When Bangladesh Stepping into Arena of E-Commerce

Despite tons of hurdles in the way of overall growth of country, Bangladesh is encompassing wider range of technologies and e-commerce growth is its evidence. Bangladesh is stepping into arena of e-commerce slowly, but surely and steadily. It is the e-commerce performance for B2C category, which seems much promising and needs focus. Let’s check what it actually needs.

Bangladesh is considered as an under privilege country with high density population, high rate of illiteracy, high poverty rate, and scanty infrastructure to adopt advance technologies that most of the countries in the world enjoy. Despite such hindrance, today country has 7 million Internet users with more than 200 ISP and 100 million mobile Internet users. Nearly one million Internet users enjoy Internet and mobile banking services subscriptions and contributing nearly 100 core transactions each month.

Factors Favoring Online Shopping Trends
This big volume of Internet users have boosted the growth of e-commerce in unprecedented volume and more than 2500 online shops or say e-storefronts are operating in Bangladesh. Each prosperous brick-and-mortar store is enjoying an online identity offering online shopping or e-transaction facilities for online shoppers. No doubt, the growth of Internet is not one-day or one-year miracle, but the consistent efforts of government, international trade and other organization, contribution of world banks and finance institutions, and finally, contribution of Bangladeshi entrepreneurs residing outside the country.

Initiatives Made to Sustain Online Shopping Growth
Government had made target of “Digital Bangladesh in 2012” and provided all sorts of legal, financial, and infrastructural support to boost the online shopping infrastructure and intentions among the citizens through various nodal agencies. Banks in Bangladesh have formed a common platform to ease the lives of Internet shoppers and money transactions needy Bangladeshis within and outside the country. Recent collaboration of banks with Payza Bangladesh like payment gateway service providers are giving solid evidences of the good intentions of the country and its people to keep pace with time and modernize the society by-and-large.

If we look at the recent development, we can realize that Bangladesh is stepping into arena of e-commerce growth with solid infrastructure.

• Licenses issued to the maximum WiMAX services
• Licenses issued to the VoIP operators by BRTC
• Some additional IIG licenses issued by BRTC
• Permission for upgrade network to TD-LTE for Banglalion and Augere 

Besides these, recent onslaught of mobility have solved many problems indirectly like affordability of computing devices and spreading wired network because mobile devices are cheaper alternative against standalone desktops or laptops with limited mobility. Advent of 3G/4G technologies has solved connectivity issues at greater extents. Introduction of Payza like payment gateway provider in Bangladesh have eliminated the needs of bureaucrats in money transactions or remittance for Bangladeshis sending or receiving money from and to the country.

Nature of Online Shops in Bangladesh
Besides government services, ticket bookings for rail, air, or land transports are optimum usage of e-commerce or e-transactions. Various industries including garments, hospitality, travels, job market, outsourcing, groceries, retails, and many essential commodity businesses are witnessing a big surge through their online shopping opportunity services. In due course, following e-commerce or say online shopping websites are witnessing high revenue turn over.

•  Bikroy
•  Akhoni
•  Cellbazaar
•  ClickBD
•  BDjobs
•  Rokomari
•  And many others 

If we closely examine, majority of online shopping services were C2C nature in recent past, but now B2C types of online shopping is becoming trendy. Reasons are obvious as payment system for online shoppers is becoming more secure and safe against other delivery and collection methods in past traditions. Today any citizen can use her bank account to topple money in Payza Bangladesh account and easily as well as quickly make online payments with the cheapest rates in the world.

Thus, Bangladesh is becoming a paradise for online shoppers gradually and heading towards a bright as well as promising future.

Sending Money in Bangladesh Was Painful Once Not Now

Bangladesh came into existence after it's division from India earlier and later from Pakistan. The country has many stories of migrating folks who still migrate for the sake of money since then. Few years back, sending or receiving money to and from Bangladesh was daunting and painful experience, but Payza Bangladesh has changed the scenario today.

Initially Bangladesh was an eastern part of Pakistan, which came into existence due to the partition phenomenon of Indian peninsula. Bangladesh has been through troubles and suffering from social, political, economic, and educational problems ever since its origin.

Partition Phenomena
The first partition from India was indeed the series of painful experiences because the majority of people came in Bangladesh were from Bengal race, so Bengali became their national language while remaining Urdu speakers who came from rests of neighboring states of India fall at minority in Bangladesh at ethical and cultural level. Therefore, this minority community has strong ties with their relatives in India and some in Pakistan who came into picture after second partition of Bangladesh. The real threads of the ties were financial, wedding, family links, religious and cultural links for essential practices like burial and some were pure but strong emotional bonds as human beings.

Painful Sending and Receiving Money
These immigration ties were demanding frequent travel and money exchanges between the people of these two to three nations. In the olden days, sending or receiving money was uneasy and unsecured because, the carrier and the trust factors were in question. The recent new generations of Bangladeshis had begun migration to the western and other countries of the world for the sake of better opportunities and life.This has worsened issues related to money transactions further by adding currency and distance factors in it.

If you have heard horrendous stories of the pain of sending and receiving money from the elder immigrant folk of Bangladesh, you probably would have realized the importance of the one-click solution in the form of payment gateways on Internet thoroughly. According to the old folks, officials had created a lot of hassle in sending and receiving money. Sometimes they have to pay bribe to the border security guards for the cover or carrier crossing the borders frequently in due course of money transactions.

Gradual Improvements
Gradually, other means of money transfer came to the surface and eased the lives of many Bangladeshi folks who are dispersed across the globe and want to keep their ties intact with their Bangladeshi relatives or counterparts. Recently, the government of Bangladesh allowed Payza Bangladesh as official payment gateway, which will work on the accepted terms and respect the laws of country and most importantly, for the betterment of Bangladeshis by-and-large.

Payza Changing the Scenario
Payza has put an excellent service called, SimplySendBD as low cost, convenient, and fast online money transaction facilities where people of Bangladesh and immigrant folks can receive or send their money in a highly cost-effective way rapidly yet securely. Payza Bangladesh has tied knots with local banks of Bangladesh for easy local bank account access and money topping facilities for online shopping in Bangladesh as well as sending and receiving money from and through Bangladesh at the lowest remittance fees.

The ease through e-transaction has boosted the outsourcing and export sectors to grow and perform secure and conductive financial environment that was a nightmare once in the same country and for the same people of the Bangladesh.

If you have any questions or comments, we invite you to share them with us by leaving a comment below or joining us on our Payza Facebook and Payza Twitter pages.  

Bangladeshi Businesses Favors Buy Button of Facebook Commerce

Facebook has devised and tested Buy button for all levels of businesses. Its success is in favor of small to medium businesses of Bangladesh because they are heavily relying on Facebook for traffic and reputation. Moreover, lean approaches of Facebook to integrate and to let people select the payment gateway of their tastes and choices may prove a boon in Bangladesh as Payza Bangladesh is obvious choice of people for safe and secure transactions.

Great Aspirations of Facebook
Since the beginning, Facebook is eyeing on e-commerce activities comingled in its social media environment. Therefore, initially it had introduced virtual money in various games, but responses were not good. Now, it has followed the experiment of Twitter and introduced a ‘Buy’ button in its ads, chats, and post pages to purchase products or services directly without re-routing on any website or mobile app of the particular business.

Its beta testing is indicating desired success and shoppers are reluctant to use new approach of Facebook towards e-commerce. Fundamentally, Facebook has potential to become an e-commerce giant against its ultimate rivals like e-bay, Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. but in a bit different way and manner. Whatever are the aspirations of Facebook by entering in e-commerce arena, one thing is sure that Bangladeshi businesses are in win-win situations.

