Bangladeshi e-commerce ready to flourish globally: Industry leaders

The e-commerce industry in Bangladesh is ready to take a leap into the global market amid the pandemic, but it requires appropriate policy support, said speakers at the Digital World 2020 expo on Thursday.

In back-to-back webinars in the expo on cross border e-commerce and policy on e-commerce, industry insiders said it is high time that local manufacturers and sellers go global as the pandemic has made people more used to online shopping.

Fatima Begum, the founder and CEO of Aadi bd, said the pandemic has increased her global business manifolds as most of the Bangladeshis living abroad could not come to the country in the last one year.

"Usually, Bangladeshis living abroad buy a chunk of yearly clothing from the country when they visit home. But this year, they could not do so due to the pandemic. So, the business came to sellers like us," she explained.

"When they found our products and services satisfactory, then they started preferring to order from us rather than waiting for a relative's arrival to get the products they want," she added.

Pinky Bhattacharya, business development manager of Global Sales Amazon, said that Bangladesh is doing exceptionally well in e-commerce.

"The scenario is very similar to when we started Amazon global in India back in 2014-15. But the progress and future are better than that India," she said.

"There are B2B cross border business for a long time, but now is a high time for Bangladesh to engage in B2C business through e-commerce," she added.

She said every day, there are more and more sellers joining platforms like Amazon and markets through such platforms are expanding.

“The sellers do not need to bear any additional expenses," she added.

In a separate webinar on policy support for e-commerce, industry leaders urged the government to formulate policies to support the industry rather than just policing it.

Muhammad Abdul Wahed Tomal, general secretary of E-commerce Association of Bangladesh, said the government should come up with industry-friendly policies.

"The government policy on the industry should be business-friendly and consistent. It is now proved that e-commerce is the future of consumer goods. So, it needs a very well-thought-out and farsighted policy support," he said.

Syed Almas Kabir, president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), said e-commerce businesses should focus on proper customer service to cash in on the momentum.

"The industry is booming because of the pandemic and the future looks very promising. But there is no overall policy to regulate the industry," he said.