Inside JAK Delivery’s plan to take Pakistani ecommerce sellers global

In Pakistan, small businesses don’t sell globally in the true sense. What usually happens is much simpler: people either buy products in bulk locally or from abroad and then resell them or some sellers produce their own goods. Even when exports happen, they are often done through big marketplaces and not directly by the brand itself. Even big brands such as Gul Ahmed in textiles rely on marketplaces to boost their retail sales globally.

If a seller does want to sell internationally, they usually have two choices. The first option is to go on a marketplace like Amazon. This gives you massive reach. You can access customers worldwide, but it comes at a cost. You have to pay commissions, spend money on ads to get visibility, and you don’t really own your customers. The platform controls everything.

The second option is to sell directly through your own website. This gives you full control, but now all the problems are yours. You have to generate orders, handle international shipping, deal with customs, manage delivery timelines, and figure out payments. This can get expensive and complicated very quickly. On top of that, there’s another big issue: marketing. Getting international customers to even find your product is hard and doing it sustainably requires a lot of money. Most small sellers either simply don’t have the knowledge or budget to do this properly. 

This is where JAK Delivery, built on the logistics network of Riyadh-based multinational logistics and delivery company SMSA Express, introduces a third option.

Instead of forcing yourself into a marketplace or making you handle everything yourself, JAK lets you stay local while selling globally. Instead of choosing between marketplaces, with their commissions and dependence or going fully independent with all the operational headaches, there is an attempt to restructure the process itself. 

JAK Delivery is essentially trying to separate what a merchant needs to do from what they are currently forced to do. In most cases, a seller in Pakistan is handling too many layers at once - production, pricing, marketing, payments, shipping, customs and delivery. The complexity doesn’t come from any one step, but from having to manage all of them together, often without scale or expertise. What JAK is doing is pulling some of those layers out of the merchant’s hands and centralising them - particularly logistics and demand generation so the seller can operate more like a local business, even while selling internationally.

Generating demand for SMEs

To understand JAK’s eCommerce playbook, it is important to first look at what the company is already doing in markets where it operates and how that foundation is being built before extending into merchant-led cross-border trade.

Before models like JAK began rethinking cross-border commerce from the perspective of sellers, one of the earliest and most effective attempts to unlock global eCommerce for emerging markets came from a consumer-first approach. Few services captured this shift more clearly than the Shop and Ship model developed by Aramex - an Emirati multinational logistics and delivery company.

At its core, Shop and Ship was not designed to help sellers expand internationally; it was built to solve a very specific and widespread problem for buyers. The problem itself was simple, but deeply frustrating for consumers in emerging markets. A customer sitting in Dubai, Karachi, or Riyadh could browse global platforms such as Amazon, explore international brands, compare products, and add items to their cart only to reach checkout and encounter a familiar limitation: the retailer or platform simply did not ship to their country.

This created a unique segment of consumers - people who were already comfortable with global eCommerce behavior. They tracked international sales events such as Black Friday, followed global brands, compared prices across regions, and were willing to purchase from international markets. Yet despite this willingness and awareness, they were constrained by a basic logistical barrier: access. The inability to receive deliveries in their home country effectively disconnected them from global eCommerce, even though demand clearly existed.

Shop and Ship stepped into this gap not by changing how global eCommerce platforms operated, but by building a workaround around those restrictions. It did not attempt to convince retailers to expand their shipping zones or redesign their logistics; instead, it inserted itself into the process as an intermediary layer. The model worked by giving users something very powerful: a presence in multiple countries without physically being there.

When a customer signed up for the service, they were assigned multiple international shipping addresses, typically in key retail hubs such as the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and the UAE. These were not virtual addresses but actual warehouse locations operated by Aramex. 

From that point onward, the purchasing flow changed. Instead of entering their home address at checkout, customers would ship their purchases to one of these assigned addresses. The retailer would complete what appeared to be a standard domestic delivery say within the United States without any visibility into the package’s final destination.

Once the shipment arrived at the warehouse, the system transitioned into its second phase. Aramex would receive the package, scan and log it into the customer’s account, and then forward it internationally to the customer’s home country. In effect, the company positioned itself between the retailer and the end consumer, converting what would otherwise have been a non-deliverable order into a completed transaction. 

As an Aramex user explained the experience to this reporter, he could buy from multiple eCommerce platforms in the US on different dates, get them all delivered to his address - essentially an Aramex location in the US. Once all his orders were consolidated there, he could have them shipped first to Dubai and then to Pakistan to save on Pakistani taxes. 

Customers using the service typically paid a membership fee along with shipping charges, making the model both accessible and commercially viable.

What made the model particularly compelling was not just the access it provided, but the scale at which it operated. Over time, Shop and Ship expanded its network across dozens of countries, enabling users to shop from a wide range of global merchants while consolidating deliveries into a single, coordinated logistics flow. For the first time, geography became less of a limiting factor in online shopping for these users.

At JAK Delivery, this same underlying logic is now being adapted and extended. Mehreen Feroze, who is leading JAK’s Pakistan operations, played a central role in building the Shop and Ship business during her time at Aramex, where she served as Global eCommerce and Digital Marketing Manager. At JAK, the intention is not to reinvent the model entirely, but to replicate and evolve it using the logistics infrastructure of SMSA.

The principle remains consistent: wherever SMSA has operational presence, customers can shop within those regions and have their orders delivered across borders through SMSA’s logistics network. This effectively recreates the same access layer that Shop and Ship provided.

Importantly, this model does more than solve a logistics constraint. It actively builds a base of customers. By enabling international shopping, JAK is gradually aggregating a segment of users who are already comfortable engaging in cross-border transactions. These are not first-time buyers experimenting with global eCommerce ; they are often repeat users who track international sales cycles, follow global brands, and actively seek opportunities to purchase from overseas markets when access is made easier.