Importance of Facebook Commerce in Bangladesh
Before citing anything about Facebook commerce, let me tell you how Facebook had played vital role in the growth of online shopping in Bangladesh. Initially, very few entrepreneurs and brick stores have courage to enter in online shopping opportunities. They have selected Facebook for their online media and won hearts of millions through effective presentation of products/services and after sale support.

No doubt, until today Facebook is a choice for online shopping outlet development in Bangladesh, as it is low cost investment for online shopping identity for Bangladeshi businesses of small to large scale. Facebook has enormous number of users in Bangladesh and numbers are still rising at rocket speed.

Mobile proliferation and easy Internet access had poured more fuel in growth of Facebook commerce. Almost all major to minor brands have Facebook presence in form of Facebook fan pages or commerce pages. Businesses are in race to win more likes, share, and getting good reviews of their commercial adventures.

Conductive Environment for Facebook Commerce in Bangladesh
These all have created a conductive environment for Bangladeshi businesses to use Buy button explicitly. Brands have earned great trust of its patrons and potential consumers upfront. They now need ‘Buy’ button like conversion agent to hit their conversion goals with the shortest loop of buying process for online shoppers in Bangladesh.

Moreover, Facebook allows online shoppers to select payment methods and payment gateway of their choice as well as express their willingness to share their private data with Facebook for future checkouts. These lean approaches of Facebook have placed ease for shoppers to go with their favorite Bangladesh payment gateway provider like Payza Bangladesh.

Payza is not only offering the cheapest alternative for e-transactions, but it also is ensuring high security and safety for its users. Thus, Bangladeshi businesses are more reluctant to use Facebook commerce and ‘Buy’ button like initiatives willingly.

Influence of Payment System on Internet Shopping in Bangladesh

Well functioning payment system means safe and secure Internet shopping experiences. Therefore, it is mandatory to know existing payment system in the country and push improvements if needed to boost financial growth of the country. Let’s know the payment system in Bangladesh and find out how it adds value in life of an average Bangladeshi.

Recent financial surveys, financial reports for government plus non-government agencies, and suggestions from e-commerce experts are indicating that payment system is vital element for e-commerce conversions for the targeted audience residing anywhere across the globe.

Payment Method: Success Key of Conversion
If you want to catch the target audience in a region or country, you need to respect the online payment preferences of the online shoppers who are residing in that particular region or culture. At psychological point of view, the audience of particular region or culture generally put trust on selected payment methods.
For instance, Japanese people are cash-oriented and prefer Konbini payment system where cash is collected at convenience stores located in nearby areas. In China, Alipay is enjoying same status as PayPal in American region and UnionPay as Chinese credit card gradually picking up speed. In case of Brazilian audience, your e-commerce store should have Boleto Bancario payment method integrated.

Prevailing Payment Methods in Bangladesh
The same is true for Bangladeshis because they highly rely on the Payza Bangladesh like payment gateway services against PayPal and other similar international players. The true reasons behind such popularity are new online payment system call SimplySend and e-wallet.

SimplySend
Legally the payment system in Bangladesh is under Payment System Department (PSD) of Bangladesh since 2012 and it has given green signal for the formation of National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) platform by involving majority of banks operated in Bangladesh.

This has facilitated banks to issue or allow various credit/debit card payments using multiple routes including ATM for cash and online payment through cards with the least service charges against the hefty charges of international credit cards. Moreover, this platform has eased the online payment by omitting merchant payment gateways in between the process.

E-wallet
The next big thing Payza has gifted to the Internet shoppers and other electronic currency or payment method users is e-wallet. E-wallet is working based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. It allows innovative modes of payment in many unique use-cases. This way Payza has offered the most suitable and economical payment system for Bangladeshis by respecting their culture and laws of lands beautifully.

In Early Days
In earlier days, internet shopping in Bangladesh was mostly thriving on simple ads and Facebook like social media platforms where no secure and safe payment methods were available on the web. Tendency of Bangladeshis were pay-on-delivery or other traditional methods of payment due to underprivileged society where trust factor was a sensitive issues. Gradually, Payza Bangladesh has made payment safe, secure, rapid, and cheaper against other available payment systems in the Bangladesh.

E-Payment System and Internet Shopping in Bangladesh

Influence of electronic payment system over the Internet shopping in Bangladesh is profound and need revisits of policies as well as strategies employed. Therefore, some live debate on this is must and discussion on the pros and cons of e-payment system may bring fruitful solutions with the pace of time.

In traditional banking system, we had everything on paper so we used to rely heavily on the human resources to accomplish tasks of entries, clearing, deposits, document transfer, etc. on time and with accuracy. Fortunately, digitalization and use of Internet as well as intranet network had changed that dismal scenario rapidly in the western developed countries before decades.

Towards Digital Bangladesh
However, in Bangladesh like backward economy, these all and sudden changes were not possible so Bangladeshis have to wait for long to enjoy such advance privileges in comparison to their western counterparts. Fortunately, government of Bangladesh has initiated many vital moves in this direction and given an agenda to make economy and other sectors digital through “Digital Bangladesh” slogan.

Many forward thinkers and people with futuristic visions including entrepreneurs residing within country or in foreign lands have created highly conductive environment and made useful efforts to boost the process of digitalization through invading Internet and telecommunication network or facilities in early days. Later on mobiles became buzzword and sudden proliferation of mobile users taken place.

E-Payment Scenario
Along with other infrastructural facilities in the country, financial system also had taken many vital initiations. Among them banking sector and payment gateways were leaders to revolutionize the scenario of e-commerce by-and-large. Today, majority of money transactions are taking place through electronic cards or Internet across the country. Therefore, it is vital to understand the electronic payment system in Bangladesh before doing any business in the country or investing money.

Challenges on the Road
Yes, things are not always gloomy, as they seem because there are multiple challenges on the road of progress, which people of Bangladesh and other stakeholders of economy have to face, such as:

• Increased rate of cyber crime in this social and educational backward country
• Money laundering like activities due to strict money regulations and rules of land
• Perception of people are not always positive due to backwardness and lack of awareness
• Initial high cost for access because e-card payment as well as Internet payment systems need investment in infrastructure for government as well as financial system and in hardware for end-users.
• Confidence and security of transaction is big issue due to increasing threats from the hackers as well as malicious elements in Internet shopping payment as well as thieves for e-card payments
• Lack of knowledge and skills is a big problem in Bangladesh in using e-payment system where illiterate population is bigger in mid-age and elder people population categories
• Attitude to a new product vary in this small country where new generation is ready to adopt new things easily while older one is still grapples
• To minimize the cash based transaction is a big goal because the lower strata of society occupies a big portion and threats of thieves, robbers, and other non-social elements are bigger in comparison to its neighboring countries like India. Therefore, spreading e-payment tempo in rural areas of Bangladesh is positive move.

Solutions and Implementations
No doubt, government and banks have taken numerous steps to beat the aforementioned challenges, but initiative by Payza Bangladesh has enhanced advancement procedure of e-payment system noteworthy for Internet shoppers and others. Through various schemes like SimplySendBD and Payza e-wallet, this payment gateway providing group has revolutionized the entire scenario of Internet shopping experiences.

Moreover, Payza has boosted the morals of e-commerce providers in Bangladesh and for Bangladesh at admirable levels. The most important thing Payza has done is that it has given highly cheaper yet quality alternative for e-transactions and e-payment to an underprivileged country like Bangladesh.

