Prepared For

Dr. Mahbubul Haque

Associate Professor,
Department of Business Administration
University of Asia Pacific

Prepared By

Name Registration ID

Partho Pritom Dey 18102009

Mehedi Hasan 18102021

Toshikur Rahman 18102022

Nahid Hasan Musa 18102023

Md. Midul Hossen 18102025

Date of Submission
25th October, 2020

University of Asia Pacific,

Department of Business Administration
 F-COMMERCE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON E-RETAILERS

Mehedi Hasan, Md. Midul Hossen, Partho Pritom Dey, Toshiqure Rahman & Nahid Hasan Musa
Department of Business Administration
University of Asia Pacific (UAP) Dhaka-1209, Bangladesh
18102021@uap-bd.edu
Tel: (+880) 01836-593921
Abstract

This research is conducted to investigate the opportunity and trust issue of e-retailers in
Bangladesh. For this purpose, a qualitative methodology, namely phenomenology is undertaken.
A questionnaire guide is developed for this purpose and interview protocols are designing
considering the Covid-19. The result of this study like ‘reason of doing business in Facebook’
and ‘trust issue’ is matched with the previous study. Few recommendations are also suggested at
the end of the paper.

Key Words: F-Commerce, Trust, Entrepreneur

1. Introduction

F-commerce means Facebook Commerce which is used for online business focused on selling goods and
services in social networking website facebook.com (Business Dictionary). As technologies changes day
by day new form of E-Commerce has emerged. People spend a lot of time on social networking sites. So
some retailers started to do business on social networking platforms like Facebook Google Plus etc.

There were over 50,000 active F-commerce pages in Bangladesh at the end of 2019. only considering
those showing activity over the last six months (e-Cab data). In the past year business transactions worth,
Taka 7000 crore took place over traditional E-Commerce medium and an astounding further Taka 1000
crore was contributed by the F-commerce section. (e-Cab data).

F commerce is easier to the retailer to reach their customer. Facebook collect data from the user and used
it's algorithm to segment the user (Facebook Help). So the retailer can easily reach their target customer.
Due to the functions of fan pages, F-commerce takes place in an environment that fulfill the technical
necessity of creating a brand community, understood as a specialised and non geographical bound
community of brand that share a structured set of social relations( Muniz and O'Guinn 2001)

The main objective of our study is to examine the opportunity for the new entrepreneurs in F-Commerce
and the role of trust of the provider (retailer) of F-Commerce and find other issues for further research.

Many study done in the context of e-commerce, few of them are related to f-commerce. And only a few
study conducted in Bangladesh. This helps us to determine and conduct the research. Almost every study
researcher took their sample from the customers; there are few study where researcher took sample from
retailers. That’s why we took our sample from e-retailers. Again f-commerce creates a huge number of
employments which is a important element in our economy. This motivates us to conduct the research.

The study is structured as follows: First we present the F-Commerce and its current position in
introduction and then a brief literature review on F-commerce. This is followed by research methodology
which includes sample size and sample method, data collection and data analysis. After that research
findings and discussion and finally conclusion and recommendations for further research.

2. Literature Review

Brock et al. (2011) conducted a quantitative study on ‘F-Commerce and the crucial role of trust’ by taking
a sample of 200 e-retailers in Shanghai. According to them, perceptions of the e-retailer’s kindness and
fairness have a stronger impact on trust in facebook-shopping than perceptions of abilitty, kindness and
fairness of Facebook itself.

Chen and Barns (2007) conducted a quantitative study on “Initial trust and online buyer behavior” in
London and found that perceived usefulness, security, privacy, good reputation, and willingness to
customize are the important elements to online initial trust. It is also discovered that different levels of
trust propensity moderate perceptions toward the web site and online with respect to online initial trust,
including perceived usefulness, security, privacy, good reputation, and willingness to customize. Both
online initial trust and familiarity with online purchasing have a positive impact on purchase intention.

Doney and Cannon (1997) conducted a quantitative study on the title “An examination of the nature of
trust in buyer-seller relationships by taking a sample of more than 200 purchasing manager in America.
They prove that buyer-seller relationship depends on trust and the relationship stay as long as both
customer and seller believe that there are equal relative product-price performances.

