Facilitating digital commerce

Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Mustafa Jabbar said recently that the post office has now become a reliable institution for conducting digital commerce. “Post office has now become a reliable institution for digital commerce. Under the direction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we are creating a road map for post office digitization to establish a postal system suitable for the digital era. It will be implemented soon,” he said.

Digital commerce has huge potential in Bangladesh. Digital representation can change the scope of the economy and this is not a generic statement. Bangladesh has a vast population under the age of thirty–and these young people can be the primary drivers of the country’s economy.

This means that there will be a proportionate increase in the demand for jobs. With the increased use of digital financial services, Bangladesh’s GDP will get a major boost and lead to the creation of millions of jobs in the coming years.

With cultural change and technological awareness amongst the youth, they are far more comfortable with embracing change from conventional methods to modern ones. Moreover, the willingness of the government to collaborate with online marketplaces for export capacity building is apparent. Businesses in Bangladesh have witnessed an infrastructural change and while the 1990s were lagging in terms of a secure financial transactional system for online purchases, the situation is different today.

During the Covid-19 crisis, many people switched to the online mode for even their smallest purchases which have spiked an increase in the third-party online marketplace as well as e-commerce. Retailers are benefitting from Facebook and Instagram to tap potential customers and there are quite literally uncountable brands and pages run by young people.

From handmade ‘pithas’ to homemade and organic makeup, the opportunities are vast and numerous for entrepreneurs. This has also allowed young entrepreneurs who want to experiment with niche market products in a way that’s less risky and also saves them from investing huge amounts of capital. Once successful, a lot of these small businesses expand their operations and provide employment. Therefore, one has to agree that e-commerce is the new digital solution for business ventures.

While having established this line of reasoning, the authorities’ concerned need to take into accounts a couple of factors for the development of e-commerce. These include the facilitation of online transactions through companies like PayPal, enabling 4G connectivity to more remote areas, and providing opportunities for vocational training in areas of marketing, sales, and e-commerce inculcating a culture of research and development that aids e-commerce.

Indeed one of the primary drawbacks that is currently faced by fresh entrepreneurs, freelancers and SMEs is the absence of a globally accepted secure transaction system like PayPal. PayPal allows one to pay, disburse, and receive payments from anywhere in the world.

Although there was a digital trade policy passed in 2018 by the National Assembly, there were no guidelines for e-commerce sites.

Last year, when complaints started to emerge against several e-commerce companies, the lack of proper e-commerce guidelines sparked much discussion. In July 2021, the authorities issued the Digital Commerce Operation Guidelines amidst the uproar of misconduct and consumer rights violations by several e-commerce sites.

Efforts have been made by adding numerous rules to the guidelines to stabilise the sector. Under the guidelines, there are proper instructions for the delivery, pricing, and showcasing of products.

Following the guidelines, Bangladesh Bank has already started applying the escrow service where Bangladesh Bank acts as a third party by receiving the payment against the transaction and transferring it to the selling party after the delivery of the product.

However, this service also has been blamed for the delay in clearing the payments due to the manual method to verify the receipts.

A well-thought-out digital policy for e-commerce would be fruitful for Bangladesh as it competes in the digital arena globally.