Ecom Mag.

09/09/2022

BRAC Bank and Upay, the mobile financing service of United Commercial Bank, have reached a deal that would allow BRAC Bank customers to transfer funds from the ASTHA app to their Upay accounts.

Users can now deposit up to BDT 50,000/- to their Upay account in a day, and Upay clients can now transfer cash to their BRAC Bank account from their Upay account.

With the help of Brac Bank's more than 60 remittance partners, NRBs will also be able to transfer money home straight to Upay accounts.

BRAC Bank and Upay will automate the processing of remittance transactions, allowing the beneficiary to receive funds promptly from anywhere in the world.

Upay will also use Brac Bank's payment settlement services to expedite transactions for its mobile account. The combination of Brac Bank and Upay would allow consumers of both institutions to experience easy, seamless, and trustworthy transactions.

05/09/2022

According to Daraz CEO and founder Bjarke Mikkelsen, the Daraz group will invest BDT 1,000 crore in Bangladesh over the next 3-4 years.

At the 8th anniversary celebration of Daraz’s journey in Bangladesh, he said that through the new investment, Daraz is looking to build the e-commerce infrastructure and ecosystem in Bangladesh.

The chief marketing officer of Daraz Bangladesh, Md Tajdin Hassan, says that they see an immense opportunity for Bangladesh to go a long way with e-commerce with the increase of internet users, as the share of the e-commerce sector in the country's retail product sales is only 2%, while it is 6% in India and 20% in Indonesia.

Daraz has over 7 million customers in Bangladesh, with about 50,000 sellers on their platform.

04/09/2022

Leading on-demand delivery platform Lalamove has launched its operation in Bangladesh.

It is the eleventh market Lalamove has entered. Lalamove has been "unceasingly creating" value for its 10 million consumers and 1.8 million driving partners across more than 30 cities in Asia and Latin America since 2013, commencing in Hong Kong.

The Lalamove app is now available on the Google Play Store and Huawei AppGallery in Bangladesh. It is currently providing its service in Dhaka city, Narayanganj and Tongi. Users can order for delivery starting at Tk47 for motorcycle deliveries and Tk55 for CNG deliveries.

Lalamove is going to work with driver partners to provide four different delivery alternatives, including motorcycles, automobiles, and 1-ton trucks that are now in use and CNGs that will be available shortly.

01/09/2022

Bangladeshi online grocery platform Chaldal has raised a BDT 5 million follow-on investment from Startup Bangladesh, the government-backed venture capital fund.

Startup Bangladesh has co-led the round with Taavet+Sten. Chaldal received another round of funds from Startup Bangladesh back in 2021. However, the amount was not disclosed. Starting in 2014, Chaldal currently has 32 warehouses across the country and serves around 500,000 families annually, distributing about 10,000 orders every day.

According to Crunchbase, Chaldal has secured $24.8 million in funding over five rounds so far, excluding the latest one from Startup Bangladesh.

30/08/2022

The government of Bangladesh has launched a website to make the Digital Business Identification (DBID) registration process easier for e-commerce and f-commerce merchants.

Now, business owners can apply for the DBID free at www.dbid.gov.bd. The website was launched on August 13th, 2022. The online DBID registration process was officially inaugurated on February 6th of this year. However, the process was troublesome due to the lack of a proper digital platform.

The DBID software is being handled by the Aspire to Innovate (A2I) program, under the Department of Cabinet and the Department of ICT. The certification will be provided by the Registrar of the Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC).

The business owners must submit their photo, signature, contact number, current and permanent address, and a copy of NID. After necessary verification, a unique ID number will be assigned to the business within a period of a maximum of 60 days.

24/08/2022

The all new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 and Flip4 are now available in Bangladesh on Daraz Online Shopping. You can now pre-order your phone and enjoy amazing offers, exclusively on Daraz.

