HomesShopping.pk, one of the leading e-commerce players in Pakistan, has entered into a strategic partnership to enable overseas Pakistanis to buy goods in Pakistan by making payments in installments in their country of residence. This is a first of its kind globally – Buy Now, Pay Later propositions have to date only been available for purchases locally and migrants have largely had no access to such means.
Pakistan has one of the largest diasporas in the world, with almost 9 million overseas Pakistanis sending home USD 22 billion every year accounting for 7% of the GDP of the country.
This partnership taps into this remittance pool and gives Pakistani migrants the ability to acquire a wide range of durable goods in an affordable manner.
Customers can go to a specially designed site (pkshop.gorise.co) with a wide range of products specially curated with overseas Pakistanis in mind, sign up for an account with Rise and get an instant approval for instant purchases. Purchases are delivered by HomeShopping.pk with the highest levels of care that HomeShopping.pk is synonymous with, In addition, customers can call a number in the UAE if they need assistance with their orders and all prices are quoted in and payments made in the customer’s local currency thereby avoiding any currency conversions or surprises when they receive their monthly card statements.
Padmini Gupta, Rise Co-Founder, and CEO commented, “From day one, we have set out to democratize access to financial services for migrants. This partnership takes us one step closer to that goal. There are over 3 million Pakistanis living in the Gulf, the vast majority of which have never had the ability to make purchases back home on installments. Today we are changing that.”
Shayaan Tahir, HomeShopping.pk Founder and CEO said, “We are delighted to expand our reach to bring easy installment purchases for overseas Pakistanis. During these challenging times when our fellow Pakistanis are not able to travel back home, especially for Eid, we are pleased to offer them a means to take care of their loved ones back home.”
Rise offers bank accounts that don’t require a minimum balance or salary, remittances, insurance products, and consumer loans in both the UAE and migrant home countries. Last year Rise launched an insurance product with Axa, cross-border unsecured loans in the Philippines, a Buy Now, Pay Later product with Carrefour, and a credit fund through Astra Amco – one of the largest hedge funds globally and an early-stage Rise investor. Rise plans to start operations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain later this year as well as expand its reach to merchants in other markets.