Five years ago, a small and young team of around 100, were operating under the name of Kaymu.lk, building the foundation for a stable e-commerce platform in Sri Lanka. Recognizing the potential of the operations, Daraz stepped forward to invest on this business, contributing with international level financial and technological prowess.

Since its launch in Sri Lanka in 2016, Daraz has grown in leaps and bounds within a short period of five years, transforming and revolutionizing e-commerce in the country and opening thousands of opportunities to the local retail industry. With its exposure to the global giant Alibaba’s technological eco system, and backed by AliPay/Ant Financials, Daraz possesses first in class technology and business intelligence that monitors market and behavioral trends.

Today, over 50,000 large, medium and small enterprises sell on Daraz, providing millions of items to the online shoppers to buy from. More than 10,000 Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs, who are bread-winners of their families are benefitting by the largest online shopping platform in the island. Daraz’s own logistic arm, Daraz Express (DEX), which is the largest professional delivery fleet in the country, including over 25 Daraz Hubs across the island, has played a key role in developing an efficient island-wide logistic network. With the continuously expanding operation, over 5,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities have been created in the past 60 months. In 2019 Daraz consolidated the management and business operations of wOw.lk, the online retail platform owned by Dialog Axiata Group, further strengthening its position as market leader.

During the pandemic, while many businesses and individuals fought hard to sustain, Daraz delivered over 5 million groceries, supplied by our own Sri Lankan sellers, to people’s doorsteps all over the country.

Daraz continues to lead the e-commerce industry in Sri Lanka as a catalyst of innovation and technological finesse, introducing global trends to the local market. This year, Daraz launched two new features that enhanced the online shopping experience further. dMart, the future of online grocery shopping, conveys new technology to shopping for groceries online. Personalized shopping for each customer based on their past behavior and experience, a dedicated ‘Add to Cart’ button and search bar for all dMart products and express delivery with same day service for orders placed before 3 PM has made the mundane grocery shopping much more convenient. Furthermore, in a remarkable first in Sri Lanka, Daraz introduced Daraz Live, a ‘watch now, shop now’ feature, which enables consumers to see product demonstrations, and the look and feel of products prior to the purchase.

Daraz’s commitment to Sri Lanka is not restricted to its own industry. Wanting to inspire Sri Lankans to pursue their dreams and grow together, Daraz extended its support to local sports through two major partnerships. The e-commerce giant partnered with Sri Lanka Cricket as the Official Overseas Team partner for the national cricket team of Sri Lanka, coming forward to support the heartbeat of the nation. Not stopping there, Daraz also sponsored the National Olympic Team as the Official Digital Partner at the Tokyo Olympics, working closely with the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka to inspire the local athletes under the theme ‘Delivering Dreams’.

Using the existing platform to drive social awareness and create an opportunity to contribute to worthy causes, Daraz also has its CSR arm, Daraz Cares, which encourages users to make purchases that would impact the society we all live in, and help the deserving to gain access to resources they need. Through the partnerships with UNICEF, Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, Leads and Habitat for Humanity, Daraz users can choose from a variety of charities, and make donations that are available within a wide range of value, so as to make it affordable to all.

In the long drawn battle against Covid, Daraz donated Rs. 2 million and a supply of PPE kits to the ITUKAMA COVID 19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund. They also donated PPE and beds to the Sri Lanka Army, as well as dry rations to the Sri Lanka Police, in a gesture of saluting the front line heroes.

“As we mark five years in Sri Lanka, we take pride in what Daraz has achieved and contributed to the nation as a growing entity. We have come a long way from being an online shopping platform. Today, Daraz as a team, together with our seller and delivery partners, stand tall in driving the Sri Lankan retail market to its best potential,” stated Rakhil Fernando, Managing Director of Daraz Sri Lanka.

Thus reaching out to make lives of Sri Lankans better in many ways than one, Daraz has more than enough reason to celebrate its fifth anniversary. As such, the Daraz Turns 5 promotion will commence on 7th and continue until 13th October with up to 75% off, discounts on Bank cards and easy payment schemes for thousands of products available on Daraz. Realme, Unilever, VIVO, Hemas, Browns, Vantage and Teleseen Marketing join Daraz as Diamond partners while HP, OPPO, Celcius, Revlon, Multilac, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Yamaha Music Center, Hunters, Swisstek, Ebsaw, P G Martin and Embark take over the platinum partnerships. The gold partners are HUAWEI, Reckitt Benckiser, IELGY, Staedtler, CKEYIN, Dahua, Quantum Fitness, Janet, Coca Cola, Lumala, Blink International, TOFO, Munchee, Select by Daraz, The Concept Store and BOYA.