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In gaining customer’s reliability and attracting tech enthusiasts, product quality, price, and after-sales services are the key factors, Md Sajedur Rahman, Director of Star Tech, told The Business Post’s Rifat Islam in an interview
What are your plans for the Star Tech e-commerce platform? Is it doing better than your brick-and-mortar outlets?
Well, we set out to become the best e-commerce website for tech products in Bangladesh, and we have achieved this goal following a plan to give the best online shopping experience to all potential customers through the Star Tech platform.
We are providing regular promotions, and easy delivery methods on purchases for online shopping.
Customers who used to think going to physical outlets is a hassle are now regularly purchasing from our online shop, and becoming our regular online customers. Due to the attractive promotion and facilities, customers who usually shop at physical stores are also ordering online.
In 2021, we found that around 87 percent of regular retail customers are also shopping on our e-commerce website. We have further plans to open a virtual service centre through our website, like we had done before during the pandemic restrictions.
What do you suggest consumers look at before buying better tech-related products online?
I think product quality, reputation, price, and after-sales services are the most important factors to consider when consumers purchase tech-related products.
Having physical outlets at the customers’ doorsteps is also essential for ensuring hassle-free after-sales services. As you already know, Star Tech has physical outlets in major cities.
Customers can easily avail after-sales services and enjoy online promotions by picking up products they had ordered online from a physical store.
What challenges have you faced while driving a tech-based e-commerce business during strict lockdowns across the country, while ensuring the same reliability of your brick-and-mortar shops?
Home offices and online classes continued even after all retail shops were shut during the lockdowns. People had no other options but to use tech products to continue these activities from home.
So at that time, tech products such as laptops, desktops, routers, printers, gadgets, and related accessories became part of a person’s daily needs. It was a challenge to deliver these products to the customers’ doorsteps.
Inside Dhaka city, we carried out deliveries through our staff, but outside the city, we had to depend on other courier services. So it was quite difficult to deliver products on time outside Dhaka city due to the excessive pressure of deliveries.
Whenever witnessing such a situation, we explained the issue to customers and asked them for extensions on our delivery deadlines, so that they would not be disappointed in our services.
Why would a consumer choose your platform instead of any of your competitors?
We maintain strict quality control to ensure the best product, prices, and after-sales services.
We are authorised distributors of more than 22 well-known brands in Bangladesh, and we also collect the rest of our products from authorised channels. We regularly do promotions for online purchases such as special discounts, gifts, vouchers, coupons, and Star Points.
We also have 15 physical shops in different locations so that customers can easily visit our shops and receive any after-sales services they require.
Besides, we take any complaints very seriously, and until the complaint is fully resolved, our management follows them closely. So we think the customers should pick Star Tech to purchase any tech-related products online and offline.
The e-commerce sector recently witnessed a sharp decline due to some unregulated sites, impacting trust in customers. How has the change in consumer behavior impacted the tech-based e-commerce industry?
Recent incidents definitely impacted the trust of customers. People are losing hope in ordering their tech products online.
But I think those issues hardly impacted us, and our customers are ordering regularly as they did before. We always try to give the best service to the customers to make them feel comfortable shopping with us.
Meanwhile, we are trying our best to regain the customers’ trust in online shopping by upholding customer service standards for the tech-based e-commerce platforms in Bangladesh.
What are your best-selling products?
We all know people love to shop for smaller products such as routers, mouse, keyboards, pen-drives, gadgets, smart-watches, and other gaming accessories and smart devices online.
So we regularly get a huge order for those items. We also receive a large volume of orders for products such as laptops, desktops, TVs, gaming chairs, printers, photocopiers, and other items amid the pandemic situation.
I believe that the customers have now become used to it, and they are ordering such products regularly from our website. If I have to specify our best-selling products, I can mention gaming PC accessories and components from a number of brands such as Razer, Antec, TEAM and Gamdias.
Tech-based retail chain store Star Tech is known for its quality product and after-sales service.