If you have any questions or comments, we invite you to share them with us by leaving a comment below or joining us on our Payza Facebook and Payza Twitter pages.  

Daily Deals Sites Setting New Trends of Internet Shopping in Bangladesh

After prolonged deprivations, Internet shopping has become cloying word for Bangladeshi people. People are exhibiting much interest towards e-commerce and they are from both sides, buyers and entrepreneurs. Mature online buyers demanding robust experiences while scrappy and enthusiastic entrepreneurs are offering newer trends. Recent proliferation of the daily deals sites are indicating increasing craze for Bangladeshi Groupon so let’s check what is actually going on.

It is true that Bangladesh was suffering from social, economic, and educational back lags in past, but recent easing of international trade barriers, economic liberalization, globalization, and deregulation have altogether changed the scenario. Right efforts of governments, entrepreneurs, and people by-and-large have made changed perceptions and habits of average Bangladeshis to do buying and selling in recent past.

Conductive Environment for Internet Shopping in Bangladesh
Today an average Bangladeshi has easy Internet access through mobile devices and computers at some extent. Increasing numbers of smartphone users and declining in Internet charges are boosting overall web surfing. Craze of social media have taught people to use e-commerce websites smartly and forced them to be transparent. Mature web users who do frequent Internet shopping in Bangladesh know how to do comparative shopping and how to leverage ultimate benefits of e-commerce in this small, but rapidly growing country.

After recognizing these trends, many residential and non-residential Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have established online marketplaces and daily deals websites just like Groupon doing in their western counterpart countries of the world. They sniffed the interests and habits of Bangladeshi affluent and middle class people and unveiled daily deals websites made up of the latest e-commerce development technologies.

Daily Deals Scenario for Internet Shoppers in Bangladesh
For instance, Akhoni.com is one of the leading B2C daily deals websites harboring innumerable products on their websites. Besides these, they offer high discounts over many products and services on behalf of many local businesses by following daily deals model of Groupon. You can find mouth watering daily deals offers from the restaurants, tourism industries, health industries, fashion and beauty niches, etc. on their website regularly.

Internet shoppers in Bangladesh are now smart and united in small to big groups. They quickly share the information on the social networking sites like Facebook with peers. Sometime they plan to visit the places, which offer daily deals such as restaurants, beauty parlors, etc. in a group and enjoy cheapest services just like doing parties.

Akhoni online shopping website and other similar daily deals websites are not offering just fashion or day-to-day used commodities, but they also offer costly jewelry and electronic gadgets for affluent class people who avoid sweating in traffic rush and wasting their time burning fuels for shop-to-shop visits. Unlike past, recent improvements in online payment methods and Payza like Bangladeshi players have made e-transactions quite easy and safe for Internet shopping fans in Bangladesh. No doubt, trust building is the key of success in e-commerce in Bangladesh.

Smart Daily Deals Players
Another major player in daily deals sites is BdDeals, which has more than 20 million users in its database and running SMS, E-mail, and PPC campaigns for their daily deals business participants. No doubt, in this daily deals race, only quality conscious and economical sound parties can withstand for longer so daily deals websites check the background of the business and evaluate them in their own way before granting permissions to place their deals on their websites.

Trends in Online Shopping with Home Delivery in Bangladesh

Online shopping in Bangladesh has outstanding challenges in terms of payment and delivery because in numerous cases both are mingled with each other, as payment takes place once delivery is finished in form of home delivery of goods. Unfortunately, recent market is expanding in terms of goods available and home delivery can’t associate with payment in all cases.

Internet has changed the scenario of people’s lifestyle and way of business doing in the country. Despite the crinkling infrastructure for transport, electricity, and wired Internet network, online activities are flourishing at rapid pace and seem to be parallel to its affluent western counterparts.

Online Shopping Status in Bangladesh

Numerous online shops are working solely on the internet while majority of brick stores enjoy status of click-to-brick shop in modern Bangladeshi society where each home has one person living abroad. Mobiles have made internet ubiquitous. Therefore, people are free to place their selling needs on auction sites, whilst buyers have freedom to purchase products from anywhere and at their convenient time.

Online Shopping Behavior of Bangladeshis
However, the nature of Bangladeshis is a bit conservative and people generally don’t put trust on other especially in payment made on internet where receivers are unknown and lots of frauds or scams have been registered before. Moreover, traffic issues are acute in major cities of Bangladesh where a big chunk of online shoppers is residing.

Cash On Delivery Model
Therefore, expecting of buying and picking up the goods are rare thing in practice here. Bangladeshi folks love to deal in face-to-face mode so cash on delivery is highly popular mode of payment in cities as well as in rural areas in particular. There are two benefits of cash on delivery that buyers and sellers both are secure for the payment as well as right delivery at their respective ends while buyers can promptly inform vendors for any sort of fraud or swindle carried out by middle men or any damage occurred during shipment.
Unfortunately, all goods are not possible to ship through this payment method and collect cash, only food items ready to serve, groceries, furniture, and so on items of day-to-day use fall in cash on delivery payment mode. Valuable items are generally purchased either through personal visits or through secure payment gateways in advance payment mode only.

Promise of Secure Payment
Fortunately, Bangladesh payment gateway services like Payza Bangladesh have quite safe and secure online payment method through internet as well via credit/debit cards with bargaining service charges. Even secure e-transactions are possible in rural areas where connectivity and financial infrastructure are issues all times.

Payza Bangladesh has changed the scenario of online shopping in Bangladesh through various payment gateway related schemes unveiled in collaboration with major banks of Bangladesh and government itself. People now no longer need cash on delivery like long and risky routes of online shopping in Bangladesh thanks to Payza Bangladesh and banking network to introduce trust factors among the most privileged people of Asian region.

If you have any questions or comments, we invite you to share them with us by leaving a comment below or joining us on our Payza Facebook and Payza Twitter pages.  

Tips to Keep You Safe While Doing Online Shopping In Bangladesh

Online shopping is worth your time and money when they are in question. Today Bangladeshi lifestyle is changing rapidly and Bangladeshis are simulating lifestyle of developed countries of the world. Therefore, online shopping in Bangladesh is getting momentum gradually. However, it is not par and safe as in western countries. Here are some tips to do it safe and securely.

Today society in Bangladesh, by-and-large, is passing through a transition phase from underdeveloped to a developing and may be as developed at any point of time in near future. Government is functioning in democratic ways and uplifting the life of people in the country through various measures. Education rate is picking new peaks and people are living busy lifestyle as their western counterparts are doing.

Proliferation of mobiles and penetration of Internet are factors pushing e-commerce at new levels. Online shopping in Bangladesh is gradually becoming trend, as almost everything is available and within reach of fingertips or just a click on the web. We can list numerous benefits of online shopping viz. time saving, fuel saving, opportunity to do comparative shopping, and many more in different contexts.

Unfortunately, each coin has two facets so online shopping has some dark shadows looming on Bangladeshi shoppers too. Let’s check some of them in brief here.

Heavy is Suspicious

When you find that any e-commerce store or ads on the web, whether it is on social media or elsewhere, is luring you through offering unbelievably high discounts or incentives, look at them with suspicious eyes. Remember that reputed brands never sale their products at the cheapest rates or offer heavy discounts that make your head wobble.

Usually, brands are passing their savings on brick store investment and other overheads in measurable percentages, never at half or one-third rates. Unfortunately, scammers in Bangladesh are enough and know how to trap new generation shoppers by victimizing them based on their immaturity and freedom offered by illiterate or less educated parents.

