Despite progress within the IT sector, average Karachiites still use analog rather than digital solutions for many aspects of their lives. Qist Bazaar’s Facilitation Centers act as important bridges to assist with the process of digitizing the city’s mass market customers.
As seasoned banker and Head of QB Branches, Rubina elucidates “80% of the Pakistani population is not literate in the true sense of the word. We can either forget about them or help them transition into the new world, the online world. They require hand-holding, and so we have set up facilitation centers (conveniently located in dense neighbourhoods) where knowledgeable, polite and helpful staff is available for anyone who does not have an access to an internet enabled device or is not tech savvy enough to order online. They are taught how to make an online purchase thus helping them to make the transition.”
Onboarding the non-tech-savvy is a testament to Qist Bazaar’s commitment to use FinTech to achieve financial inclusion and build trust on E-Commerce platforms. Qist Bazaar’s Facilitation centers are located in Korangi – Landhi, I. I. Chundrigar Road, Shahrah-e-Faisal, Shadman Town, Clifton, Saddar and opening soon in Hyderabad. The Facilitators at these Centers work as relationship managers, tech enablers and perhaps as financial advisors as well. They function at a grass roots level and know the communities they serve, understand their issues and make fitting accommodations.
Qist Bazaar is the only BNPL for the mass market, offering electronics on EMI to unbanked and underserved Karachiites. An essential component of its hybrid model, its Facilitation Centers provide spaces for those customers who prefer to visit a physical site rather than a website. Customers visit these centers for a variety of reasons:
- They are inherently suspicious of E-Commerce and prefer to deal face to face with Qist Bazaar’s Facilitators for reassurance.
- They prefer to see a demo of the physical product and get the answers they need to understand the technical differences between products of different brands.
- They do not know how the internet works and need guidance.
With some customers preferring to pick up their products from the Facilitation Centers and not have them delivered to their homes, Qist Bazaar’s hybrid online/offline model preserves both the privacy and the dignity of its customers. BNPL is still considered a taboo in more traditional and conservative homes as many in the mass market see installments as a private affair that they do not want their neighbors to know about. Facilitation centers are the ideal way to reassure such customers of the viability of BNPL model.
