A. F. M. Asaduzzaman :
E-Commerce, the new sunrise industry in Bangladesh, is one of the much-talked about economic issues of recent times. The worldwide expansion of the internet has considerably contributed to the transformation and expansion of trade and retail transactions. E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions.
E-Commerce is redefining and reshaping the real estate industry. When a listing agent sells a house, it can take a few months to get to the closing table. The client or seller might have to pay for or make repairs to list it. Then there is marketing, staging, viewings, fielding offers, inspections, concessions and the closing to navigate. In this situation, websites like Offerpad, Opendoor, Zillow Offers and SimilarWeb have come forward in different countries to make people free from these hassles. They help people who want to buy and sell their houses in online.
To get an offer under the e-commerce system, a seller replies to online questions about the home. A procedure evaluates local and national housing data to assess the home’s value, which is fine-tuned based on the responses. The clients will receive their offers within 24 to 48 hours. There is no obligation or cost to request an offer. If the client accepts it, s/he will sign a purchase agreement. Then s/he will choose a closing date that meets his/her timeline. Closings can be scheduled in as few as seven days, up to 90 days out, depending on the platform. The company pays for and arranges an in-person assessment of the home’s condition.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has recently reported that Bangladesh stands to capitalize on improvements made by the country to bolster e-commerce friendly infrastructure. The UN body has also been informed about Bangladesh’s readiness to conduct electronic trade.
In this situation, Bproperty, the largest online marketplace for the real estate industry in Bangladesh, has started providing services to buyers and sellers (primary and secondary), tenants and landlords by allowing transactions to be done efficiently as well as securely. They offer all parties access to independent advice on properties, legal issues and routes to financing your home. Landlords just need to enlist their properties on the website.
With the growing demand of property in Bangladesh, Bproperty has used various technologies. When searching for property, users can filter changes according to price range, location and size of the property. Selecting a listing from the search results, people can view properties from the comforts of their own homes and select their desired ones. Viewers can now look at and walk through the property of their choice from their own home through the website’s 360 degree virtual tours of properties. They can control the camera for the visual tour in all directions and zoom in and out of the room, allowing them to visualize living in the property. Additional rooms and areas of the property can be selected through the menu on the screen.
Now, if the entire process could be done in online, it would offer great contributions to the e-commerce sector of the country. As a one-stop solution of the real estate sector, Bproperty is taking the required measures to make people realise that the online transactions would make their life easier. The volume of e-Commerce transaction was about Taka 1.7 billion in 2017 in Bangladesh. In order to obtain sustainable economic development as well as business growth, the government should flourish E-commerce.
(A. F. M. Asaduzzaman, Director, Public Affairs of BenchMarkPr; email: asad@benchmarkpr. com.bd)
