Online ‘animal markets’ fail to attract buyers
lahore — The online sale of sacrificial animals has so far failed to attract buyers as most of the citizens prefer to personally visit cattle markets for buying animals of their choice and according to budget.
Several billboards have cropped up in the city offering online sale of sacrificial animals, showing addresses of their websites.
The websites, including ‘Bakraonline’ and ‘Qurbanionline’, are dealing with sale of animals and delivery options through online payments but both the companies have failed to catch a good number of buyers.
A spokesman for ‘Bakraonline’ said on Monday, “People do not like to purchase sacrificial animals due to behaviour of some traders who use cheap trading tactics.
“People lack trust in online marketing of sacrificial animals and our website could not sell more than 50 animals in 2016 and same situation is prevailing this year”.
He said that online business of sacrificial animals would take some time to become popular among people. “It is just the start and people are getting information gradually about the business”. There is a general trend that people visit sacrificial animal markets with their children and friends so that they could buy the animals of their choice, he added.
Mohammed Ali, owner of ‘Qurbanionline’, said that their company sold more than 40,000 animals last year but majority of these animals were sold at display centres and a small number of animals was sacrificed through online system. He added that the foreigners and overseas Pakistanis liked to order animals for ‘Sadqa’, ‘Aqeeqa’ and ‘Qurbani’ for sending meat to poor people.
According to the websites, the price of a goat weighing 22kg is Rs25,000; 28kg animal is worth Rs34,000; and 40kg is Rs45,000. The price of camel ranges from Rs125,000 to Rs175,000 and its single share would cost Rs24,000. A cow weighing almost 100kg is available for Rs80,000 but the cost of pair is somewhat different from it.
Traders are also advertising their animals on social media (Facebook and Whatsapp) and some other websites including OLX, Darazpk, and Bolee.com. — APP