On pre-booking of 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘅𝘆 𝗭 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗱𝟰, Daraz is offering:
👉 𝗕𝗗𝗧𝟮𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬/- 𝗢𝗙𝗙
👉 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 with 𝗦 𝗣𝗲𝗻 and 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘅𝘆 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗕𝗗𝗧𝟮𝟱, 𝟬𝟬𝟬/-

and with 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘅𝘆 𝗭 𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗽𝟰, you are getting
👉 𝗕𝗗𝗧𝟭𝟱, 𝟬𝟬𝟬/- 𝗼𝗳𝗳
👉 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 and 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘅𝘆 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝘀

And, with either model, you get
👉 𝟭-𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
𝗮𝗻𝗱
👉 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝟭-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

You can avail the phone on EMI as well- 0% interest over 12 months.

🗓 The offer is valid till 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮.

21/08/2022

Electronic banking has recently made a significant increase with internet banking seeing a giant leap of 81.5pc turnover growth, year after year- thanks to the pandemic-enforced restrictions on human movement.

There has been a record number of transactions through cards in June 2022, as people preferred card transactions over cash, owing to the cash dollar crisis and a spike in foreign currency dealings. The total amount of card transactions grew 31% from May 2022.

Up until last May, e-banking experienced growth in terms of customers, transactions, and revenue, according to the most recent government statistics. The number of customers went up by more than 44% year over year to 5.14 million in May. The amount of internet banking transactions increased by 81.5% to BDT 206.63 billion, while the volume increased by 66%!

The number of MFS accounts increased to 112.69 million in May, up by 15% from May 2021. However, the value in transactions fluctuated during the last 12 months. The overall volume of transactions in May was Tk 649.46 billion, a decrease of almost 9.0% from May 2021.

The number of transactions in e-commerce went up about 35 percent. numbers indicate the high adoption rate of technology and digital media for commerce among Bangladeshi citizens and the future direction of fintech and e-commerce.

20/08/2022

Online purchases are becoming more expensive as the courier companies increase their fares due to the recent spike in fuel prices. With the transport cost going up, the country’s two largest courier companies- Paperfly and eCourier have raised their charges by about 20%. On the other hand, the document delivery charge is now 35 to 40tk, whereas it was 25tk earlier.

According to the officials of the courier companies, it is not going to be sustainable to run the business without adjusting the charges according to the fuel price hike. This could further halt the e-commerce sector, accompanied by the demand side shock because of the current inflation, and the recent consecutive e-commerce scams.

The government charges 15% VAT on parcel delivery and 5% VAT on online sales of products. A K M Fahim Mashroor, CEO of DeliveryTiger said that they have not increased the charges yet, instead will observe the situation for a couple of months. He urged the government for either suspension of the VAT burden for the sake of the small and medium entrepreneurs.

17/08/2022

Amazon.com Inc. has made a purchase agreement to acquire iRobot Corp, the maker of the robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba, in an all-cash deal for approximately $1.7 billion. It comes as a part of its ongoing effort to increase the number of smart home products it offers. Amazon will purchase iRobot for $61 per share, putting the company at a 22% premium to its most recent closing price of $49.99.

If the agreement is completed, Amazon would gain access to the interior map of every Roomba owner’s home. Combined with other recent acquisitions, Amazon could wind up with a comprehensive look at what’s happening inside people’s homes. The e-commerce giant acquired video doorbell company Ring in 2018 and Wi-Fi router-maker Eero a year later. Thousands of smart home appliances, including Roomba vacuums, may now be controlled by speakers and other devices with Alexa, an AI assistant. And in a $3.49 billion all-cash deal, Amazon wants to buy the primary health care network One Medical which would give Amazon access to over millions of people's health information.

16/08/2022

Personal care and grooming brand OhSoGo has officially launched its e-commerce platform ohsogo.com.

OhSoGo started its journey back in April through social media platforms. It is now regularly delivering the latest international grooming products all over the country. According to Jahidul Islam, the COO of OhSoGo, “Like other countries, Bangladesh has a huge demand for beauty and personal care products, but the consumers face difficulty because of lack of availability. Our marketplace is committed to delivering the authentic product at the right price to any customer to any corner of the country.”