Over time, repeated usage of the service reinforces behavior. Customers become familiar with the process, develop trust in the platform handling their deliveries, and build a level of comfort that reduces friction in future transactions. This repeated interaction gradually creates loyalty—not necessarily to individual brands, but to the platform that enables access itself.

That said, replicating this model in Pakistan may not be straightforward. A Pakistani logistics expert, who has served as a board member of a local logistics company, points out that the domestic base of consumers actively engaged in international online shopping is still relatively small. Without a sufficiently large pool of such users, scaling a consumer-first model of this kind could take time, particularly in a market where price sensitivity and local alternatives play a significant role.

Even so, the structural advantage of the model remains. Because all transactions are routed through JAK and SMSA’s network, the company gains visibility into purchasing behavior, preferences, frequency of transactions, and geographic demand patterns. This data is is tied to identifiable users who are interacting directly with the platform.

More importantly, this allows JAK to build direct relationships with its customers. Instead of remaining anonymous buyers on third-party platforms, these users become part of JAK’s own ecosystem and are reachable. Over time, this transforms a logistics solution into something more strategic: a demand layer that can be activated and connected to supply when needed.

Enabling sellers to go global

JAK’s above model gives it a strategic advantage: it already has a customer base that are familiar with international shopping and willing to buy. They understand the process, they are familiar with the service provider that can get them their delivery orders. Their only limitation is the set of countries they can access through SMSA’s logistics network. 

The platform can redirect this demand towards new sellers such as in the Pakistani market. In that sense it is JAK’s consumer model that enables its merchant model. By creating this customer base, JAK creates the demand layer that can later be matched with supply from new markets like Pakistan. 

As more merchants are onboarded, the variety and availability of products increases, making the platform more attractive to existing customers. In turn, a larger and more active customer base makes the platform more valuable for new sellers looking to reach international buyers. This creates a loop where demand attracts supply and supply further enhances demand. 

This is precisely the direction JAK is now moving toward. Having built a base of cross-border shoppers, the next step is to open that demand to new supply, starting with markets like Pakistan. State Bank of Pakistan’s data shows there were 9,584 registered eCommerce merchants as of June 2025. This number increased from 7,816 registered merchants in 2024. This is a growing trend of Pakistani merchants selling online but not necessarily going global that JAK can potentially work with. These are the merchants that likely have their own website, a prerequisite to work with JAK Delivery. Following State Bank’s directive last year to provide digital payments solutions to eCommerce merchants, more merchants are likely to have solutions that enable them to accept digital payments, the second prerequisite to work with JAK. Mehreen tells us that their is no COD in their model to ease the path to global selling by reducing cash flow issues. 

Once these prerequisites are fulfilled, the idea is straightforward: customers who are already using JAK platform across regions such as the GCC, Africa, Turkey, North America and Europe can now be introduced to sellers operating out of Pakistan. Potentially, JAK Delivery can open to sellers in 230 countries where its parent company SMSA has a logistical presence but its immediate plan is to open the network to sellers in Pakistan.  

In practice, JAK introduces new sellers through direct outreach to these customers. Instead of asking merchants to spend heavily on customer acquisition, JAK positions itself as the initial demand driver. When a new seller comes on board, the platform communicates this to its existing users often through direct email introducing them to the merchant, their product, and their website. 

“We do the marketing for sellers and we also do the paid media. We work with the biggest influencers in Saudi for customer acquisition. We are working more on expanding the customer base for our sellers,” says Mehreen Feroze, director at JAK Delivery. 

The transaction itself does not happen on a marketplace controlled by JAK or another third party. Customers are directed to the seller’s own website, where the purchase is completed. In that sense, the platform acts less as a storefront and more as a connector between demand and supply.

Logistics, similarly, is structured to remain flexible. While the system is built on the infrastructure of SMSA, using it is not positioned as a requirement. Merchants can choose their own logistics providers if they prefer. That said, according to Mehreen Feroze, the expectation is that many will opt into the network organically. 

“We don’t want to be imposers, but when merchants use SMSA as their delivery partners, the process tends to work smoothly, and the pricing is competitive compared to other options.”

The platform has been kept free as far as customer acquisition is concerned for Pakistani sellers, with the company only planning to make money on shipping to customers. Mehreen, however, hinted that it might not stay free indefinitely. 

A model in progress

While the model is promising, eCommerce and logistics experts believe it is still early and like most cross-border eCommerce solutions, its success will depend on how well it performs at scale. One of the key areas to watch will be demand generation. Simplifying logistics is an important step, but building sustained international demand for relatively unknown Pakistani brands will take time. Initial traction through platform-driven promotion can help, but long-term growth will likely depend on a brand’s ability to satisfy customers and provide a consistently superior customer experience. Sellers would see the greatest benefit if they could convert initial platform-driven demand into repeat purchases. 

Another defining feature of the model is its reliance on prepaid transactions. All orders are completed online before fulfilment begins, removing the need for cash-on-delivery. For merchants, this means immediate payment and reduced risk. For the platform, it simplifies cross-border operations that would otherwise be complicated by collections and returns. Prepaid orders also align with broader global and regional trends. In the MENA region that JAK plans to unlock for Pakistani sellers immediately, digital payments are steadily overtaking cash, with Saudi Arabian shoppers using cards for a significant majority of online purchases in 2024 according to Yahoo Finance. Some estimates place COD as low as around 9% of total eCommerce transactions in MENA region.

JAK operates within this expectation. Orders placed through its network are prepaid, and customers using the service are aware of this structure. In that sense, the model builds on an existing behavioural shift rather than attempting to force a new one, but it remains to be seen how consistently this will work in JAK’s case as it scales to new markets.