This is the best way to save you from possible cheating or frauds. Smart online shoppers are directly logging in with original website or mobile app of the brands, instead of going via other routes. Thus, my next suggestion is secure your log-in credentials.

Secure Surfing
Today half of the online shopping is taking place through mobile devices, smartphones or tablets. Do you know Wi-Fi or mobile connection is considered insecure across the world and it is more vulnerable in, Bangladesh like, developing nations. Always keep your computing devices updated with security software and recommended security measures even though you have wired connection because passwords and credit card credentials are stored in cookies and hackers can access through hacking your system easily.

Cross Check before Big Deal
Bangladesh is not big nation that you can’t collect info of any reputed business using your personal or professional circles. This is imperative particularly when you are going to pay a big amount or making a big deal where your payment is in risk.

Ray of Hopes
Fortunately, among the misty online environment in Bangladesh, Payza Bangladesh like entrepreneurs have taken right steps to offer secure and easy online shopping experiences in pure Bangladeshi contexts. Moreover, such payment gateway in Bangladesh have made money transactions cheaper and safe through forming alliances with local and international banks.

Ways to Do Smart Internet Shopping in Bangladesh

The popularity of online shopping in Bangladesh is growing day-by-day blessed by mobiles and various incentives offered by e-commerce industry. However, online shopping is neither risk free nor cheaper, if you don’t know how to play smartly. Let’s check the smartest ways to do so.

Internet shopping in Bangladesh is getting immense popularity among all the creeds and classes of Bangladeshis. Thanks to increased penetration of cheaper Internet and flourishing mobile with ease of Internet through 3G/4G connectivity, Bangladeshis are enjoying Internet shopping with awesome features and facilities. Modern generation of Bangladeshis is enjoying online shopping without putting any step outside their home or office confinement, even they can shop while they are driving or commuting in public transport in odd hours.

Internet Shopping Craze in Bangladesh
They can place order with cash on delivery or home delivery without taking any risk of online payment as well as they can pay securely through Payza Bangladesh like safe and secure payment gateway. After observing online shopping craze in Bangladesh many entrepreneurs have jumped into the bandwagon and established their online identity with such secure payment methods and payment gateway integrations, even brick stores have created brick-to-click storefront for Internet shoppers in Bangladesh.

Internet Shopping Security
However, not all players are fair and there are frauds, spam websites, hackers, malicious elements, etc. unwanted activities reporting with same intensity on the web-o-sphere of Bangladesh. Therefore, it is mandatory to take enough precautionary steps while doing Internet shopping in Bangladesh taking smart way of e-shopping

Shop from Secure Online Storefronts Only
It is true that on Internet not all e-commerce storefronts or websites are reliable and offer secure shopping experiences. Therefore, you need to check some essential characteristics of Internet shopping websites prior to inserting any vital info from your side and those precautionary steps involve:

Reading the privacy policies thoroughly:
Yes, the majority of e-commerce websites are offering comprehensive and legitimate privacy policy. They do so in order to protect your financial and personal information, which you enter during checkout process to do your payment. If you find any loophole or discrepancy, do not shop with them.

Read Reviews of Storefronts:
Today we have social media like Facebook and other social networking sites where we can exchange our opinions and experiences with brands and such online shopping websites. Therefore, avail these facilities in your favor and simply read reviews or place your thoughts of shopping on certain e-commerce sites, you will have tons of advices or insights regarding their reliability, services, and security like experiences of others. The best way is to open their Facebook page and check the customers of brands that have placed their reviews and ratings.
Bangladeshis are fond of social media and eager to express them on it so take advantage of their mentality and extract the truth about the website on which you are going to do Internet shopping for big order or to be a loyal customer forever.  

Right Selection of Payment Method and Payment Gateway:
Fortunately, in modern Bangladesh, government, banks, and many Payza Bangladesh like entrepreneurs have made solid effort to make online payment highly safe, secure, and affordable for Bangladesh like underprivileged country. Thus, you need to check, which payment method involves the safest payment option and which payment gateway is involved with it

Fashion and Gadget Trends in Internet Shopping in Bangladesh

Bangladeshis are enjoying proliferation of online shops for their diverse needs. Among these shops, fashion and electronic gadget selling are trendier and benefiting two parties, the sellers and the buyers in many respects. Let’s see who is offering what in this online businesses.

In these days, Bangladesh is observing phenomenal growth of Internet usage due to smartphone craze. Of course, endeavors of governments and some entrepreneurs, in recent past, have begun to yield sweet fruits in form of increased e-commerce and other online activities involving many critical e-transactions.

Being a poor and deprived country, Bangladesh was lagging behind in the modernization race in recent past. Fortunately, many non-resident and resident Bangladeshis have tried hard to uplift the face of country by investing in diverse commercial activities. Thus, today Internet shopping in Bangladesh is enjoying special status and range of businesses/industries are coming up with their online identity by breaking many old barriers of trades.

Surveys on Internet Shopping in Bangladesh
Recent surveys on the Internet shopping behavior in Bangladesh had revealed many facts. Upon analysis of traffic, purchase tendencies, actual conversion, and status of Internet shops in Bangladesh have shown that Bangladeshis are getting maturity for Internet usage rapidly and online businesses are making good profits despite fierce competitions amongst them.

International Players
They have identified two areas as fast growing niches and they are fashion and electronic gadgets. For instance, Kaymu online shop is offering range of items for fashion, e-gadgets, kids, home appliances, and sports in nutshell at highly competitive rates. Kaymu is offering robust online shopping experiences with its advanced e-commerce technologies and worldwide network in multiple countries.

Local Players
However, local players are not lagging behind much in this e-commerce race and they are offering unique Internet shopping experiences with locally personalized scents. For example, Fortuna is a leading online shoe and bag store in Bangladesh and providing the optimal blend in style, quality, and affordability in footwear related items and their accessories by respecting local fashion trends.

As far as we are talking about the local players Chowdhury electronics is good option as online electronics store in Bangladesh. Bangladesh shoppers is one of the big harbors for retail items and hardly leave any essential items that we need in day-to-day course like groceries, households, fashion and apparels, health and beauty, kids related items, furniture, mobiles, PCs, machine and auto parts, etc. to name some. Nittodin is customer-centric marketplace with superb technologies and user experiences in form of highly personalization.

Secretes Behind the Success
Surveyors have noticed one more interesting thing, behind the success of these above described e-commerce stores. They have adopted highly secure payment gateways and payment methods, suitable to the tastes of Bangladeshi including Payza like big players. Thus, they respected the ultimate security related needs of Bangladeshi Internet shopping folks. Another factor was that they offer online shopping with home delivery and this is particularly true for online gift shops in Bangladesh.

Payza Bangladesh Provides Different Account Types for Sending and Receiving Money

Whether you wish to send or receive money online, accept payments for your sold products or services, or even managing businesses online, you need to have Payza account customized to meet your needs. Let’s check the account types and their benefits in e-transactions.

Bangladesh is a tiny country, but growing economy on the world map. Government, infrastructure, and Bangladeshis are growing mature over the time and trying to keep pace with advent of technologies. Today, Bangladesh has huge mass of migrant population outside the country that is fueling the native economy by sending money, work, and entrepreneurs in different modes.

Thus, the lifestyle of the average Bangladeshi is improving and modernization getting ways ahead. The ultimate side effect of this is in the growth of e-commerce and e-transfer activities using modern technologies and tools. Mobile and 3G/4G like communication forms have made Internet ubiquitous and easily accessible in the hands of poor to rich strata of society.

