The present scenario and future trend of e-business

of Bangladesh
Abstract: in this paper, we have presented the present scenario trend of e-
commerce and future in Bangladesh based on secondary data from different
sources. Also, a questionnaire-based survey conducted to know the perception
of online consumers and their previous shopping experience. The article
comprises a suggestion for improvements in marketing activities for the
Bangladesh online stores.

It also tries to portray the overall scenario of e-commerce in Bangladesh. This

paper is prepared by analyzing various research studies carried out on e-
commerce. The Internet has uncovered a new window of business platforms,
which is commonly known as e-commerce. The term e-commerce or electronic
commerce is anything that involves an online transaction. In Bangladesh not
only big enterprises, but also small and medium enterprises have adopted e-
business platforms. Bangladesh has a great potentiality to evolve e-commerce.
The government has taken various measures to make available different
facilities to extend the practice of e-commerce. The scope for improving the
business structure and increasing productivity by using e-commerce is much
larger in the developing countries.

The whole world is experiencing the major transformation in retail business, and
Bangladesh does not differ from the global trend. The e-commerce in
Bangladesh is still a young and emerging industry; it is growing fast.
 CHAPTER-1

1.0 Introduction

E-business is the conduct of business processes on internet. These e-business

process include buying and selling goods and services, servicing customer,
managing production control, collaborating with business partners, sharing
information and more. Rapid growth of world`s internet population and
adoption of ICT in different sectors have reshaped the way of communication
and demand utilizing its potentials to the development of trade and commerce.
Speed, efficiency, effectiveness, energy and other uniqueness of the technology
made it as the fastest adopted and diffused technology until the 21st century.

This paper contains a brief discussion on different aspects of E-Commerce

through the internet: The Bangladesh Perspective which includes Internet
activities, e-business and e-commerce concepts, types, payment systems, m-
commerce, e-commerce in Bangladesh.

Currently e-commerce is one of the most important aspects of doing business.

As a result of the expansion of internet services, e-commerce has grown rapidly.
The new shape of business structure has been introduced by e-commerce. This
paper has analyzed the present scenario and future trend of e-commerce in
Bangladesh. In 2018, approximately 1.7 billion customers were shopping
online. BTRC officials said the number of internet subscribers have crossed 80
million in October 2017. There were 3.5 billion internet users around the world
in 2016. It was more than double the amount of third ranked U.S. with nearly
290 million internet users. India ranked second in the number of internet users;
According to the latest statistics released by the Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission (BTRC), over 93.6 per cent or 68.6 million users
browse the internet through a mobile phone. Internet Service Provider (ISP) and
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) users were increased to 4.62
million.2 The government committed that broadband network will be extended
along with high bandwidth 2021. The political government of Bangladesh
declared Information Technology as a thirst sector, so to exploit ICT potentials
in economic development government launching different promotional
activities.3

With the improvement of economic aspects, such as banking, the logistics,

communications, payment method, etc., there has an outstanding opportunity of
e-business. Along with the banking sector in Bangladesh, many other sectors
have introduced a new era with the start of internet payment system. A Wider
range of technologies is used in E-commerce.
 1.2 Objectives

 To know the present scenario of e-commerce in Bangladesh

 To evaluate the future trend of e-commerce in Bangladesh
 To analyze the challenging factors of e-commerce.
 To provide insights for policy formulation as required for e-commerce.
 To show real scenario of e-commerce in Bangladesh.

1.3 Methodology
This research is accompanied in the sample structured questionnaire and for the
purpose of the study relevant data and information collected from secondary
sources, such as national and international journals, newspapers, periodicals,
books, etc. Besides this, the internet has been used as another source of
information.
1.4 Limitations
Though the study will address numerous benefits and explores the state of
perceptions of categories different business organizational this research paper
will not represent all the aspects of e-commerce in Bangladesh but it can be
used as a useful secondary source of data but it also holds some limitations due
to several reasons. Those limitations are-

 To have unknown wrong Because of preparing based on secondary data.

 Unwillingness of providing data is one of the most monumental restrictions.
 Provided data and information by concerned authorities, Ministry of
commerce & Industry is not sufficient.
 Lack of information regarding total income from e-commerce industry in
Bangladesh.

