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.