OhSoGo has recently closed an $8M investment deal with Believe Pte, the Singapore-based FMCG conglomerate. OhSoGo is eyeing to create a mark in the flourishing online market that is expected to grow at a CAGR of 55% by 2030.

Source: Prothom Alo.

14/08/2022

Bangladeshi travel-tech startup ShareTrip has secured an investment of BDT 50 million from the venture capitalist Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital fund of the ICT division of Bangladesh. The announcement came during the third anniversary of ShareTrip Bangladesh at Dhaka Sheraton.

Sami Ahmed, managing director of Startup Bangladesh, and Sadia Haque, co-founder and CEO of Sharetrip, signed the contract on behalf of their respective organizations.
Founded as Travel Booking BD in 2014 and rebranded in 2019, ShareTrip says it has served more than half a million customers all over Bangladesh and employed more than 5,000 agents for the brand. The company launched an Android and iOS mobile app that lets people book their flight or hotel room or select a trip from thousands of vacation packages.

The investment is assumed to be a sign of re-flourishing the online travel agencies in Bangladesh after the pandemic, when the people worldwide have started to travel nationally and internationally again.

Information source: Startup Bangladesh website.

14/08/2022

Shamima Nasreen, the ex-chair of the controversial e-commerce platform Evaly has submitted an appeal to the High Court to restart the business.
In the petition, she has claimed to have found investors and wanted to run the company on their own. She has also promised to pay back its customers and vendors. The appeal has been filed to the bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar, which is likely to hold a hearing on the application on the 14th of August, according to the lawyer of Shamima.
Another application was also filed, seeking directives for not harassing Shamima and Mohammad Rassel- the former MD and CEO, by filling further cases.
According to Evaly's own assessment, it has assets of only BDT 121 crore, while it owes customers and merchants more than BDT 1000 crore.

09/08/2022

As per the Population and Housing Census 2022's preliminary report, 3 crore adults over the age of 18 do not own cellphones, and 6.5 crore do not use the internet.
However, the numbers the census revealed is half as much as that of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), which recently stated that the country currently has 13 crore internet users.

The census also revealed the digital divide between the center and the margin and the gender disparity in connectivity. According to the census, 66.53 percent of men and 45.53 percent of women use mobile phones. 38.02 percent and 23.52 percent, respectively, of people use the internet.

The majority of internet and mobile users—62.07 percent and 40.41 percent, respectively—reside in the Dhaka division. Rangpur has the lowest percentage of internet users (17.67%) while Sylhet has the lowest percentage of mobile users (47.55%).

The size of the e-commerce industry of Bangladesh is expected to reach $3b according to the speakers at a webinar by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce Industry. With such a huge chunk still outside the purview of digitalization, it would be challenging for the e-commerce industry of Bangladesh to flourish along the estimated trajectory.

08/08/2022

YouTube has recently announced the launching of several shopping features for the viewers and the creators in collaboration with Shopify. The new features will allow the creators to link their Shopify stores with their Youtube channel, thus showcase their products on their channel.

In the United States, creators can currently activate onsite checkout so that customers can finish their transactions without leaving YouTube. To make it simple for artists to choose how their products are branded and displayed across their channels, Shopify is adding new capabilities to the "Shopping" tab of YouTube Studio. Because creators spend a lot of time creating their items, YouTube says it wants to make it simpler for them to run their businesses on the platform and market their goods directly to viewers.

The introduction of the new features comes as Youtube is trying to transform the platform as a space for live commerce, with the launch of shoppable advertisements and direct shopping from creator-hosted livestreams.

07/08/2022

The government of Bangladesh has issued an order to make DBID (Digital Business ID) mandatory for any organization to operate any digital business. This step has been made to bring all digital enterprises under government regulation. On June 29, 2022, the government announced the Digital Business ID Registration Guideline 2022. The regulation was developed in accordance with the 2018 Digital Commerce Policy. Online businesses must now show their DBID number on their website or social media platform.