1.5 Concept of E-Commerce

Electronic commerce or e-commerce, is the buying and selling of goods and

services on the Internet. The Same process may be defined as another term, not
only e-commerce. The term e-commerce used to define the broader process of
using the internet for changing ways of doing business. This process relates to
their customers and suppliers, and of the way they think about such functions as
marketing and logistics.
E-Commerce can be categorized as follows:
i) Business-to-Business (B2B)
Business-to-business e-commerce deals between the businesses and businesses.
Most of B2B applications are used in the area of distribution management,
inventory management, channel management, supplier management and
payment management. For instance, bgmea.com.bd, bizbangladesh.com are
B2B platforms in Bangladesh.
ii) Business to-Consumer (B2C)
This type of e-commerce is involved between the businesses and the consumers.
We purchase most of physical goods like books or any consumer product,
information goods like software, e-book, games, song, etc., and personal finance
management like e-banking. For instance, ajkerdeal.com, bdbazar.com,
daraz.com, bajna.com are B2C platforms in Bangladesh.
iii) Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce deals between individual consumers.
Online auction and peer-to-peer system for money or file exchange could be the
examples of C2C e-commerce. Business-to-Government e-commerce is
involved between the business organizations and the government. For instance,
bikroy.com, clickbd.com are C2C platforms in Bangladesh.
iv) Business-to-Government (B2G)
B2G is generally used for licensing process, public purchasing and other
government operations. Though this type of e-commerce is insignificant
compare to other kind of e-commerce, but it could be a driving force for
operating public sectors which is referred as e-governance.
 CHAPTER-2

2.0 Present Scenario of E-Commerce in Bangladesh

Currently, there are about 2.5 crore smartphones in Bangladesh, meaning only
15 lakh people are doing online shopping every month. The GSMA study -- The
Mobile Economy Asia Pacific, 2019 -- found another 5 percent of smartphone
users making purchases products albeit less frequently. About 89 percent have
never tried online shopping, which is the same as in neighboring Myanmar,
found the report published recently.

Bangladesh’s e-commerce market stands at $1.6 billion currently and will

double to $3 billion by 2023 on the back of a digital foundation laid down by
the government and a young and tech-savvy population, A German research
firm said recently.
In terms of e-commerce revenue, Bangladesh is ranked 46th in the global
ranking, according to Statista, the online portal for statistics that makes
available data collected by market and opinion research institutes and that
derived from the economic sector and official statistics.
Razib Ahmed, founding president of the e-Commerce Association of
Bangladesh (e-CAB), welcomed the report, saying the figure the German firm
came up with is credible.
However, Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of AjkerDeal.com, one of
the popular e-commerce sites, contradicted the Statista figure, saying the market
size would be a maximum $500 million.
“Maybe, the market has the potential but right now this is an
overestimation,” said Mashroor, a former president of the Bangladesh
Association of Software and Information Services.
However, he acknowledges that online shopping has grown tremendously in
recent times.
According to the Statista report, the online fashion market in Bangladesh is
currently worth $598 million and it has the prospect to reach up to $1.24 billion
by 2023.Electronic products amounting to $457 million and furniture and
appliances worth about $196 million are sold online.Online sales of toys and
hobby products stand at $260 million and it can almost be double to $442
million by 2023.
Ahmed, who heads the Women and e-Commerce Forum, a Facebook platform
that promotes local products, said many of the local e-commerce industry may
not accept the Statista numbers.Some people also try to hide the reality in order
to get tax benefit from the government, he said.
He said thousands of women entrepreneurs now run businesses through
Facebook and handle hundreds of crores of taka.Some online shop owners only
consider selling physical goods as e-commerce. In reality, services such as
rideshare, app-based food delivery, and e-ticketing are all part of e-commerce.
Calling doctors and other medical professionals home using online platforms
and buying medicines and taking delivery are also very much part of e-
commerce, he said.
“People don’t consider online sales of brands such as Aarong, Walton and
Samsung as e-commerce and that’s why their estimate is very
conservative,” Ahmed said.
However, e-CAB leaders say the e-commerce market is not more than Tk 3,000
crore, $350 million, with 50,000 deliveries daily.
The United Nations sees Bangladesh as a fertile ground for e-commerce growth.
“Bangladesh is fertile ground for e-commerce to take root and benefit
companies and consumers alike,” said Shamika N Sirimanne, director of
technology and logistics at the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), in July this year.