Role of Unique Payment Gateways

In wake of increased sending and receiving money interactions, Bangladesh needs customized and unique payment gateway solution providers who understand the goals of government and people by-and-large. Fortunately, Payza has taken bid to ease the sending and receiving money interactions of Bangladeshis online. In fact, Payza Bangladesh is integrating the latest and excellent payment gateway technologies in its offerings, exclusively for Bangladesh, time-to-time and going to offer different types of accounts with different sets of features and functionality.

Payza accounts allows users, who wish to do limited money exchanges in form of sending or receiving money across the world covering approx more than 190 countries. The Payza account types permit users to receive money with little fees in compared to other quality players and let them send money for zero fees. For non-residents Bangladeshis, nearly 21 currencies are available as options to send money in Bangladesh by converting them in Taka. Apart from these, these account types support various incentives and referral programs offered by Payza enabled merchants and other referrals.

Type #1: Personal Account
This account type is the most appropriate option for tech-savvy users. As, it lets them to sell/buy online, accept or make payments using credit/debit cards, users can send invoices to their customers if they use this account for business purposes, this account also let them to customize payment process, and send them instant notification on each interactions of either side. Of course, this type of account holders has to bear negligible or small amount of fees for sending and receiving money online or through e-transactions.

Type #2: Business Account
As its name suggests it is exclusively for businesses and enterprises, which have to manage one or more businesses and augment their brands using business names in all sorts of transactions. Therefore, this type of account gives all needed features and functionality for a reputed and intricate business whether doing e-commerce or working on Internet for multiple purposes. No doubt, Payza Bangladesh is recurring fees for such account worth the services it offers, but cheaper in compared to other players in the market for the same user experiences.

If you have any questions or comments, we invite you to share them with us by leaving a comment below or joining us on our Payza Facebook and Twitter pages.

NPS Leads Bangladesh towards Payment Gateway Solutions

With formation of National Payment Switch (NPS) before a year or two, banks and Payza Bangladesh have taken right steps towards the payment gateway solutions for export and outsourcing industries of Bangladesh.

Moreover, Payza Bangladesh has served online businesses looking for bespoken payment solutions in the Bangladeshi environment in beautiful and cost-effective ways.

Before a year or two, banks in Bangladesh had unveiled National Payment Switch (NPS) platform in order to bring debit and credit card payments in mainstream and merge other payment options in a single route. Thus, Bangladeshi users can topple their bank accounts, M-Commerce accounts, etc. through multiple ways.

Similarly, citizens in Bangladesh can withdraw same money using their debit or credit cards in ATM or can pay money online against the option of Internet transfer or say e-transfer for online shopping payment in Bangladesh as well as anywhere across the world with valid permissions/accounts.

Ultimate Benefits

Under NPS network, transaction cost would be negligible against the charges incurred by Visa, Amex, or Master card networks. This is the most wanted demand of relatively poor Bangladeshis since long. For them NPS are a blessing where they are secure, law abided, yet the cheapest at transaction fees, incurred by national and international rival services.

In the beginning only three banks, Dutch-Bangla, Pubali and Southeast Bank, were participated. However, as soon as Payza Bangladesh has declared its role in this network, other banks rushed and joined network to expand the reach. The ultimate benefits of NPS to government are easy access of funds, increase in tax revenue through transparency, and increased money flow in Bangladeshi economy.

Role of Payza Bangladesh

Payza is loaded with outstanding ‘payment gateway solution’ tools such as

•  Currency exchange
•  Fraud screening
•  Dispute resolutions
•  Global payouts
•  Disbursements
•  E-wallet
•  Virtual terminal
•  Recurring billing
•  eCheck processing 

At one hand, toppling the money through physical ways is quite easy, as you need to open online account and deposit money through bank desks in your nearby valid banks. You will have instant access of money without passing through daunting bank account opening procedure even in any unknown territory of Bangladesh.

At other hand, you can use these deposited money for any purpose of payment using M-Commerce, e-commerce, or S-commerce routes. In the same way, you can receive payment in foreign currency from foreign countries with the least charges offered by open market and in quick as well as secure ways.

Therefore, such excellent services of Payza Bangladesh have added fuel in the growth of outsourcing industry flourishing in Bangladesh and export house exploring unknown regions and market across the world.

Moreover, Payza has collaborated with the most of the leading banks of Bangladesh like Bank Asia to execute OPGSP payment and used Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN) facilities organized by the Bangladesh Bank- sectors in order to ease the lives of numerous freelancers and IT outsourcing companies to work with any client coming from any country of the world. As Payza has made possible to accept payments in any currency, as it offers the wide range of currency support and has presence in more than 190 countries of the planet Earth.

Social Media & Online Shopping in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are facing many challenges while establishing their own independent online shopping websites. Against these, social media networking sites like Facebook offers cheaper and more viable alternatives for them. Thus, social media have boosted the online shopping trends in the Bangladesh at initial stage and now e-commerce stores are following the trends and establishing full-fledged stores.

In recent past, Bangladesh was a country of deprivation in terms of modern technologies and affluent lifestyles. It was blessed by its unstable political and scanty natural resources against the dense population.

After 2007, gradually scenario has changed due to penetrations of ICT, proliferation of mobility, and initiatives of government as well as some entrepreneurs. Now, Bangladeshis are enjoying broadband connections, mobile Internet access through 3G/4G technologies, Internet banking, credit/debit card payment, bKash, and Payza Bangladesh like secure payment gateways for local and international money transactions.

Role of Social Media – Facebook
Besides these advancements, popularity of Facebook in Bangladesh has added more advantages for online shoppers as well as online business entrepreneurs. Facebook has offered the cheapest alternative for the online shopping store startups and it was started with clothing items including traditional dresses like Salwar Kameez, Sari, etc. No doubt, there were women entrepreneurs at first place who were running home based boutiques.

Practical Examples
If you look at the practical examples, the first name comes is of Safwan Rizvi of Hardstyle Revolution brand, as she is enjoying approx 15K customer support through Facebook page initially and now through her own website. She has achieved such popularity within the shortest span of three years.

Another woman entrepreneur who had recognized the immense potential of Facebook pages was the owner of Style World, as she had started her journey from 2005 through Facebook, and had captured customers beyond the country borders. Therefore, you can find more than 600K likes on her Facebook fan page of her business Style World.

The story similar to it was that of Andeem, which is an established fashion brand in Banani enjoying its own flagship store. The Andeem was a brainchild of Eemam Ahmed and; Farah Deeba, which had started on the Facebook initially, and eventually turned in to the reputed brick as well as online shopping destination for Bangladeshis. Thus, Facebook is playing vital role in providing a feasible and viable platform for the female designer as well as other female entrepreneurs for quick and reliable exposure.

Reasons Behind
Social media or social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are providing different opportunities for businesses to augment their brand and create an online reputation through transparent communication with their potential audience/customers. For instance, creating Facebook business page cost nil against establishing a website or a physical store. Administrative or overhead cost of online venture through Facebook page is nothing unless you hire one or two fellows to manage the day-to-day affairs and SMO campaign.

Moreover, Facebook page bring transparency and live dialogue between the business and audience through freedom of expression, as anyone can express her experiences with brand and show likeness or dis-likeness through comments, Like button, or sharing the post placed on the Facebook account. Recently, Facebook has taken some initiations to provide payment and other options through its paid services using online and other standard payment methods.

Review of Value-Added Features of Payment Gateways

Sometime being the online merchants, we don’t know many value added features of payment gateways. If we thoroughly study them, we can make our life easy and end-user experiences robust. Therefore, Payza in Bangladesh is the right choice for Bangladeshi e-commerce if you know it well.

