Eid gives a boost to online shopping

Sharlin Islam is an MBA student at a leading private university in Dhaka. She finds it difficult to juggle between a day job at a local advertising firm, her evening classes and a fulltime role as the head of a joint family. Needless to say, she is pressed for time and her weekends are spent running chores. Whatever little time that is left to call her own, Sharlin spends lazing at home.

For Sharlin and hundreds others like her, e-commerce sites are godsend. Now whether it is the weekly Ramadan grocery or a major part of her Eid shopping, people literally have the whole marketplace at their fingertips.

"My online buying experience began with simple gifts and home décor products. As I realised the full potential of e-commerce in easing the load from my everyday life, I shifted to online shopping on a larger scale," said Sharlin.

There are 6.26 crore active internet connections in Bangladesh as of May, according to the telecom regulator, and a good number of them are using high speed internet.

According to industry insiders, about 1.5 million to 2 million people shopped online in 2014, and the market was growing at a rate of 15-20 percent a year.

Online business owners have a positive outlook regarding their businesses thriving in the future.

"With life becoming demanding and hectic, people will only have lesser time for shopping in the future. Here, we are trying to do our best for the customers by providing them an easy solution where they can get almost anything, by clicking a single button, that too while relaxing at home," said Syeda Kamrun Nahar, the chief executive of Bagdoom.com.

Before the introduction of 3G technology, people used to primarily browse the internet using their desktops, which was inconvenient. "Most internet users in Bangladesh now access the web through their mobile devices. Additionally, the introduction of low-cost smartphones contributed significantly to bringing the world closer," said Misha Ali, director of marketing at Bikroy.com.

"In five years, I expect online sites to be the norm rather than the exception. You only have to look at the growth of companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal in India to imagine how big online shopping will be in Bangladesh," says Quazi Zulquarnain Islam, country manager of Kaymu.com.

Considering that the online world is a fresh concept for Bangladesh, business initiation was not trouble-free. Most online company representatives said 'trust' was the main factor, which they had to win delicately.

Merchants did not want to give their products before seeing a completed transaction and customers did not want to pre-pay, thinking they would be cheated.

Nahar of Bagdoom.com said, "Those were days in the past. Today we have no such problems, and merchants are more than glad to work with us as partners. In fact, the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) companies consider online platforms as a lucrative medium to reach their target consumers. As for the consumers, they have slowly built trust on many online platforms because of the established goodwill and assurance to a faultless financial transaction."

Islam of Kaymu feels that payment is one thing that people complain about too much. In reality, 95 percent of Kaymu's transactions are cash-based.

In many cases, and not just in Bangladesh, cash still dominates e-commerce as people feel more comfortable paying for the product after they have had the chance to see it. However, many proprietors often feel that having a real store along with an online presence is important.

With online facilities, stores can reach their target customers easily at a nominal cost. If this was not so, advertising costs would have skyrocketed, making it impossible for some of them to compete in the market at all.

Humaira Khan, proprietor and head designer at Anokhi, a fashion house, also agreed that maintaining an online presence is necessary for smaller brands or startup fashion brands, to reach target customers effectively at lower costs.

However, her brand had almost zero presence on the internet, but it did not affect her sales because her clients were fixed and were strong patrons of her brand for a long time.

Naushaba Salauddin, head of PR at daraz.com.bd, said sales pick up during special occasions. "Before a certain special occasion this year, our sales generated 10 times more revenue in a single day."

On June 24 and 25, Pond's Bangladesh arranged a fair in Dhaka, providing a platform for numerous popular online lifestyle stores. They had the chance to meet and exchange ideas regarding the present scenario of e-commerce in Bangladesh and its future.

Traders have long been saying that business has become very dull over the years; parking restrictions have increased and access to their stores has become complicated. Rent has also increased and they are now forced to charge a bit extra to cover their costs. But online stores do not have any of these problems and thus, they can charge lower prices and get more customers.

Research on customer experience revealed a positive outlook among the majority.

Erina Munawar, a young businesswoman, who regularly shops online, said, "I think all the online stores are trying their best. I had a negative experience only once, where an online store outsourced their delivery system to a third party and the delivery process became slightly complicated. But with most other online stores, I am perfectly happy with the top-notch service they provide."