According to Bakos (2001) E-commerce reduces the search cost for both buyers and sellers. He also said
in his article named “The Emerging Landscape for Retail E-Commerce” which was published in New
York in the year of 2001 that, E-commerce is a new mechanism for price discovery that increase buyers
bargaining power.

Lee and Turban (2014) conducted a study on the title “A Trust Model for Consumer Internet Shopping,”
using a survey research approach. Their research conducted in three phases. In phase three they give a
survey questionnaire to 40 local university students and found that, Internet merchants who want to
increase consumer trust in shopping with them should focus on increasing their integrity in the minds of
consumers. Integrity is demonstrated through honesty and strict adherence to a set of principles accepted
by consumers.

“E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust” research was conducted by Gafen (2000) in America who
use survey questionnaire among the respondent. He suggest that ‘Trust’ is depend on ‘Familiarity’ and
‘Purchase Decision’ depends on both ‘Familiarity’ and ‘Trust’. He also said that buyers are
communicating with sellers who are familiar in the market. In inquiry phase or information gathering
phase they also choose the seller who is trust worthy in the market.
Kaplan (2010) conducted a study on “Social Media, the Digital Revolution, and the Business of Media”.
He suggests that facebook offered opportunities for business to create Facebook page and make
advertisement to interact with customers. Company use Facebook pages as an effective way to enter into
a direct communication from their corporate websites to Facebook and utilize this as a tool to increase
their brand promotions.

Khan et al. (2016) conducted a study on “ECOMMERCE FOR ENTREPRNEURS: BOON OR BANE”
by providing survey questionnaire among 200 respondent. They said that Ecommerce is an open door for
new entrepreneurs. Low capital requirement boost their business in the market which is not possible in
physical market.

Zabeen et al. (2013) conducted a qualitative study by taking in-depth interview of respondent on “F-
Commerce in Bangladesh: Venit, Vidit, Vicit”. They said that now a day’s people are more concentrate
on time saving. Buyers do prefer online platform to save time, money and avoid trouble of physical
market.

3. Methodology

3.1 Sample Size and Sample Method

In qualitative study small sample size are appropriate (Bacchetti, 2005). A total number of seven
respondents take part in the interview season in our qualitative study. We took only seven respondents as
we reach the data saturation.

We reached our respondent by convenience, purposive and snow-ball sampling technique. First, all the
respondents have at least one year experience in f-commerce. Second, for making the interview balance
both male and female respondent was selected.

3.2 Data Collection and Analysis

The data for the study come from in-depth interviews with seven e-retailers. We recruited 3 participants
as we know them from f-commerce itself and 4 participants were reached by snow-ball sampling
technique. The research was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. So four interviews was conducted
through google meet for researcher and respondent safety and three interviews was conducted face to face
in respondent place, as we know them personally. The interviews continue from 30 to 50 minutes in
Google meet. Every meeting was recorded by the consent of respondent. Every interview was transcribed
verbatim after the meeting. The entire participants name was kept hidden for confidentiality.

And after finishing the interview part we analysis every response side by side. Compare every response
considering their facial expression for better findings.

4. Findings of the Study

This chapter contains demographic profile of the respondent and their response about some factor which
are ‘Barrier to do business, Degree of considering other market, Reason behind choosing F-commerce,
Trust issue, Impact of fraud retailer on others, Demographic difference for competition, Character that
gives competitive advantage, Government policy, Career in F-commerce.’ All the responses are express
as verbatim that means response are expressed as like as the respondent said.

The section first covered demographic profile of the respondent.

Table 1: Demographic profile of the respondent

Respondent Age Gender Profession Location

R1 22 Female Student Dhaka

R2 20 Male Student Dhaka

R3 25 Female House wife Narail

R4 20 Female Student Narail

R5 22 Male Student Dhaka

R6 24 Male Entrepreneur Dhaka

R7 23 Female Student Noakhali

4 of our respondent are female 3 of them are male. Our respondent age range is 22-25, the young
generation. They have at least 1 year experience in f-commerce. 4 of them from Dhaka, 2 of them from
Narail and 1 of them from Noakhali. Most of our respondent (5 out of 7) are student, the rest 2 are
housewife and entrepreneur.

