singapore, Tallinn-Estonia, and San Francisco, he noticed how quick and easy it was to have his groceries sorted out and not having to worry about delays. Noticing the discrepancies in Pakistan and namely in his own hometown Bahawalpur, he knew he could fill that gap, and that is essentially how BBM came into being. From providing the right guidance and softwares for the digitization of stores for Bahawalpur to bringing exclusive brands on one platform in Lahore, BBM has come a long way.
It is commendable to say the least of how far Uzair has come in his journey considering BBM was a series of trials and errors initially when it started. Now, 2.5 years later, being fully self-funded and stable, crossing 150,000 orders, flourishing in two major cities in Pakistan and now expanded to the USA as Universal Cuisines, is truly remarkable. The BBM team’s next target is expanding to Africa and the Middle East.
However, there is no doubt that the success of BBM would never have been possible without Emblem Technologies, a sister company founded by none other but Uzair himself. BBM’s aim was always to expand all across Pakistan and internationally too. While there are many competitors in the market excelling at last mile deliveries, BBM has a different model. The team at BBM adapts and evolves for its customers and partner businesses while ensuring no one is falling behind when it comes to technological advancement.
