The e-commerce market in Pakistan is growing significantly; it posted growth of over 35 per cent in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021. The pandemic transformed day-to-day lives of individuals across the globe and made them rely on technology more than ever – also drastically affecting people’s shopping behaviors. With social distancing becoming a part of our day-to-day lives to slow down the spread of COVID-19, brick-and-mortar shopping has understandably witnessed a dip. More and more customers are becoming comfortable shopping online; even those who were previously hesitant. Recognizing this shift, Savyour became Pakistan’s first-ever – and currently only – cashback app in 2020 that promises shoppers to save a certain percentage of every online transaction that is made through their platform.
Cashback is one of the most popular mechanisms across the world today, which has proven to be beneficial for both users as well as businesses. Global players like Rakuten, Ibotta and Drop have been gaining immense popularity and consequently changing the way users are shopping online. They are a great way to increase sales and at the same time, reward customers. What is important to understand here is that cashback is not a loyalty/reward programme or a discount. It is real cash that customers can redeem by transferring the amount to their bank account. Cashback creates loyalty among customers, but is more powerful than loyalty points because it is hard money that can be utilized by customers as per their own discretion.
“Savyour offers its users triple stacked savings, maximising the financial benefit they can get from any app in Pakistan currently. This means, on top of cashbacks and brand discounts, users can further save on the final amount paid through concessions being offered on card payments by various banks. In any of these savings offers, there is no catch or hidden agenda. These savings come without any explicit conditions,” stated Umair Gadit, CEO, Savyour.
All savings collected in the Savyour wallet by a user can easily be withdrawn as per their convenience in their assigned bank account. The only requirement the app sets is the value of the withdrawal amount should be Rs.200 or more. The cashback itself is received by the customer as soon as the return cycle set by the partner brand is completed, following the same pattern that is practiced globally. This means that the number of days set by each brand to accept returns/exchanges need to pass before a sale is marked close, after which they release the affiliate partner’s commission based on which the customer’s cashback is passed on.
Explaining the mechanics of how partner brands benefit by collaborating with Savyour, Umair shared “Getting listed on Savyour means our partner brands immediately gain access to our users database, which is rapidly growing. Our business model has been designed in a way that we bring value to everyone associated with us – whether it is our users or our partner brands. The commission they offer us is split among our users in the form of cashback and ourselves. This makes Savyour a very powerful marketing tool, because our partner brands need to pay us only once a sale has been made hence making it much easier to track the ROI they are receiving from the platform as opposed to most other mediums which lack this transparency. Furthermore, depending on the scope of the deal struck with each brand, we offer them various other marketing benefits through our social media assets and extensive network of influencers. To sum it up – this is a win-win situation for all our stakeholders.”
With an overall population of 224 million and the internet penetration rate rapidly going up, Pakistan is one of the largest unrealized e-commerce markets in the world currently. By providing users with incentives such as cashback, it will only draw a larger number of shoppers to opt for online purchases.
