Online sales growing in Sri Lanka at fast pace - Google

Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 01:00

Fazal Ashfa, Nitin Bawankule and Sheyantha Abeykoon and officials in Colombo

Sri Lankan on line sales are picking up very fast and due to this the country has become one of the fastest growing on-line shopping markets in Asia, Google India Director, Nitin Bawankule said.

The annual consumer sales in Sri Lanka is valued at Rs. 300 billion and currently online sales are just 1% of it. "We feel that the online sales are increasing rapidly due to the high mobile devise penetration and we expect this figure to be around 3% in three years time."

He said that the online market in Sri Lanka is growing by 100% each year and this is the reason Google decided to come to Sri Lanka and assist this growth.

In partnership with WOW.lk Google will launch 'Avurudu MegaPola', the three week long impactful, digital e-commerce platform aiming to reach a large number of Sri Lanka's Internet users. "This www.megapola.lk is being organized with the intention of further catalyzing the local e-commerce

industry."

"We believe the ecommerce industry in Sri Lanka is at an inflection point and firmly believe that such events offer a tremendous boost to ecommerce growth in the country. We also feel that this event would give it a push in the right direction and take it to a group of consumers who have never

experienced online shopping before," Google Country Lead for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh Fazal Ashfaq said.

Google hopes that the event will create awareness among a wider audience of the conveniences of shopping online.

"This is a first in Sri Lanka will create life-changing experiences for buyers and sellers. The e-tail platform 'MegaPola' is on for three weeks until April 10 and is the first of such an initiative," Digital Commerce Lanka (WoW lk.)Chief Executive Officer Sheyantha Abeykoon said. He said that with online marketing consumers have the bigger option to shop as virtual shops only provide a few items. "Due to this we see a bigger shift of consumers turning to the internet buying. It is also fast, simple and secure and there are several options for payments as well as delivery."