Starting an e-commerce venture online is not much easy in comparison to establishing brick-and-mortar units in real world. Your exercise begins with finding good e-commerce web development partner and sharing your marketing strategies with the web development company.

E-commerce developers will share their daises with you for selection of technologies, research on your target audience, features and functionality needed for your e-commerce, shopping cart integration, payment gateway integration, in-site search engine integration, and so many aspects related to your e-commerce development.

Besides these, your staff has to draw planning for order management, shipping management, warehouse management, support services, etc. to implement them once the product unveils. Fundamentally, we do all those exercises in order to grab money from our targeted audience. Therefore, we bring visitors on our door once, show our offering through a short or long journey. Finally, excite them to buy our products or services depicted on our e-commerce storefront.

Hence, we reach at our final aim, to grab money, only when our shoppers click or tap the door of payment gateway by unveiling their payment details and finishing checkout process. In short, we can say that our money is where the payment gateway is. Therefore, the importance of the selection of payment gateway can’t be diluted anyhow.

What is payment gateway in fact?

It is a process or programming module that facilitates us to connect our website or say shopping cart with valid merchant account at a processing bank. This way our shoppers can purchase goods/products/services on virtual spaces, without handing over any case, in any physical form.

Which characteristics do you expect from a good payment gateway?

If you want to select the most appropriate payment gateway for your online storefront, some knowledge about your ideal payment gateway is essential and should have some comparative insights for contemporary payment gateways used in your regions or the regions of your targeted audience. Yes, the selection of payment gateways should be regionally, otherwise you will lose faith, favor, and fans of your e-store quickly.

Security:

Secure payment gateway is prime concern of any shopper and that needs multiple measures to be taken at developer side, your side, and your payment gateway service provider side.

• The selection of affordable payment gateway in sense of cheaper registration and transaction fees is at your side
•  Proper integration and customizing encryption or security layers according to your bespoken needs is at your developer side
• Offering trustworthy environment and populating brand is at your payment gateway side
• Selecting appropriate payment option and feeding right data in right or say secure manner is at your shopper side

Virtual Terminal Services: 
If any shopper direct at your support services and express her desire to buy product instantly, don’t lose opportunity and use virtual terminal services offered by your merchant or payment gateway and fill web form manually to fix the deal or order. This is the best characteristic of any good payment gateway and its provider.

Fraud Prevention Tools:
There are many fraud prevention tools to save you losing money on chargeback services such as Address Verification Services (AVS), CW2 as three or four-digit security number on the back of debit or credit card, and other online detection methods to stop any unusual behavior of the shopper.

Others:
Apart from the aforementioned important characteristics, below are some name of characteristics to know and expect them to include in your payment gateway solutions developed for Bangladeshi shoppers in order to win their loyalty forever.

•  Recurring Billing
•  eCheck Processing
•  Choice of APIs
•  Affordability/cost
•  NPS integration
•  E-wallet
•  Easy money toppling 

Fortunately, Payza Bangladesh is only payment gateway that offers all required traits of the best fit for Bangladeshi online shoppers and e-commerce entrepreneurs.

Growth Factors of Online Shopping in Bangladesh

Establishing and running a physical store is becoming daunting in Bangladesh. Therefore, many entrepreneurs including women think of online shops due to emerging trends and ease in shopping, shipping, and payment through secure online payment gateways. There are other several factors contributing in the rapid growth of online shopping stores in Bangladesh.

If we look at the statistics of population in Bangladesh compared to its natural and other economic resources, we can find greatly skewed graph. In other words, high density in terms of population is hindering its growth for small to big businesses. Among them retailing businesses are affected the most.

Adverse Factors for Brick Store Growth in Bangladesh

One thing for brick-and-mortar store is true that they have to spend a lot on establishment of physical store. Moreover, selection of right location like place in good locality, parking facilities, easy access of main road, movement of highly prospective consumers, etc. are some vital factors that determine the sustaining or growth of the business.

At other hand, customers who are residing a bit away from the brick store may avoid commuting in heavy traffic of Bangladeshi cities. Moving from one store to another in order to select the right product and do some bargaining in costs may prove costly at the end if they spend more on fuel.

Factors Favoring Online Shopping in Bangladesh 

As we have seen that brick stores have hard time to flourish more in Bangladesh, online shopping has more favor against those odds. With the advent of technologies, establishing online store is quite cheaper while higher proliferation of mobile devices has made Internet access easy and instant.

Therefore, Bangladeshi online shoppers prefer purchasing from e-retailers many durable and shippable products like electronic gadgets, home appliances, personal assets such as clothing, jewelry, and other accessories. Today we can witness innumerable other products on small to big online stores or web portals due to growth of the online shopping trends in Bangladesh.

The most favorable factor for the growth of online shopping is the evolution in payment system. For instance, easy payment through M-banking, Internet banking, credit or debit card payment, bKash, cash on delivery, and various schemes offered by reputed payment gateway operators like Payza Bangladesh have not only encouraged Bangladeshis to do online shopping, but also made e-payment secure and smooth.

Due to involvement of government, banking sector, and reputed payment gateway entrepreneurs like Payza have changed the scenario of online shopping in Bangladesh and encouraged many women entrepreneurs to jump into the highly rewarding field on e-commerce.

One more factor is easy acceptance and transaction of international currencies through Payza Bangladesh like payment gateways have encouraged IT service providers to grow and add fuel in the growth of economy of the Bangladesh. Moreover, they have made online shopping storefront development highly competitive hence cheaper and with quality.

Finally, high penetration rate of social media like Facebook have encouraged start-ups, small businesses, and many enterprises to explore the unexploited audience through creation of Facebook fan pages and using its social networking services to boost the online shopping in Bangladesh.

Selection of Payment Gateway the Bangladeshi E-Commerce Dilemma

When web developers create e-commerce for Bangladesh, selection of payment gateway is always challenging due to unique scenario of e-commerce in Bangladesh. Recent moves of Payza Bangladesh have offered it an edge over other rivals even at local level for various modes of payment.

Generally, e-commerce web developers and e-commerce mobile app developers either are integrating payment gateways with what their competitors in that e-commerce niche has done or simply ask the client if it is B2B project. Very few e-commerce developers have inclination to go through extensive search process and find out the actual needs of targeted audience.

We have general perception regarding payment gateway functions such as:

•  Accept payment rapidly
•  Accept payment easily
•  Accept payment securely
•  Build trust carefully

These are common expectations from any standard payment gateways solution for any quality e-commerce storefront. However, deviations and additions are taking place when regional, cultural, social, and economic factors involve in the decision of payment gateways integration of the eCommerce stores.

For instance, PayPal is considered as number one global payment gateway solution across the globe, but its higher fees, over sensitivity for extra sale or loads, and excessive paper work in many instances are hindering factors for many regions of the world, particularly developing and locally protective policies implementing countries.

No doubt, Bangladesh is one of them and has unique, but valid expectations from any payment gateway operation for its citizens and within legal territory of the country. If we check features and functionality of a payment gateway suitable for Bangladeshi online shoppers or e-transactions, we can realize these facts obviously.

Unique Needs of Payment Gateways for Bangladesh

Affordable Fees:

As we know, the Bangladeshi currency Taka is very weak against dollar in international market and compared to neighboring countries like India. Thus, if any payment gateway counts its sign up, transaction, and other fees in dollar or Pound like strong currencies, it proves non-viable and non-feasible for such poor country or its citizens.