Key E-commerce platforms in Bangladesh:

 CHAPTER-2
Future Scenario of e-commerce in Bangladesh
E-commerce technology is expected to become more popular with time passing
by since its popularity is growing every day. With the drastic increase in the
usage of the internet, e-commerce is becoming a more mature sector in the
Asian countries recently. Emerging economies like Bangladesh are expected to
become a mega sector for e-commerce in near future. According to the report of
World Bank (WB), the economic growth rate of Bangladesh in 2017 was 6.8
percent where a significant contribution was from e-commerce. This number
will increase even more in the nearest future as, by 2020, there will be 18.3
million internet subscribers in Bangladesh. Boston Consulting Group and
Telenor have predicted that in few years 32% families of Bangladesh will have
at least one internet connection. This will create a great impact on online
purchase and e-commerce along with economic contribution.

Let’s see what changes we might see in the near future with the E-commerce
Technology In Bangladesh.

Most of sales on mobile

In near future, most of the e-Shoppers of Bangladesh will be using e-commerce

service through mobile devices. This statement can be justified quite easily as
the number of internet users in Bangladesh has crossed the 90 million remark
already. Most of them access the web on mobile devices, according to the latest
figures published by the telecom regulator. The number of mobile phone users
has also increased to over 154 million.  

E-commerce with ERP integration

ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) and e- Commerce integration automates

the flow of data about items, inventory, orders, customers and other pertinent
sales records between independent systems for an overall improved process..

Consumers will be more active in social media shopping

Social media shopping in Bangladesh is increasing at an exponential rate. This

rate will be higher in the coming future as there are more and more new
business groups adding in social media platforms. People will get all their
necessary items on social media pages and groups and social media can be
another big platform for e-commerce service.
Purchasing through online payment system

Online payments system in Bangladesh is getting more enhanced day by day.

People still don’t have much faith in the online payment system. But the
scenario will massively change in near future as the security has been increasing
rapidly day by day in this sector. Mobile banking Companies like bkash, Nagad,
and DBBL rocket with other online banking systems are gaining the trust of
people and encouraging them to do all their transactions online.

Touch-based experiences

 The increasing use of multiple mobile devices has raised the bar for user
experience in Bangladesh. Mobile devices are now mostly touch-operated thus
it will pave the way for the touch experience. Augmented reality will enable a
user to feel an object, touch it, move it, similar to the function one does at a
brick store. In the e-commerce industry, buyers have to judge on the basis of flat
images. In the near future that would be changed to 3D images, providing the
glimpse as if the nonexistent object is placed right in front of the user.

Technical infrastructure

As the market is getting bigger day by day, the technical structure of e-

commerce platforms in Bangladesh will get more advanced in the near future.
The websites will get more strong, secure and fast to cater the increasing
number of customers. To launch e-commerce sites does not always mean that
those websites must be hosted by servers in local markets. Many times, it is not
possible due to the local infrastructure limitations. Latency issues are usually
common when robust solutions are used which cannot smartly distribute the
load of a server. To solve these issues in Bangladesh, technologies like Cloud
services will get more popular to host e-commerce websites.  
7. Better governance

In near future, we will see more and more e-commerce platforms operating in
Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh is considering the e-commerce
sector as one of the most prospective business sectors. This sector is already
gaining major support from the government. On a mission to implement the
vision of digital Bangladesh, uplifting the e-commerce industry is one of their
key areas. The government of Bangladesh is trying to bring more and more
foreign investments and help the new e-commerce entrepreneurs.

8. Increase of global shipping

The amount of global shipping in Bangladesh will increase more in the future as
the retailers in Bangladesh have a limited stock of goods. Due to which
domestic e-commerce companies most likely won’t be able to supply the
increased demand for various types of products to the local market. As a result,
People will be ordering more and more international products via international
e-commerce platforms. For example- International e-commerce sites like
Aliexpress, Shadmart, and Amazon are already very popular in Bangladesh. In
near future, they will be more popular among the e-shoppers of Bangladesh.

Automatic delivery

Delivery process of the products purchased from e-commerce platforms will be

automated in Bangladesh in near future. This technique allows delivery
associates to deliver parcels using delivery drones and automated shipping
trucks. Amazon has already tested this feature to deliver a package using a
drone in India (Bengaluru) which is the neighboring country of Bangladesh.

