Bazaar

Bazaar is a Pakistan-based technology company whose stated mission is to build an operating system for the country's traditional retail economy. Its original business is a B2B marketplace serving small and medium-sized retailers, which allows shopkeepers to order several thousand stock items through a smartphone app and receive them in a single next-day delivery, replacing fragmented supply chains that could involve 30 or more small deliveries per day and trips to local wholesalers. Bazaar negotiates bulk contracts with consumer packaged goods companies, wholesalers and other suppliers, and passes on purchasing-power savings while removing intermediaries.

Around this core marketplace the company has added adjacent products: Easy Khata, a digital bookkeeping and accounting application for retailers that previously kept paper records, and Bazaar Credit, a short-term working capital lending product aimed at merchants with limited access to formal banking. Management described the combined offering as an integrated set of B2B services covering procurement, fulfillment, operating software, digital lending and supply chain products for merchants and suppliers.

Bazaar also operates a consumer-facing online grocery service under the Bazaar App brand at bazaarapp.com, serving Karachi and other locations in Pakistan. The storefront lists roughly two dozen grocery and household categories including fruits and vegetables, chicken and meat, milk and dairy, flour, rice, pulses, oil and ghee, frozen foods, baby care, personal care, cleaning and homecare, pet care and stationery. Orders are placed through the website or the iOS and Android apps with next-day delivery, cash-on-delivery and card payment options, a rewards mechanism called Bazaar Coins, and documented policies for cancellations, returns, exchanges and refunds, with customer care available by phone and in-app help.

Founding story

Childhood friends Saad Jangda and Hamza Jawaid, both of whom had studied and worked abroad, set out to build a large-scale company inside Pakistan rather than emigrating. After searching for an idea with sufficient scale, they settled on Pakistan's highly fragmented and inefficient retail sector as a target for a technology-enabled procurement solution and launched Bazaar in June 2020.

Business model

Two connected models are described in the sources: a B2B marketplace that aggregates demand from small retailers, buys in bulk from CPG companies, wholesalers and other suppliers under negotiated contracts, and delivers consolidated orders through its own logistics network; and a direct-to-consumer online grocery service selling household goods with home delivery. Software (Easy Khata) and short-term merchant lending (Bazaar Credit) are layered on the merchant base, with lending explicitly intended to increase merchant purchasing volumes on the procurement platform.

Sources do not state revenue mechanics explicitly; the company sells goods to retailers via its procurement marketplace and to consumers via its grocery storefront, and extends short-term working capital loans to merchants through Bazaar Credit.

Traction

By March 2022 the B2B marketplace served 21 towns and cities covering 30% of Pakistan's population through more than a dozen fulfillment facilities, adding three to four locations monthly, with plans to reach 50 towns and cities. Easy Khata had onboarded 2.4-2.5 million businesses across 500 cities and towns, recording over $10 billion in annualised bookkeeping transaction value. Bazaar Credit had disbursed thousands of digital loans with 100% repayment and a zero non-performing loan rate. The company also reported being named in a Pakistani university survey as the startup students most wanted to work for.

Latest developments

The most recent dated source material is the March 2022 Series B announcement and the current bazaarapp.com storefront, About Us and FAQ pages, which show an operating consumer grocery delivery service in Karachi with next-day delivery, mobile apps, a Bazaar Coins rewards programme and published refund, return and exchange policies.