Online sales surge as shoppers ditch traditional stores

Shoppers, especially the ones living in cities, are increasingly taking to online shopping to purchase essential commodities ditching the traditional practice of shopping from markets to avoid contacting Covid-19.

Order placement at online platforms increased 50 percent from March to June in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB). The spike in orders and sales began from the end of March after the declaration of general holidays on March 26 to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the country. 

Secretary of e-CAB Md. Abdul Wahed Tomal told The Business Post, "In the face of pandemic, consumers are preferring online platforms over traditional shopping, triggering the increase of sales on digital platforms. We see a sharp rise in order placement from March to June, which is as much as 50 percent. There are some 150 e-commerce sites that are providing essential commodities to the doorsteps of the consumers.

Echoing Tomal, managing director of Chaldal.com, Zia Ashraf said, the number of orders placed on their site has increased a great deal.

"We used to receive 2,000 to 2,500 orders a day in February but since the announcement of general holidays, order placement hit the roof with 16,000 to 17,000 a day. We had to increase the size of our workforce to meet with the number of orders – we are now able to deliver 8,000 parcels in a day," he added.

Regarding the delivery situation in the ‘red zone’ areas of East Rajabazar, Ashraf said, before lockdown, they used to deliver 50 to 60 parcels in a day which now has hit 350 parcels.

Shayantani Twisha, head of media and communications of Daraz.com said, with the start of pandemic, order placement for essential commodities increased two to three times.

Fahim Mashroor, CEO of AjkerDeal.com told The Business Post that delivering products in Dhaka has not been a problem but delivery outside the capital is increasingly becoming difficult".

Secretary Tomal said, "We are studying the overall online sales trend. Once done, we will get a clear picture of how much money has been transacted during this period.”

However, in the early period of the pandemic, most e-commerce services saw a declining trend in sales due to lockdown and government-declared general holidays, Tomal mentioned. e-CAB estimated that they were losing TK 666 crore every month from which online market players are yet to recover.

According to e-CAB information, there is a Tk 8,000 crore online-market in the country, involving 1,100 organizations where 1,25,000 people are working, and of the total workforce, 26% is female. e-CAB has prepared 7,000 workers to deliver essential commodities to all the red zones across the country, including already identified 56 areas in Dhaka and Chattogram.