The World’s Times Exclusive: Unveiling the Visionary Journey of Obaid Arshad and Ginkgo Retail – Pioneering E-commerce, Empowering Communities, and Shaping the Future

Explore the visionary journey of Obaid Arshad, a stalwart in the e-commerce industry, and the success story of Ginkgo Retail, as featured exclusively in The World’s Times. With a decade of diverse experience, Obaid Arshad shares insights into his entrepreneurial background, highlighting contributions to local and international brands. Ginkgo Retail, awarded the “Best made in Pakistan SaaS-based Product in E-commerce,” stands as a disruptive force, creating a global footprint.

In an insightful interview, Obaid discusses his goals, emphasizing global expansion for Ginkgo Retail and a commitment to contribute to Pakistan’s youth.
Recognizing his biggest strength in people management, Obaid reflects on the proactive approach and innovation that propelled him to success. The challenges faced during Ginkgo Retail’s early stages are candidly addressed, showcasing the resilience and determination that paved the way for success.

The Worlds Times: Give us one word that describes “GINKGO RETAIL” the best.

Obaid Arshad: “One-stop solution”

Innovation, problem solving, customer centricity (key values)

Unveiling the Entrepreneurial Tapestry

We started the interview by asking, “Explain your background and your group of companies in detail.”

Obaid replied, “I’m known as a veteran of the e-commerce industry having diverse experience of 10 years in ecommerce, I am Co-founder & CEO of Ginkgo Retail. Historically, I am an entrepreneur who’s passionate about robust technology. Backing up only Shopify plus agency level partners in Pakistan is one of the instances of my passion about technology. A drill down to a brief entrepreneurial background:

1) Played a major contribution in growing the local e-commerce businesses in Pakistan.

2) Served more than 250 brands locally and internationally till date and the numbers keep growing.

3) Provided disruptive technology solutions to large fashion apparel, shoe industry and a number of marketplaces.

4) Resultantly, helped the overall economy of Pakistan to boost with highly positive correlation.

5) Took multiple initiatives to empower the youth of Pakistan in terms of their learning and growth with diverse programs like E-Mustaqbil and many more.

Disruptive SaaS based product; Ginkgo Retail for Pakistan’s industry which is now creating a global footprint.

6) Ginkgo Retail is award-winning “Best made in Pakistan SaaS-based Product in E-commerce”
7) Heading over the lead of digital global expansion through a recent project of Pak-Saudi global partnership while making Saudi’s investment in Pakistan.”

Charting the Future Vision of Obaid Arshad

The Worlds Times: What are your goals?

Obaid replied, “My business goal is to build and strengthen a global footprint of Ginkgo Retail for the international ecommerce market to follow and adapt. And my personal goal is to contribute back to the community of Pakistan, mainly youth; with my knowledge and exposure at my full capacity.”

Unveiling the Core Competency

The Worlds Times: What do you feel is the biggest strength of “OBAID ARSHAD” right now?

Obaid replied, “I feel like my biggest strength is people management, it’s so much diluted into my personality naturally that it drills down to my team. Resultantly creating stronger teams and leaders within the team. I always quote this in my interviews that throughout my journey I’ve made sure that Obaid Arshad is winning in life by building and growing 100 to 200 people along with me, not in silos.”

Obaid Arshad’s Journey from Vision to Victory

The Worlds Times: What was the path you took to get to where you are today?

Obaid replied, “Proactive approach has been the path that I took. By pushing the boundaries and limits, you have to come up with the solutions to an existing problem in the market just right in time to stay ahead. For me, it has been a daily practice to assess and understand the market’s needs and to keep innovating. As I always say this to my team as well, that yesterday’s achievement is now obsolete today. We have to be on the egg shells to stay the top choice of the ecommerce industry in Pakistan and beyond. And the great team in the leadership tier has been my forte throughout, which has a lot to do with where I am today.”

Navigating Challenges & Innovative Strategies

The Worlds Times: What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome during the journey of GINKGO RETAIL?

