Business Desk :
The internet became a destination of choice for grocery shopping during the coronavirus-forced lockdown a few months ago. With the shutdown well behind them, scores of people in Bangladesh still prefer to buy daily necessities and other stuff from the comfort and safety of the home at the touch of a button.
The biggest names in Bangladesh’s online retail business setting have nearly overcome the hurdles to supply their consumers with their desired products and are now taking steps to expand their services as the winter approaches, bdnews24.com reports.
Fayez Ahmed, a businessman residing in Dhanmondi, relied on online shopping to purchase his daily needs during the countrywide lockdown. Although the lockdown was lifted and the restrictions are eased, Fayez still chooses to go online to make purchases.
With experts predicting a possible resurgence of coronavirus infection in the winter, Fayez is hoping that the online services would be well equipped to deliver orders to his doorstep in time.
“I am not going to the market to avoid crowds, and will not for many more days to come. So, I am depending on the online shops. I had a lot of trouble with them during the lockdown. I hope the online shops will take preparations beforehand in case the situation deteriorates in the coming winter,” Fayez said.
“[During the lockdown] a product would reach me long after I made an order. I didn’t get proper service,” he added.
And that was generally the case as the shops largely struggled to complete deliveries amid a deluge of orders thanks to the pandemic-driven shopping boom.
Long waiting times for any order was accompanied by issues such as trouble ordering on websites and not getting desired products.
The officials with these online retailers admitted to their shortcomings, pointing out that they could not keep up with the sudden surge in demand largely due to them being understaffed and the limited capacity of their servers.
That period of struggle, the shop representatives said, were also lessons for them to equip accordingly for such a boom.
The novel coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than a million people worldwide after emerging in China’s Wuhan in December last year.
In Bangladesh, the first case was identified in March and now the death toll is beyond 5,500 accompanied by more than 381,000 reported cases of infection, according to government data.
Meanwhile, Europe is already witnessing a spike in cases with the arrival of the ‘second wave’ of the outbreak while experts have red flags raised for some time projecting an intensification of the outbreak at the onset of winter.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, too, called upon the authorities to prepare well, both financially and logistically, for the winter while speaking at a ceremony recently.
Looking back, Chaldal.com, the country’s leading online destination for daily needs, made improvements by increasing both their stocks and staff. It is also considering making deliveries outside Dhaka.
