The Case Research Centre organised a case roundtable on Friday, 03 February 2017. The case Daraz.Pk: Online Marketplace written by Dr. Shakeel S. Jajja and Dr. Mohsin N. Jutt was discussed. The roundtable was chaired by Dr. Arif I. Rana. This case is best suited for courses related to supply chain management, retailing management, and online retailing.
The case starts with a description of the establishment and development of Pakistan’s first and the largest online marketplace, Daraz.pk in the context of online retailing in Pakistan. Daraz.pk started in 2012 as an online fashion retailer and evolved into a general marketplace of brands, selling items ranging from electronics to home appliances to fashion, as well as many other product categories. The case specifically focuses on supply chain management practices of Daraz.pk starting from the decision of approaching a vendor for its inclusion into their marketplace, managing the vendor and its products on their website, the delivery of products through various delivery channels, managing the flow of money and finally returning the products to the vendor in case of rejection from the consumer. The case is developed around the decision on whether or not and how to bring international brands on Daraz.pk in the wake of increasing local competition and potential entry of some established international players. Highlighting the decision’s implications on logistics and vice versa, the case poses various important trade-offs between in-house inventory and vendor managed inventory. Through the example of a sales day event conducted by Daraz.pk, i.e. Black Friday, this case also brings to light the various strains that logistics operations of Daraz,pk could potentially face due to demand hikes and the steps that could help in managing a situation like this
The Case Research Centre roundtables aim to help authors develop teaching cases that support ‘student-centred, discussion-based learning.’ Roundtable participants offer peer review and feedback to the authors.