It is good if sign up fees incurred for large volume of transaction seekers and same for transaction fees when large volume of transactions taking place by big business houses or international players working from foreign countries. Thus, affordability is prime issue for lower to mid level of users in Bangladesh when the selection of payment gateway is in question. Fortunately, Payza Bangladesh is the cheapest payment gateways valid and available in Bangladesh without compromising the quality of services despite such competitive fee structure.

Ease and Convenience:

Payza is highly customized payment gateway solution for Bangladesh because it supports numerous currencies around the world and have presence in more than 190 countries of the world where possibilities of Bangladesh based business transactions or presence of NRB from Bangladesh are high.

The algorithm, user interface, and user experiences crafted on Payza Bangladesh is the most befitting solution for the Bangladeshis. In fact, Payza had run thorough research of Bangladeshi culture, behavior, and preferences prior to developed and unveiled Payza solutions so it can address exact needs of Bangladeshi online shoppers and other Internet communities.

Moreover, Payza Bangladesh has collaborated with leading banks of Bangladesh to execute OPGSP payment and BEFTN like services to meet local needs of online shopping community as well as locals to topple or withdraw money easily and in comprehensive ways. Therefore, Payza allows credit and debit cards, mobile, on service desk of banks and other multiple methods for its users to accomplish their tasks or needs easily, securely, and rapidly.

Trustworthy:
Payza obeys local rules of the country and support the law and its requirement by providing essential info to the government bodies on valid reasons or hiding the sensitive info of its users to protect their privacy. Thus, it has won hearts of all Bangladeshi folk within short span.

Online Shopping in Bangladesh Empowering Women

Online shopping trends have started a bit late in Bangladesh, but have begun with clothes like Salwar Kameez and saris of different home based boutiques ran by women entrepreneurs. However, the female contributors of online businesses come from all folks – teachers, doctors, students, homemakers, IT Professionals, designers, etc. and contribute in the growth of Bangladesh through their online ventures.

Bangladesh is 3rd world country with adverse economic conditions and under the influence of unstable political and social regimes even though the presence of democracy. Therefore, women in Bangladesh have the least privileges to grow freely compared to western developed world.

Growth of ICT
Fortunately, recent stability of democracy and will power of government has brought rays of hope in form of introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT). Internet and mobile usage are now becoming norms here gradually. Therefore, new areas of business opportunities are opening day-by-day and new generation entrepreneurs from outside the country as well as from within the country are gaining immense benefits. The most beneficial area by the growth of ICT is e-commerce and high proliferation of online shopping storefronts in Bangladesh is giving its solid evidences. Online shopping ease the life of an average citizen by reducing traveling time, reduction on traveling expenditure, and break the boundaries of locality through country wide or worldwide access of shopping options.

Ease in Payment
Recent intrusions of robust payment gateways like Payza Bangladesh have freed Bangladeshis from security related issues as well as money topping problems through its innovative schemes for online shoppers in Bangladesh. Moreover, growth of mobility has assured entrepreneurs to take easy and cost-effective approaches in their online shopping experiences.

Growth Cycle of Online Shopping in Bangladesh 
In Bangladesh initially, common commodities like clothes and electronic items have gained attention of online business entrepreneurs and among them women are pioneer. In the year of 2010 many housewives, working women, and some female students have taken forward steps to make e-clothe stores viable through ultimate online opportunities of social media emergence. Facebook has helped them to create web pages and provide trustworthy platform to begin.

They have begun with their traditional dresses including Salwar Kameez and empowered themselves to jump into the sea of e-commerce through their own e-commerce websites by offering secure and robust user experiences for online shoppers in Dhaka and rest of Bangladesh gradually. Now, banks, government agencies, and other foreign entrepreneurs from Bangladesh have extended helping hands to empower Bangladeshi women for e-retailing and establishing online marketplaces for all sorts of products including online dress shopping in Bangladesh, online t-shirt shopping in Bangladesh, buy shoes online in Bangladesh, etc.

In results of such efforts, many mega e-commerce stores has come into the picture such as Akhoni, Cell Bazar, ClickBD, Bikroy, etc. up to the 2013. Rapid digitalization across the private and government sectors, proliferation of mobiles, and influence of neighboring countries and their growth are some factors, which have increased the participation of women in various arenas including political, social, and economical as a whole.

These have boosted the empowerment of women, their families and overall community at the end. Therefore, today we are witnessing rapid growth of online shopping among the folks due to women working in the areas of teachers, doctors, students, homemakers, IT Professionals, designers, etc.

Influence of Customer Satisfaction and Usability on Internet Shopping in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is experiencing transition from traditional shopping to Internet shopping.

For any business, which wants to jump into the Internet shopping in Bangladesh has to face unique expectations of Bangladeshis and infusing usability aspects in web designing using the best technologies, practices, and following modern trends.These are sure ways to hit success.

Craze for Internet shopping in Bangladesh is spreading like wild fire due to improved scenario of information and communication technologies (ICT) and its network with the help of government as well as many entrepreneurs. Mobile and its technology growth are adding more fuel in the flame to put all fantasies of Internet in palms of the Bangladeshis at cheaper and affordable rates.

Moreover, Bangladesh government is seeing and selling dreams of digital Bangladesh by anchoring its majority of services on the Internet or intranet giving mobile accessibility as bonus. Some banks and private entrepreneurs like Payza Bangladesh are offering secure and super-fast payment gateway services along with multiple other Internet payment options. In sum, overall scenario seems glorious and hopeful to last for longer.

Meanwhile some researchers and agencies have taken initiatives to study the various factors influencing the growth of Internet shopping in Bangladesh. Among them customer satisfaction and usability have prime importance so I would like to spend some time of discussion on these two factors in this post.

Usability and Customer Satisfaction

Technically customer satisfaction is related directly with the ROI of the business because existing customer retention is cheaper against acquiring new one and customer retention comes only through customer satisfaction. Business can satisfy its customers only through addressing their expectations, through perceived value of the company, and branding of the company.

At other hand customer expectations are directly linked with the quality of products/services and support provided by the company. In present study, it has found that customer satisfaction in Bangladesh depends upon some independent variables like:

• Variety of Product: For traditional shopping, moving everywhere finding variety of products is tough for Bangladeshis due to various factors like product availability, spending on fuel, and time consumed on traveling. Thus, internet shopping in Bangladesh is gaining ground to access numbers of variations in the products and qualities of the products.

• Product Information: Bangladeshis like to know products thoroughly as they don’t have physical access of product. Therefore, providing them detailed information regarding product quality, after sale services, and prices matters more than anything else does. They also prefer to discuss on the social media or like to see reviews of product elsewhere on authority sites.

•  Cheap Price: Comparative shopping is natural tendency in Bangladeshis too. Therefore, offering some cheaper rates can lead business to win battle at first place, but for long run cheap prices must be associated with good quality or services for sake of customer loyalty.

• Security: This issue is more skeptical for the Bangladeshis due to social and political backwardness of the society. However, recent initiatives of government, banks, and some scrappy entrepreneurs like Payza Bangladesh to offer secure payment gateways and payment options suitable to the country, its people, and nature of the businesses prevailing.

•  Comfort: Internet shopping itself offers home/office/on-the-go comforts of shopping, but user experiences, shipping/delivery, and payment options provide utmost comfort or satisfactions to the customers. Fortunately, many have learnt these lessons in recent past and are implementing the latest web and mobile development technologies to offer greater degree of comfort to their Internet shoppers.

• Time: In recent fast-paced life style, none has enough time to go out for physical store shopping. This is very true for Bangladeshis too, for new generation in particular. Thus, Internet shopping is gaining ground rapidly in Bangladesh.

