Online businesses thriving

Nowadays from banking to transportation to grocery shopping, a wide range of online businesses and services are available at our fingertips. Online businesses are doing rather well in Bangladesh. Which in turn has created opportunities for both local and foreign investments in this sector. Attracting investment from other countries is not easy, and thus it is always good to know that overseas companies are showing interest and investing in our local trade and economy.

Over the years many experts and businesspersons are continuously pointing out the positives this sector might bring for us in the near future. Keeping this in mind, we can see a good number of our youths are trying to develop their career in the e-commerce-oriented fields.

During the ongoing pandemic, online businesses around the world have boomed. It has gained a lot of popularity and have managed to attract new segments of the consumer market. While some businesses were struggling to cope with the pandemic, businesses that were more connected with online or provided their services through the means of the internet, seemed to do the opposite. During the Eid ul Fitr there was about 2000 core worth of transaction in the e-commerce sector.

Recently UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) published a report that states how there has been a spectacular rise in the e-commerce sector. The report states how the movement restrictions induced by the pandemic increased online retail sales’ share of total retail sales from 16 per cent to 19 per cent since the beginning of 2020.

Giant tech companies are doing very well in share markets of different countries. Companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. have all seen a sharp increase in their share prices. They are the world leaders in respect of the services they provide and now they are doing more business than ever before. News like how Amazon creator and owner Jeff Bezos become the world’s richest man made it to the headlines in the international media.

Just like the developed world, online businesses in Bangladesh saw positive feedback from the market. One can say that the online market in Bangladesh is perhaps witnessing the peak of their business at present.

According to ECAB (E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh) Officials trading of essential items has witnessed a phenomenal growth.   

Online businesses are concentrated in Dhaka, Chattogram and other major cities of the country. Cities like Dhaka and Chattogram were affected most severely during the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic. This allowed online businesses to expand their services in these two major Bangladeshi cities. They recruited new employees and new jobs were created at a time when joblessness affected other sectors of the economy.

At present the online businesses are likely to grow further. However, the sector experiences occasional hiccups. There have been criticisms regarding how the online businesses are not being able to meet the customers’ expectations. Often, clients have complained about how the product they saw online is different from the product they received. While there have been a lot of complaints raised in the social media about the issue the mainstream media has not been too vocal about the issue. What is very disappointing is the fact that in many cases customers have no scope for registering their complaints. 

This writer ordered a duck among other groceries. The picture of the duck seemed fresh-looking at the website. 

However, it was delivered frozen and must have been packed months back. It was difficult to read the expiry date mentioned in the packing.

Giving the company benefit of the doubt, this writer thought that it could have been an isolated incident, only to be proved wrong later, as incidents like these have occurred from time to time. The main problem was this was not happening to this writer alone but many others. Such incidents were happening on most of the platforms that were providing such delivery services. The annual meeting CCABD (Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation) revealed that the number of cyber frauds has increased manifolds and as many as 11.49 per cent of the customers have been victims of fraud.

In some cases, customers received their ordered product three or days later than they were supposed to be delivered. Of course, due to the sudden increase of the demand, the online businesses had to hire new employees and find out new ways to deal with their shortcomings. 

There are about 1500 online businesses that are ECAB members. In total there are more than 2000 online big or small businesses that are operating in Bangladesh. Among these, some have businesses have online shops. The interesting thing is there are more than 200,000 Facebook Business Pages in Bangladesh. “Most of these businesses are considered as nonformal businesses, simply because they do not have a trade license,” according to ECAB.

Officially e-commerce business is been categorised as B2C (Business-to-consumer marketing), B2B (business-to-business), and G2C (Government to Citizen). From an operational perspective, we notice there are different types of online businesses. For example, we know about normal online shops, where the sellers sell their products. Then there is an online marketplace, which is a platform, where many brands and merchant companies participate.  There are many categories in the e-commerce trade. First, some trades are completely internet-based, then some are partially associated with the internet.

Besides these, some businesses deal with products and providing services. Some of the categories are online shops, online retailer, marketplace, online payment gateway, e-logistics, e-tourism, and e-pharmacy.

The quality of the services has become better. For example, in every 100 deliveries there used to be six complaints and now that has come down to four. However, due to the increase in the sales volume, total number of complaints has increased. The companies which have foreign investments are doing well. These companies have been successful because they have been able to involve and work with small entrepreneurs and businesses. This is a positive thing as this is helping to increase online transactions even more.   Right now, about three hundred thousand people are working in this sector.

People are opting to use these online businesses as they help them save money and time. For example, today if someone wants to visit Dhanmondi from Mirpur they not only have to spend a hefty transportation cost but they also have to spend two hours of their time, being stuck in traffic jams. Nowadays, we have the option to save cost and time by utilising online services.

The online habit is here to stay. A network has already been established between the manufacturer, supplier and consumer. These businesses are becoming bigger with time, even though they do not have to spend that much in setting up the infrastructure, compared to other businesses. Considering such aspects, the customers except more from them. The bottom line is, if these businesses serve their customers in a better manner, it will be easier for them to expand. 

The writer is a market researcher