March 28, 2024, 7:35 pm


Jannatul Islam

Published:
2023-04-13 11:41:41 BdST

E-commerce platforms see 25pc trade growth


Ecommerce platforms have seen a 25 percent year-on-year growth ahead of the Eid festival, as people increasingly turn to online shopping to avoid the hassles of traffic and cash transactions.

According to the Ecommerce Association of Bangladesh (E-Cab), e-commerce companies earned around Tk 38 billion from March 15 to April 10, which is considered the peak season for Eid-ul Fitr.

This is a significant increase from the Tk 30 billion in transactions recorded a month before Eid-ul Fitr last year.

Industry insiders have noted that Pahela Baishakh has contributed to the increased value of the festive season this year.

Asif Ahnaf, finance secretary of E-Cab, said, "The ecommerce companies always wait for the festival to attract people to online shopping with attractive offers. This year, in a rough assessment till April 10, we found a 60 percent growth compared to the previous month. In lifestyle products, the growth is almost 400 percent ahead of the festive season with Eid and Pahela Baishakh together."

E-Cab, which represents over 2,010 ecommerce companies in Bangladesh as a trade body for digital commerce, anticipates transactions worth Tk 45 billion before Eid-ul Fitr this year. Bangladesh Bank is overseeing the transactions of e-commerce platforms.

According to the latest data from Bangladesh Bank, people transacted Tk 10.71 billion through 3.79 million bank card transactions in February. In addition to bank cards, mobile financial service providers have been dominating the payment segment of ecommerce businesses.

Fahim Mashroor, a former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), said the growth in the ecommerce sector ahead of Eid is a normal expectation for entrepreneurs.

He added that while the trend towards ecommerce is mostly confined to Dhaka, the transaction volume has not reached its potential amid inflationary pressures in the market.

Mashroor, who is also the chief executive of AjkerDeal, said that ecommerce platforms would continue to receive a good number of orders until early next week to ensure delivery before the Eid holiday.

He noted that most customers still prefer cash-on-delivery, with 90 percent of transactions happening in this manner.

PaperFly, a leading ecommerce-focused logistic company, has divided its delivery system between inside and outside Dhaka to manage the increasing traffic from e-commerce platforms.

Rahath Ahmed, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Paperfly, said that the number of orders this year has not increased significantly, with a natural growth of around 20 percent in terms of shipments.

Currently, there are approximately 2,500 e-commerce companies in Bangladesh and at least 50,000 business pages on Facebook.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts the ecommerce market in Bangladesh to triple in size by 2023.

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