We are here to stay: Bikroy MD

Bikroy.com never compromised on its service quality and ran after instant albeit short-lived popularity, the company’s Managing Director Eshita Sharmin told The Business Post’s Rifat Islam in an interview

The Business Post: How do you feel about becoming the first Bangladeshi female MD of Bikroy?

Eshita Sharmin: I was one of the top 10 employees at Saltside Group and the first employee of Bikroy.com since 2012. I was well-versed in marketing and managing such services.

So, before me, our company was led by Swedish citizens. The company owners made me the Managing Director in April 2021 because of my skills and experience. 

TBP: What are your plans for Bikroy?

Eshita Sharmin: We receive 35 lakh unique visitors on our site every day. Currently, we are focusing more on the growth of our website, not on revenue. The pandemic has affected the economy and people have less cash in hand. So, we consider a bare minimum charge for advertisers to use our site. This strategy has worked. We’ve seen a 200 per cent increase in seller number compared to last year. 

TBP: How does bikroy.com work?

Eshita Sharmin: We don’t have products but what we offer is a platform. Here a seller can post two to three products for free of charge. Every day nearly 10,000-15,000 ads are posted on our site. Of these, about 2,000 are posted free of charge. 

We give small and medium enterprises that post 20 to 30 ads a month virtual shops and charge a monthly fee.

We also review and sort each ad. 

TBP: What initiatives has Bikroy taken to protect customers from cheating? 

Eshita Sharmin: We have a dedicated team to check the authenticity of the ads. We also attach safety tips for users with each post. We advise customers to avoid offers that look unrealistic, study the item before buying it, chat with the seller to clarify item details, meet in a safe and public place and not pay any advance.

Our support system successfully resolves 90 per cent of the users’ complaints.

We never ran after instant popularity. We have an e-commerce platform and can lure customers with 40 per cent discount offers. But that won’t be a viable business model in the long run. We never compromised with our service quality. 

We are here to stay.

TBP: What prospects and problems do you see in the Bangladeshi online marketplace? 

Eshita Sharmin: Prospects are immense, and the sector is growing. But the problem is when someone comes up with an e-business platform, everyone starts to copy it. Customers become confused about which is reliable and which is suspicious.

Sometimes we are surprised to see people believe in them, as most of them sell products at an unbelievable rate that do not even cover the manufacturing cost. I think customers need to be more aware.

These days, consumers are also getting cheated on the Facebook marketplace or online selling platforms. They are getting lured by the same unrealistic discounts. When buyers are convinced to pay in advance and complete the payment process, the frauds delete their business pages or block the buyers. 

TBP: What kind of cooperation do you expect from the government to develop the e-commerce sector?

Eshita Sharmin: The government should have taken the necessary steps before these suspicious platforms deceive consumers. These types of incidents hurt the sector’s credibility. The current government regulation is enough to keep the frauds at bay but it needs proper

implementation.