• Energy Consumption: Internet shopping save time as well as personal energies of shoppers that is spent moving outside and at far distances.

• Travel Necessity: In fact, Internet shopping in Bangladesh is more prolific in urban areas compared to rural areas. The reason behind is traffic jams in the cities and e-commerce elements that factor inherently. Thus, home delivery is gaining ground in Bangladesh for this very reason to save time, fuel, and health by just avoiding jam and its polluted environment.

Technically usability of Internet shopping is directly related to the online shopping outlets or e-commerce web portals. Therefore, the quality of e-commerce websites or mobile apps is affecting the usability. Fortunately, today Bangladesh is one of the leading outsourcing software development services provider countries. Thus, by taking advantages of the talented pools, businesses are offering excellent quality, user experiences, and usability features and functionality on their online identities as well as on mobile apps for their businesses.

Ways to Boost Online Shopping in Bangladesh

Just overcoming the infrastructural problem is not key to successful e-commerce development, but real secrete lies in the creation of conductive environment that enable and encourage customers to do online shopping and Bangladesh now needs it. Let’s see what we can do to boost the purchase intentions of the people of Bangladesh regarding to online shopping including offering outstanding payment options.

It is true that Bangladesh has set back in e-commerce march with advent of technologies due to its political and socioeconomic turmoil in the past. Now, government and people of Bangladesh are trying to link country with rest of digital world through development of supporting framework for online shoppers and other Internet based activities such as secure money transactions.

However, investing and trying to create good infrastructure for online shopping in Bangladesh is not only one key of success. In fact, we need something more than that to populate e-commerce culture in this country. Among the many factors that influence the culture of online shopping in Bangladesh, creating a thirst or say, developing customer purchase intention is the major one. Let’s check what can assist businesses or organizations to boost the online shopping intentions among the people of Bangladesh.

Geography and Demography of Target Audience

It has observed that young, educated, and only high income groups take part in online shopping or Internet related activities. No doubt, some retired officers and high income middle aged people use e-commerce, but their numbers are limited. These groups of people mostly located in the urban areas of Bangladesh.
Therefore, it is mandatory to make Internet affordable and accessible across the country so middle class people of society can afford it. No doubt, recent mobile or handheld devices craze has opened new fronts to access Internet in the remote and rural areas through 2G/3G as well as other mode of cellular connections.

Attitudes of Target Audience/Customers

Researchers have found that certain attitudes influence the intentions of the people towards e-commerce and e-transactions and they are:

•  Benefits/advantages
• Consequences/ensues
• Privacy
• Security
• Willingness of Interactions

Unstable socioeconomic and political conditions have created lots of distrusts among the people and money transactions need the high security guarantees. No doubt, many residents, and non-resident Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have good work in this regard and offered dependable and long-term solutions.

Social Support
Here role of social culture, government, and media is critical. If they all work in positive directions and create highly conductive environment for the online shoppers, everything can turn in to the favor of vast e-commerce business opportunities for present and future generations.

Legal Support
It is true that hackers, mischievous people, and anti-social elements are prevailing in every society and in each country. Therefore, adequate laws and implementation infrastructure are essential to offer secure environment for online shopping activities in Bangladesh. Fortunately, recent moves of government and interests of businesses have pushed the matter in right directions and in right dimensions.

IT Supports
March of Internet related technologies are in rapid pace across the world. People are adapting and used to smartphones, tablets, and even wearable devices besides traditional laptops/desktops for their Internet related needs. If support of IT software and hardware is adequate in terms of creating quality products at affordable rates, the market of online shopping in Bangladesh can be flourishing at amazing pace.

RESOURCE

If we look at the people of Bangladesh, we may find that there are lots of efforts need to be done by businesses and entrepreneurs besides the government agencies in this regard. If we look at the above given factors, we will find that security is the prime concern of the customers or Internet users in Bangladesh. This article offer different suggestions on the ways to boost online shopping in Bangladesh therefore, this article may give you useful insights for further work in this regard.

Supporting Framework for Online Shopping in Bangladesh

Online shopping can only flourish in the presence of solid supporting frameworks and adaptability of the people. In Bangladesh, infrastructure development for e-commerce had slow pace in the past, but recent moves of the government and awareness of people have made rapid changes. New generation entrepreneurs have fueled the changes by introducing various e-payment mechanisms with desired security and robust experiences. Let’s go through the past and recent developments.

Today the reach of Internet seems rapid due to proliferated use of handheld and wearable devices. Smartphones and tablets have made Internet ubiquitous and accessible round the clock from anywhere. Therefore, various commercial activities taking place on the handheld devices and the most beneficial segment is e-commerce.

Unfortunately, the fruits of these tech advancements are not dispersed equally in the rest of the world. Bangladesh is one of the countries, which lagged behind in the tech race, due to its adverse political and social situations. Telecommunication and Internet technologies are backbones of e-commerce development in any country and Bangladesh has slow pace of development in this regard. Therefore, Internet access is uneven and limited to specific regions as well as up to specific segments of society.

Deficiencies of Infrastructure

There are visible deficiencies of infrastructural support framework in forms of :

• Poor electricity network resulting into poor supply
• Low affordability of online shopping components such as Internet affordability, computing devices’ affordability, and handheld devices affordability have restricted its reach up to affluent class of the society
• Low literacy level also affecting the usage of Internet and acceptability of online shopping in Bangladesh 

Online Purchase Framework

 It is true that the proliferation of online shopping and online money transaction activities greatly depending on the online purchase framework and the ultimate components of this framework are:

• Purchase Intentions
• Purchase Adaptation
• Purchase Continuance 

These purchase related factors have direct relationships with the behavior and several characteristics such as:

• Consumer Characteristics: Their life style, motivation, knowledge, innovativeness, involvement, demographics, etc.
• Product/ Service Characteristics: The product knowledge, product type, layout, frequency of purchase, tangibility, differentiation, price etc.
• Medium Characteristics: web design, navigation, ease of use, interface usefulness, reliability, security, etc.
• Merchant and Intermediary Characteristics: Service quality, privacy and security control, brand reputation, delivery /logistics, after sale service, incentive, etc.
• Environmental Influences: The culture, subjective norm, exposure, attention, image, etc.

If you closely look at these characteristics, you will find that many of them are at backward conditions or lacking at all and its reasons are obvious:

• Poor national level public key infrastructure
• Distrust regarding to secure e-transactions whether in local or international currencies
• Social and technical challenges
• Lack of legal framework to support

Recent Progress in Bangladesh
Fortunately, in recent past, government and many entrepreneurs within Bangladesh or from foreign countries who have taken deeper interest in the development of online shopping framework in Bangladesh, By being Bangladeshi (citizens/origins) these entrepreneurs have brought some progressive changes by influencing government policies, investing in e-commerce and allied sectors, and changing the mind set of people by-and-large.

For instance, medium characteristics and merchant or intermediary characteristics as mentioned above are contextual and you can see some through changes. Today software developer community of Bangladesh is competing with its neighboring rivals like India and Pakistan at outsourcing fronts. Thus, they are indirectly improving the quality of above mentioned components of supporting framework for e-commerce development. Same way, trusted payment gateway providers are helping not only national level e-transactions, but also improving the user experiences of Foreign exchanges coming from various sources.

If political stability persists and tendency of people improving regarding to online shopping in Bangladesh, days are not far away that shine the overall economy of Bangladesh and lifestyle of the people.

RESOURCE

This article focus on the supporting framework for online shopping in Bangladesh that will give useful insights to web developers as well as entrepreneurs venturing in to e-commerce niche.