Business Desk :
With the digital economy and e-commerce seen as a potent sector for employment and income generation in Bangladesh, the business insiders underscored the need for specific guidelines for doing fair business here.
They said the business has grown immensely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are a lot of challenges including policy, infrastructure, internet and logistic barriers, fraud sellers and customer mindset in Bangladesh.
The president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services Syed Almas Kabir shared that the e-commerce business experienced a significant 166 per cent growth in 2020 as consumers moved online for their shopping due to the pandemic.
“There are 36 million active social media users in Bangladesh, of which 8.4 million are Facebook users. The f-commerce market is about Tk 3.12 billion (Tk 312 crore),” he also added.
Shayantani Twisha, head of PR, media and communications at Daraz Bangladesh said that policy, fraud sellers, infrastructure (internet and logistic barriers), and customer mindset are main challenges for the sector.
“Daraz invested Tk 5.0 billion this year for infrastructure development and automation. Many people are unaware aware about e-commerce as it’s a new business platform in Bangladesh. They feel fear to purchase products from the platform. So, a massive awareness is needed. We teach people though our website from 2017 to build trust and awareness,” she added.
Shayantani added some companies are doing mistake willingly, providing duplicate products, cheating with customers. They have no right to do business. So, strong policy is needed here.
The experts also underscored the need for a “standard operating procedure” to flourish the e-commerce business here. Besides, a specific guideline is needed for the sake of both companies and consumers that will harmonize the growth of the sector in a manner fair to all sides.