4.1 Reason behind choosing F-commerce

Every market place has its own characteristics. Retailer attract by market characteristics which match
with their perception. In out in-depth interview respondent express their perception why the choose f-
commerce rather than other platform like other e-commerce and traditional market. Most (four out of
seven) of them said that there are no additional cost in f-commerce, like rent, utility, service and
decoration. Two of our respondent said that it is easy to reach their target customer in f-commerce.

Respondent 5 mention that-

There is no additional cost for doing business on Facebook, because if I started a business with a
store, I would have to bear a lot of costs. Such as shop rent, electricity bill etc. My target was to
sell products at a lower price than competitors. And low cost helps me to reach my target.

Respondent 3 said that-

 It is easy to operate a business in Facebook then other platform. One can easily star business
though he has less idea about internet. And it is easy to reach my target customer.

Two of our respondent mentions that as they have less time and their previous plan drive them to do
business in Facebook. One of the also focused on the additional cost though.

According to respondent 1-
There is no specific reason behind it but I had some personal reasons. I am a student so I
did not have time to do business with any shop. Since I am a student, this platform helps me to
save my time. I just buy the product and sell it with some profit. So there is no extra cost.

Respondent 1 again mention that-

The reason is that now most people prefer to shop online. We prefer to scroll online rather than
go to the store to buy products. So it turns out that we are always scrolling Facebook and
looking at products, likes to see products from the page so I think I get more customers from
Facebook. The cost of doing business on Facebook is also decreasing.

4.2 Barrier to do business

Barrier in a business prevent new entrepreneur to enter the market. Most of our respondent (four out of
seven) said that they didn’t face any problem for their friends and family support. Others said that they
faced problem for fraud business, less capital and confidence.

According to respondent 5-
Basically my family supports me. That’s why I did not have to face any problems to start a
business.

Respondent 2 express his experience regarding this issue is as follow-

The problem was the partnership business before as I have less capital. We just had to run into a
little trouble when he left a few days later that he understood the business well.

Respondent 3 said that-

There are many problems to be faced. The first thing that comes to mind is that there are a lot of
people around me doing business, whether I can sell my product or not. I thought about how to
deal with it if I lost it, then I started with courage, Alhamdulillah, it is going well now, and I
thought, if everyone can, why can't I?

4.3 Degree of considering other market

F-commerce is an open door for entrepreneur. But how much they consider other platform to expand their
business is also a subject to consider. When we discussed this issue with our respondent majority (four
out of seven) of them replied negative. Rest of the respondent said they also do business in Daraz, Imo
and Youtube. One of them also had a partnership with Pathao.

Respondent 2 said that-

I've been with Pathao for a while. When the customer orders the product, I deliver through it.I
have some products in Daraz for business.

As per respondent 4-
 Yes, I have business through some medium besides facebook. I sell my products in video calls on
Imo app, there are lots of customer on Imo. I also have instragram and youtube channel. My
youtube channel has not grown that way now.

According to respondent 5-
Besides, I don't do any business but I help my father's business.

4.4 Trust issue

Trust issue is a key factor of every business. If a business is trustworthy with standard quality and unique
identity then the business will turn into a brand. (Kotler, 2005) According to most (five out of seven) of
our respondent, for new online business trust is depend on cash on delivery. But for existing business who
already popular in the market trust is depend on the quality of the goods and appropriate pricing. One of
our respondent said trust is all about responsibility. Some of them also indicate a link between trust and
relationship with customer.
Every respondent mention that like, comment and share number of Facebook business page is an
indicator of trustworthiness of a business.

As per respondent 1-
I have a responsibility to deliver the product if I have received the payment in advance from the
customer. If I can deliver the product on time or if the quality of my product is as expected by the
customer, the customer will comment positively. If we can't deliver or the quality of the product
is not as expected then the customer will give negative comments.

Respondent 4 mentioned that-

Yes, there is a matter of faith. A lot of people didn’t believe me when I first started the business.
Many people said I want to see the product then I will buy from you. Many people say how to
understand if your product is original. But now my customers have increased their trust after
using my product and they regularly buy the product from me. There are many online merchants
who deceive their customers with counterfeit products. For which the people of our country do
not want to trust online business men more.

