Daraz Group has announced a major leadership transition for its Pakistan operation, appointing Ben Yi as the new Managing Director effective July 1, 2026. Yi replaces Ehsan Saya, who steps down after a seven-and-a-half-year tenure during which Daraz Pakistan grew into the largest and most financially successful market within the Daraz Group. Saya will remain with the company in the role of Principal Advisor, ensuring continuity of institutional knowledge and key stakeholder relationships through the transition period.
Ben Yi brings extensive experience in the Alibaba Group ecosystem to his new role, having joined the conglomerate in 2015 and built a track record spanning marketplace growth, cross-border commerce, business development, and platform operations across multiple markets. He currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Daraz Group and Managing Director of Daraz Bangladesh, making his appointment to lead Pakistan a consolidation of regional leadership responsibility rather than an external hire. His deep familiarity with the Daraz platform and the broader Alibaba ecosystem positions him to continue the growth trajectory that Saya established while bringing fresh commercial instincts to a market that remains one of the most strategically important in the group’s South Asian portfolio.
Ehsan Saya leaves behind a significant operational legacy at Daraz Pakistan. During his tenure, the platform expanded its customer base to more than 28 million users and built a seller and brand ecosystem of over 300,000 merchants, establishing Daraz as the dominant e-commerce platform in Pakistan and a reference point for how to build a large-scale marketplace in an emerging market context. Saya was also an active participant in shaping Pakistan’s e-commerce policy landscape, collaborating closely with policymakers to develop regulatory frameworks for a sector that had long operated without clear institutional guidelines. In his transition to Principal Advisor, Saya expressed full confidence in Ben Yi and pledged ongoing support to the leadership team.
Looking ahead, Daraz Group has affirmed its long-term commitment to the Pakistani market, with plans to build a more resilient and agile organisation through the application of technology and artificial intelligence to drive operational efficiency. The appointment comes at a time when Pakistan’s e-commerce sector is navigating a period of significant policy attention, with the National E-Commerce Policy 2.0 recently finalised and the Apple official store having just gone live on Daraz in a sign of the platform’s growing premium retail ambitions. Ben Yi will be expected to build on these foundations while steering Daraz Pakistan through the next phase of digital commerce growth in a market that, despite its scale, still has significant untapped potential in logistics, digital payments, and rural market penetration.
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