CHAPTER-3
 3.0. Analysis and Findings
In 1993 internet was introduced in Bangladesh where users can only communicate through
email at that time (Md. Moktar Ali, 2016). Before 1996 online facilities were not available
much in Bangladesh. 60 thousand internet networks were available during the beginning of
the year 2000. It was November 22, 2005 when Bangladesh connected to the international
submarine fiber optical network. The year 2006 unfolded a new era of internet sector for
Bangladesh when Global Information Superhighway (SEA-ME-WE-4) got connected (Md.
Moktar Ali, 2016). Measured increase in internet users in Bangladesh from 2000 to 2016 is
given below:
Table05: Distribution of e-commerce users based on location

users

21%
35%

15%

29%

Dhaka Chittagong Gajipur Others

Table07: Distribution of e-commerce users based on devices used

Use Devises
3%

26%

71%

Desktop Mobile Tab

Figure 8: Purposes for which products are bought
 Figure: Age and gender distribution

Figure: Occupation Distributions

Recommendations
For confirming a bright future for the e-commerce platform business in Bangladesh
and bringing enormous opportunities to the business sector as it makes 24/7
business to the government and private sector should come ahead and take proper
initiatives. To eliminate restrictions, policy makers and business stake holders
should take some initiative. The recommendations are:

 To ensure low-cost, high-speed internet for rural people to turn its vision of
Digital Bangladesh into reality.
 To ensure flexible and secure payment method.
 Improving product display in the website/application.
 Gaining consumer satisfaction by different policies (e.g. Product return
policy)
 Creating awareness among consumer and gain their trust by ensuring them
purchasing online is secure.
 Reducing product delivery time by improved logistic team.
 Ensuring fast internet connection countrywide.
 to provide greater layers of security for their payment procedures.
 Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) should be
established independent of the government control.
 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and private international gateway for
voice and data should be allowed.
 The number of pre-shipment agents (PSI) should be increased.
 Foreign exchange controls on travel and for business should be relaxed.
 BTTB‟s monopoly in the nationwide long distance services should be
ended.
 The control of foreign exchange should be liberalized gradually, and
issuance of International Credit Cards should be allowed.
 Business associations and organizations should be made aware of the
benefits of e-commerce.   BGMEA can play a significant role in this.
 Greater competition among the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be
promoted and new ISPs should be encouraged to come into business.
 Revise and update ageing laws on trademark, copyrights and evidence.
Conclusions

The trend of e-commerce is increasing day by day cope with technology. In future,
the number of its users and demand will change and will enter in new era of it. E-
commerce business has altered many traditional manner of transaction and brought
revolutionary change in the economy. Citizens of Bangladesh are now enhancing
their standard of living using internet. Suppliers can now get the order by online
ordering system and consumers also save much of their time by doing online trade.
Many of commercial activities of large corporations as well as super markets are
using website to receive orders from consumers and sending particular goods to
them. Last few years’ statistics says that this sector has good growth rate. In order
to make it sustainable both government and entrepreneurs needs to be more
conscious and take proper steps.

In future, new technology, buying and selling system, payment system,

transformation system will develop in according to new technology. By initiating
some potential sector all people of our country will be benefited. E-marketplace is
a store of information which acts as information agent that provides buyers and
sellers with information on products. To increase participant of online shopping,
the sources of consumer confusion, apprehension and risk need to be identified,
understand and alleviate. So the market of e-commerce will be strong and stable.
 References

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years-1841428
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https://hifipublic.com/2015/07/12/kaymu-releases-survey-report-on-
bangladesh-e-commerce/
 Mohiuddin, M. (2014). Overview the E-Commerce in Bangladesh. IOSR
Journal of Business and Management, 1-2.
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Estimates for 2016–2021. eMarketer
 Internet Usage Worldwide,
Available:https://www.statista.com/topics/1145/internet-usage-worldwide
 Fakhruddin Mehedi, (05 October, 2017), Internet, Mobile users up, Daily
Asian Age, Bangladesh, Available:
http://dailyasianage.com/news/89045/internet-mobile-users-up
 www.pigseye.kennesaw.edu.

END