Respondent 7 Said that-

If we have cash on delivery, the customer will consider the product after receiving it, which
will give more trust to the customers.

4.5 Impact of fraud retailer on others

Fraud retailers who provide duplicate product create an impact on f-commerce. Almost all of our
respondent (six out of seven) said that fraud e-retailers create an bad impact on the whole industry.

As per respondent 3-
It's not just me its affects all of the online traders because it make buyer suspicions for everyone.
In that case I think we should all always be honest, and if my product is good then my customers
will not lose faith in me so it is very important to be honest.

According to respondent 4-
 Their effect falls on us 100%. We can't do business properly because of dishonest traders. For
some of these people, customers don't trust the online business much. There are various
fraudsters who sell one product and deliver another counterfeit product. Not only me but all the
online traders in Bangladesh are suffering for this, especially those who are new traders.

Respondent 5 talk about the price in this context-

Yes, of course. There are many distorted people who bring duplicate products and sell them at
low prices, for which the price of our product has a lot of effect. If the price of the original
product is higher, then we are facing many problems to sell it. In many cases, we seen that an
iPhone worth one lakh and its sold for only 8 thousand TAKA.

4.6 Demographic difference and other characteristics for competitiveness

In this section we try to find out which demographic characteristics and other factors affect
competitiveness. We found that retailers who have good communication skills are doing well in the
market. Six out of seven respondents said that they have good communication skills and that helps them
to penetrate in the market. Gender is also is a factor while we consider location. One of our respondent
mentioned that as she live outside of Dhaka she face some problem as a female. Another respondent also
said about educational qualification and prior experience. Anyway there are no advantages or
disadvantages for being a male or female.

As per respondent 1-
I have a good relationship with the people from whom I buy the product, so I buy the product at
a lower price and sale the product with a small profit. As a result, the price of products on my
page is lower than other page.

Respondent 2 express his experience regarding this issue is as follow-

First of all, I study in commerce; I have an idea about marketing from college. Besides, I have a
friend's shop. I have learned from that friend how to convince the customer.

Respondent 4 mention that-

I would have trouble buying my product. I can't easily go to Dhaka because I am a girl and I
can't buy the products. I have to buy the products with someone else. If I were a boy I wouldn't
have to buy products with anyone else and to grow my business I could go here and there to
promote my business and grow the business.

4.7 Government policy

Our entire respondent said that government and legal authority should focus more on f-commerce. They
should identify retailers who provide counterfeiter product and bring them under law. Some of the also
mention about trade license. If a authority provide trade license it will be easy to monitor all the retailers.

Respondent 2 express his opinion regarding this issue is as follow-

In terms of doing business on Facebook, terms and conditions need to be increased. More
security needs to be enhanced. In that case, you have to turn on Facebook's copyright system.
Moreover, government should bring dishonest traders under the law.

Respondent 4 mention that-

 In order to make Facebook commerce efficient, I think the first thing that needs to be done is to
remove unscrupulous traders from here so that the government can take action against them so
that they cannot cheat their customers.

4.8 Career in F-commerce

Our entire respondent came into one point in this context. They said that career on f-commerce in
Bangladesh is a good decision as people are gradually dependent on internet. But two of our respondent is
a little bit pessimists about this. They said if our policy maker introduce some law and take action against
traders who provide counterfeiter product then one can consider about to start his/her career in f-
commerce.

According to respondent 5-
I think introduction of some rules and regulations in the case of Facebook business will benefit
both the customer and the seller. If there was a system to identify unscrupulous traders, the
customer could easily purchase the product. It would be beneficial for everyone. Then one can
consider about his career in this platform.

Respondent 6 mention that-

As time goes on people will gradually become dependent on online.  So over time, the number of
buyers on Facebook will increase a lot.

5. Discussion and Implication

The main focus of the research is to find out the opportunity for new entrepreneur in f-commerce. That’s
why a qualitative study conducts where responses of seven respondents analyze to understand their
thought and experience.

