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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Online Shopping In Bangladesh—Path from Dark Past to Shining Future

In world history, communication technologies have advanced the life of human race in many aspects, and its influences are continuing until today. Unfortunately, Bangladesh had started lately in compared to rest of the world. The scenario of Internet usage and online shopping in Bangladesh was grim before a decade. However, recent moves of government and entrepreneurs have shaded rays of hopes in new generations for a bright future. Let’s take a review that what happened and what will be in next days.

Origin of the Bangladesh and its political history has granted it poor and backward status in compared to its ultimate neighbors. Low literacy rate and adverse social profiles have hastened its march to bright future significantly. Lack of essential infrastructure is apparent in Bangladesh since its inception. Information and communication technology sector is suffering heavily since the beginning. However, in May 2006, a ray of hope emerged when Bangladesh was connected with submarine cable for Internet.

Despite such opportunity, social and economical condition of Bangladesh was not in favor of advance Internet usage due to lack of network and related technologies like high quality modem and 3G networks for mobiles. User profiles were restricted up to affluent class of people. People of higher qualifications and profiles were surfing net regularly so chances of proliferation of online shopping in Bangladesh were deemed until the 2010.

Changes Begun

Afterwards, political will-power and attitudes had changed and government, under the pressures of sizable neo-generation entrepreneurs, have taken steps to developed Information and Communication Technology infrastructure, begun strategy debates, and invested heavily in due course. The maturity of citizens and political stability has infused great will power in to the improvements of the conditions of online shopping in Bangladesh.

Role of NRBD

At present, sizable portion of literate people living abroad and spending the big part of their fortunes to literate their relatives and people of next generation. Their dreams are to simulate lifestyle of the western countries at some extent. Thus, e-commerce storefronts are mushrooming rapidly on the horizon of the web of the Bangladesh. No doubt, there are not robust and secure online shopping experiences exist in compared to its western counterparts, but initiation is there.

 Present Scenario of Online Shopping in Bangladesh

The present scenario of e-commerce is favoring online shopping of essential commodities and fashion apparels greatly. Therefore, online dress shopping, online T-shirt shopping, and buying shoes online are trendy activities of e-commerce shoppers. Of course, trust and security level for online shoppers are a bit low so online shopping by home delivery and online shopping by cash on delivery are favorite mode of payments in Bangladesh.

Online Payment in Bangladesh

Surely, credit/debit card payments and net banking options exist in the e-commerce world of Bangladesh, but usage are limited. The same scenario is blinking for the online money transfer service from the foreign countries and vice verso. Fortunately, some entrepreneurs from Bangladesh and its non-resident citizens have initiate some highly trustful and secure payment gateways and online money transfer portals of offer viable and feasible options for the online shopping and money transfer growth.

No doubt, past and present government agencies have supported such movements from entrepreneurs and encouraged them for secure online money exchange activities. It is noteworthy that Bangladesh is not supporting crypto-currency exchanges due to threats from extremists’ activities, but has trust on reliable 3^rd party payment gateways providers because they can furnish critical data when demanded in extreme situations to the nodal government agencies, but protect data from the miscreants and hackers.

 

RESOURCE

This article focuses on the situations of the online shopping in Bangladesh and have torched the scenario from past to present. Such insights not only help people used to do online shopping or currency conversions, but also the e-commerce development community.

 

Payza Bangladesh—PayPal Alternative in Bangladesh

At one hand, credit/debit cards are facing security threats everywhere and they are more pronounced in Bangladesh like country. At other hand, Bangladesh can’t allow cryptocurrency and other international payment methods where tracing where about of senders or sometime receivers are not available for security agencies. Thus, Payza is the fittest solution for the Bangladeshis and simulate the services of PayPal indeed!

Bangladesh is densely populated country, if we calculate population density per sq. km. Fortunately it has average age of 23 and its scrappy young generation heading towards rapid socioeconomic changes along with political ambiance. Awareness, education, and influence of entrepreneurs within and outside the country are bringing rapid changes in the lifestyle and the ways people think and behave.

Brick and mortar businesses are now converting to brick-to-click and e-commerce ventures by recognizing the upcoming trends and mood of Bangladeshis. Invasion of mobile Internet has made easy to go online and perform the desired online shopping from anywhere and at any time. Now, just tell me who would like to go outside to deal with traffic mesh and burn fuel albeit with wasting valuable time in moving shop-to-shop.

Obstacles in the Way

However, Internet shopping in Bangladesh is not quite easy, as it seems, literally in other countries particularly in western counterparts. In USA, you can use PayPal like payment gateways freely and securely whether you are a US citizen or not. Unfortunately, it is not true in Bangladesh because PayPal and others do willingly not exist in the economy. Bangladesh is highly sensitive and protective economy in Asia. Therefore, it avoids international players who become cause of dollar drains, instruments of terrorism, and adverse in the interests of the country at this stage.

Another reason is mindset of Bangladeshis who believe that each entrepreneur invests only for sake of fatty profits and they hardly place trusts on other money transfer or payment methods. For these very reasons, payment on delivery and brick-to-click like models resume much. Other factors such as opening merchant account and payment gateway account for a business or buyer is tedious to do.

Unique Nature and Condition of Bangladesh

At other hand, Bangladeshis love to do quick online shopping instead of waiting for long in traffic mesh. They love to have simple payment process even they don’t have permanent bank account. The demand for such extreme level simplicities without missing security concern of bank, people, and government was challenging to translate in solid reality.

Role of Payza Bangladesh

Fortunately, Payza Bangladesh has taken bid to create bespoken solutions for Bangladesh in its own circumstances. What Payza Bangladesh has done? It has implemented e-wallet concept where anyone can create account with Payza Bangladesh, simply by visiting a teller in bank or registering online by filling essential info and identity/authentication. You would have multiple options to topple money in your account in bank or online. 

Now, you are ready to do online shopping, transfer money to your relatives/friends, or withdraw money coming from others. If you have cryptocurrency and you want to covert it in Taka (local money), you can take help of Payza Bangladesh with minimum charges. In fact, this e-wallet concept absolutely eliminates the merchant account from the default online payment system and you have to just deal with a reputable international payment service provider in your local Bangladeshi environment with your own ways.

Bangladeshi PayPal

Payza Bangladesh is feasible solution for the exporter, non-residential Bangladeshis, and offshore service providers like software designers, developers, Internet marketers, and many. Perhaps, Payza Bangladesh is highly sought after solution for the outsourcing industry, which desperately needs Bangladeshi PayPal in absence of real PayPal.