Obaid replied, “I’d say it was the early stages, when Ginkgo Retail was in the development phase back in 2021. To keep the team motivated with realistic and fair expectations was one of the challenges. That too extended with the fact that we were entering Pakistan’s market where the systems were kind of unstructured in the ecommerce industry and we had to break through the market as a ﬁrst mover and to grasp that trust of the market to scale their ecommerce business.”

The Worlds Times: What are the strategies of “GINKGO RETAIL” and how do you stand unique from your competitors?

Obaid continued, At Ginkgo Retail, we do not celebrate yesterday’s achievements today. We thrive to keep innovating and building robust technological advancements in our omnichannel solution to always stay the top choice of an ecommerce merchant. Our strategies involve future proven, robust innovation, customer centricity and agility, these are the core strategies that have helped us to capture more than 80% of the ecommerce and retail market. ”

Embracing Obaid Arshad’s Vision

The Worlds Times: What do you value the most about “OBAID ARSHAD” vision?

Obaid replied, “My vision is to bring Ginkgo Retail and Obaid Arshad to the scale where at almost every global forum; whenever a question of stepping up an ecommerce business with innovation pops up, Ginkgo Retail and Obaid Arshad should be the ﬁrst choice of the maximum pool of merchants. I believe this is the industry in which I can add lots and lots of value via tech innovative solutions. Because I’ve committed to dedicate my entire life to recognize Pakistan’s home grown tech product to the level of fully equipped and sustainable footprints globally. I aspire to build a narrative worldwide that there’s that one man from Pakistan, that one company— Ginkgo Retail; they are the legitimate planners of ecommerce.”

Navigating Challenges with Core Values

The Worlds Times: What are the key values which helped you to overcome the challenges in your path? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?

Obaid replied, “Throughout my journey I’ve explored a lot that helped me overcome multiple challenges along the lines. My key values that helped me to overcome different challenges throughout were:

To ensure that every team member is rightly connected to their core skill set. I assure that everyone is being impactful to their maximum capacity with their best of unique strength.

Cracking the code of creating a win-win situation while making a business deal has been one of the keys that helped me. I believe, to understand what the next person wants and how to make that possible under the given circumstances with a realistic and powerful approach is an art.

In the same context, I’d like to highlight – during the early stage of Ginkgo Retail, people management and team management were the core pillars behind this successfully known product. My core competencies helped me to keep my team motivated with a visionary yet realistic approach to the level that the core team which was there with me in the development stage of Ginkgo Retail are till date with me working on the advancement of this product. Such kind of leadership brings a natural sense of ownership and belonging among the team.”

Futuristic Vision

The Worlds Times: How do you see the companies changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?

Obaid replied, “I believe that in the coming two years, Ginkgo is moving upwards with every passing day towards building a more sustainable solution and be the top notch choice for the ecommerce market globally. As now we are at the point where we have a perfect blend of the right team that’s now scaled up to a certain level, pairing this with the right group of merchants from startups to large enterprises. This blend helps us to have a more assertive and bigger picture of what’s going on in the market with a 360 degree lens, and how to map the product innovation strategy to stay ahead in the market globally. As the CEO of Ginkgo Retail, I see myself visioning the roadmap of the product with advanced data orientation, AI, and machine learning in the coming two years which will make the product to become a bigger platform with more advanced features to tap into the majority of the regions of e-commerce market around the globe.”

Client Success Amplified

The Worlds Times: What beneﬁts are your clients getting from “GINKGO RETAIL” & “OBAID ARSHAD” in this competitive world?

Obaid replied, “In this competitive world, Ginkgo Retail is winning mainly because of the secret recipe of its core team’s synergy, customer centric approach, ﬂexibility, and problem solving minds. Ginkgo Retail has processed 40 million+ orders and 50 billion+ revenue generation, with 500+ omni locations managed, 12+ different ERPs, and 38+ logistics integrations. The futuristic and agile approach of Ginkgo has beneﬁted the 150+ pool of clients to the level where they count Ginkgo Retail as the integral ingredient to their success ratio of ecommerce business.”