The study findings fall in line with the study which we reviewed in our literature review section which
conducted by Brock, C., Blut, M., Linzmajer, M., & Zimmer, B. in 2011. The research article named was
F-Commerce and The Crucial Role of Trust. The research revealed that perceptions of the e-retailer’s
kindness and fairness have a stronger impact on trust in facebook-shopping than perceptions of ability,
kindness and fairness of Facebook itself. In our study we also found that trust is all about responsibility of
retailers. There are no impact of facebook itself.

Out study also fall in line with a study named ‘The Emerging Landscape for Retail E-Commerce’ which
was conducted by Bakos in 2001. In his article he said that E-commerce reduces the search cost for both
buyers and sellers. In our article section 4.1 we also found that the retailers choose f-commerce for cost
reduction. As there are no additional cost for rent, warehousing and utility. Retailers can easily reach their
target customer in a low cost.

The study findings are in agreement with previous studies of Gafen (2010). He said in his article named
‘E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust’ that buyers are communicating with sellers who are
familiar in the market. In inquiry phase or information gathering phase they also choose the seller who is
trust worthy in the market. In our study we found that buyer evaluate a business by considering their like,
number of positive comment, positive review and share.

The study findings are supported by previous findings of Zabeen et al. (2013) who conducted a qualitative
study named “F-Commerce in Bangladesh: Venit, Vidit, Vicit”. They said that now a day’s people are
more concentrate on time saving. Buyers do prefer online platform to save time, money and avoid trouble
of physical market. Which we also found in our study section 4.8 .

The study findings do not fall in line with prior research of Fink et al. (2020) named Effective
entrepreneurial marketing on Facebook- A longitudinal study. This study revealed that, business in
facebook depend on only celebrity endorsement. But our study shows that facebook business is at it best
when retailer can build a good relationship with customer by providing best value of customer money.

E-retailers should more focus on customer accusation and satisfaction which create a brand image in the
market. They should focus more on long term relationship with customer. As people of our country are
more price sensitive, new entrepreneur should keep a small profit margin at the beginning to penetrate in
the market.

Government should focus on the F-commerce as it is a new opportunity and have a great impact on the
economy. Legal authority should concern about the counterfeiter product and its supplier, bring them
under law and make new law if necessary to make f-commerce more effective and efficiencies.

6. Conclusion

This study is conducted to find the opportunity of new entrepreneur and understand the level of trust of
both customer and seller. Seven respondents participate in this qualitative study and express their
experience with us. All seven respondents are starting their business in face book at least one year ago. So
they understand the market properly and know the opportunity of the market. Various conclusions drawn
from the study are presented bellow.

As there are less barrier to enter the market seller can easily start business in this platform. When a young
entrepreneur face barrier, he may move from the market. For fewer barriers they get more opportunity.

Everybody consider F-commerce as a base platform to start their business. But they are willing to expand
their business in other platform when they succeed in facebook.

When someone starts a new business the main problem for him/her is location. In traditional market
business have a limited number of customer in a certain location. And you should decorate your outlet to
attract your customer and keep a huge amount of inventory. That increases the capital requirement for
start a new business. But in f-commerce, there are no needs of a outlet and you can keep a little inventory
in your hand. That means less capital requirement. This influence young entrepreneur to choose facebook
to do business.

Trust issue occurs from both seller and customer. For some fraud sellers and customer the whole f-
commerce industry suffer.

According to the respondent strong networking, patient, prior experience, educational experience, family
business, communication skill, pricing strategy gives e-retailers competitive advantage in f-commerce.

For Government and policy maker it is high time to concentrate on f-commerce to make it more effective
and efficient. As it create new employment in the country and contribute in our economy.

7. Limitation and Direction for Future Research

We are lucky enough to get a chance to prepare this qualitative research paper on F-commerce. We have
prepared this research paper by taking interview from several people who are doing business in the
Facebook. We have faced many problems that may be terms as the limitation of the study. Since our
course instructor Dr. Mahbubul Haque has helped us so, we have been able to solve many problems. 
 We have had a lot of trouble to managing our respondents due to the covid-19 pandemic.
 We got a lot of respondents but they refused to give interview after listening to the interview
record.
 Many times the facial expressions of the respondents were not understood due to the virtual
interview.
 The same question had to be asked in many times for network problems.
 We interviewed through Google Meet. Some respondents are not accustomed to this
platform. For which some difficulties have been faced.

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