Home ›› 11 Apr 2023 ›› Front
Online shopping ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr has gained momentum after a six-month lull caused by high inflation and dollar price hikes, according to entrepreneurs.
Industry players said they received a large number of orders in the third week of Ramadan and those selling fashion items are doing good business.
“Online sales, especially of clothes, usually increase by 70-80 per cent in the middle of Ramadan, and that is happening this year as well. Sales figures of such goods are almost the same as last year’s Eid-ul-Fitr,” said Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer (CEO) of e-commerce marketplace Ajkerdeal.com.
He said online sales mostly rise during the second and third weeks of Ramadan.
“Many companies stop taking orders five to six days before Eid to make sure they can deliver the products in time. Many people leave for their village homes two to three days before Eid, and we stop taking new orders at that time.”
Fahim further said online shopping had been on the decline for the last six months and people significantly reduced the purchase of expensive products, including electronics. “Not only Bangladesh but other countries also faced this crisis.”
Shajgoj CEO Nazmul Sheik said beauty product sales usually go up by 20 per cent every year in the last week of Ramadan as customers buy clothing items first. He said his company has received as many orders as last Eid but there is a drop in units.
As beauty products are mostly imported, due to the dollar price hikes and letter of credit complications, the supply chain has been drastically hampered in the last three to four months, he explained.
“Over the last four months, there have been little or no imports. We are meeting the demand with goods imported earlier and local items.”
Nazmul added, “Our sales saw a markedly downward trend in the last three to four months but picked up in the middle of Ramadan.”
Officials of the country’s largest online shopping platform Daraz Bangladesh said they are receiving huge orders due to the ongoing Eid campaign that has many attractive offers.
The month-long campaign from March 23 to April 23 is offering exciting prizes, including mega deals, hot deals, firework vouchers, Daraz club-coin boost, shake shake, mystery box, and more. Over 3,000 popular brands are participating in it, offering up to 70 per cent discounts along with safe delivery.
Mashrur Hasan Mim, director of growth marketing at Daraz, said, “We have many offers and deals during the campaign. We are expecting that over one lakh people will visit our website and order products every day, which will ultimately help the country’s e-commerce sector move forward.”
Logistics companies are also passing their busiest times as they are receiving a large number of delivery orders countrywide. Biplob Ghosh Rahul, CEO of eCourier, said they are receiving way more orders than regular times.
The delivery of items like cosmetics and apparels almost doubled compared to last Eid as the government has strengthened e-commerce monitoring to prevent fraud, he said.
“Although logistics costs have risen by almost 20 per cent due to increased transport costs, we are still receiving more orders as people look for reliable product delivery platforms.
“The e-commerce platforms selling good quality products are getting more and more orders. But those doing business only using Facebook cannot attract lots of customers compared to big companies like Daraz. That is why their business is not growing as much,” Rahul commented.
According to the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) data, 4.3 lakh products sold online are delivered across the country every day on average. Before the pandemic, the growth in this sector was 50 per cent.
During the pandemic, the growth in the delivery of daily products was 300 per cent while that in food was 267 per cent. Overall, the average e-commerce growth was 60 to 70 per cent.
e-CAB said post-pandemic growth expectations were higher in 2021-22. But at the end of last year, due to the economic crisis, growth dropped to 40 per cent.
According to the data of the Bangladesh Bank, after the start of the pandemic, digital business expanded rapidly. June 2021 recorded the highest ever e-commerce transactions of Tk 1,277 crore.
Transactions were about Tk 1,162 crore in November last year, which decreased to Tk 1,130 crore in December.
