In addition to providing protection to the cheated in e-commerce, customers are regaining confidence in the various initiatives of the government to restore the stability of the sector. Because of this, transactions are also increasing. E-commerce transactions have increased by Tk 450 crore in a span of one year. Such information has emerged in the latest report of Bangladesh Bank.
Earlier, due to the fraud of several e-commerce companies including E-Orange, QCom, Dhamaka Shopping, Dalal Plus, the customer’s trust in this service was almost lost.
According to Central Bank data, e-commerce transactions in October last year were Tk 1,585 crore, which was Tk 1,135 crore in the same period of 2022. Accordingly, the transaction has increased by Tk 450 crore during the year. And compared to September, the transaction increased by 137 crore rupees. 1 thousand 448 crores were traded in that month.
The journey of e-commerce in the country started in 2000 by the hands of Munsibji.com. Since 2009, the journey of building Digital Bangladesh has seen the expansion of e-commerce as information and communication technology facilities spread from cities to villages. At this time several companies including Selbazar.com, here.com joined online shopping in the country. But the institutions are closed due to various reasons including slow internet speed. In 2012 companies like zadda.com and in 2014 Daraj started their journey. The expansion of e-commerce business in the country is through the hands of these organizations.
In 2020, during the Corona period, people stopped leaving their homes except for urgent needs. And that’s when the e-commerce business gets wind. Then people are forced to turn to e-commerce. The popularity of the sector is increasing rapidly. At that time companies like Evely, E-Orange, Qcom, Dhamaka Shopping and Dalal Plus started selling products at unusual discounts. It increases the purchase of the companies several times. In the beginning they started cheating the customer even though they gave the products at a much lower price as promised. Companies fail to deliver products with more purchase orders. And institutions lose confidence. Later the government intervened to control the situation. The officials of the institutions started to be arrested. And e-commerce sector lost popularity.
Bangladesh Bank’s data analysis shows that in June 2021, e-commerce transactions increased to a record Tk 1,277 crore. But due to fraud, it reduced to 742 crore rupees within a month. After that, the transactions decreased every month. However, after the enactment of the Digital Commerce Act 2021, sales in this sector again touched the milestone of thousands of crores in April 2022. Since then, this transaction is in the house of thousands of crores. In other words, gradually the effect of fraud is decreasing and the customer’s confidence is returning to this sector.
Sector-stakeholders say that due to the government’s special focus on e-commerce, fraud has come down a lot. Apart from this, people’s confidence in this sector is returning due to various policies including taking the money collected from the customers of e-commerce organizations as their own settlement. They also believe that this sector will grow if the interest of customers increases.
Recently, private research organization CPD published a research report on this e-commerce sector. CPD says the e-commerce market will grow by another $4 billion over the next four years. At the current market rate, its amount is about 41 thousand crores. At the end of 2022, the market size of e-commerce was 6.6 billion dollars. By 2026, it may increase to 1,500 million dollars. At the current market rate, its amount is more than 1 lakh 20 thousand crore rupees.
In the year 2021, when the information of widespread irregularities in the e-commerce sector came out, the lack of confidence of customers was created in this sector. Many e-commerce companies were not offering products or services for a long time with advance payment. In the face of many controversies, the Ministry of Commerce issued a guideline in June of that year. Bangladesh Bank issued a notification in light of that directive.
Payment service providers will hold the money collected from customers of e-commerce companies as their own settlement, the notification said. The e-commerce company will get the price after delivery of the product. Banks, MFS or e-wallet service providers can act as intermediaries in settlement of transactions. However, there are allegations that many organizations are still not following these guidelines.
Consumers cheated through e-commerce organizations are getting their money back. But the refund process is a bit slow. 525 crores received by customers from 27 e-commerce companies. More than half of the debt has been collected, but many still have not received the money back.