The registration will be obtained from the Registrar of Joint Stock Businesses and Firms (RJSC). The registration process is online. Businesses can apply for a DBID if they are members of E-CAB, SME Foundation, or any other trade association recognized by the digital commerce groups. The registration can be obtained even without a trade license with only the NIDs of the owners. Existing businesses have until September 18, 2022, to submit their DBID applications. The registration fee for DBID will be waivered for one year. Following then, a charge will be required to obtain a DBID. The government has also released an app in this regard, inaugurated on June 29, 2022, by the Minister of Commerce Tipu Munshi.

A source from the Ministry of Commerce claims that there are already over 2.5 million social media firms operating in the country, in addition to roughly 2500 e-commerce businesses. Following multiple e-commerce scams in recent years, the government has taken a timely initiative to regulate all of these online businesses.

05/08/2022

Real-time settlement will bring a major turning point in the logistic marketplace landscape in Bangladesh. One of the early players to take advantage of the liquid flow crisis in the E-commerce industry is InstaCod. Real-time settlement is such a new value brought into the market by one of the rising logistics companies of Bangladesh, Delivery Tiger BD. The service is envisioning speeding up digital commerce and increasing the flow of liquid cash in the market. InstaCOD App was launched in February 2022.

In the usual Cash on Delivery (COD) system, the merchants' payments are settled once or twice a week, for their delivered products. On the other hand, InstaCOD allows online merchants to receive the payment for each order in their account daily, through the use of mobile financing services. The account and pending receivables can be managed through their mobile app and received at any time, making it easier and smoother for the E-commerce merchants and providing huge financial leverage for those running their hustle with low opex.

03/08/2022

Mastercard has launched a first-of-a-kind dual currency prepaid card for f-commerce women entrepreneurs in collaboration with Mutual Trust Bank Limited and eCourier.com.bd

The initiative intends to cut the need for third-party payment support to help female entrepreneurs boost their pages.
As part of the initiative, .com.bd will transfer directly to the client’s prepaid cards, reducing the need to physically collect cash from eCourier.

Currently, the f-commerce business owners need to use various third-party payment support in order to boost their page, which occurs mostly through informal channel and therefore uncertain. The initiative is expected to bring them under the purview of formal financial channel.

03/08/2022

Bangladeshi lungi giant Amanat Shah Group has begun its e-commerce journey. The popular brand which presently exports lungi to 18 nations, introduced Bangladesh's first e-commerce platform for lungi, MIAH, in 2021.

It is now delivering lungi all over the country, even abroad through international courier.

“We are looking to develop a distinctive lifestyle brand based on our Bengali tradition”, says Rezaul Karim, director of Amanat Shah Group and son of the founder Helal Miah. Rezaul Karim, who aspires to disseminate the lungi culture throughout the world and educate the youth about the legacy of the nation's lungi culture, is the brainchild behind the creation of Amanat Shah's e-commerce venture.

Amanat Shah Lungi has been a pioneer in the lungi industry of Bangladesh. It is the first to sell stitched lungi in Bangladesh and to introduce name and price tag in every product.
Select your favorite lungi and get your style signature delivered to your home from miah.shop.

02/08/2022

After one year of the acquisition of HungryNaki by the E-commerce giant Alibaba, HungryNaki is going through major scaling down and layoffs. It has shrinked its operation by half, withdrawing 15 out of its initial 30 operating zones.

Earlier in 2020, Uber Technologies shut down its food delivery service Uber Eats in Bangladesh, after just one year of operation. In 2021, Shohoz shut down its food delivery wing as well.
According to HungryNaki officials, the reasons include intense competition from the market leader Foodpanda, small market size and expensive customer acquisition. However, there has been no decision on shutting down HungryNaki. Currently, Alibaba is planning to focus on the sales of products and services other than food.

Although Alibaba initially intended to expand the operation of HungryNaki after the acquisition of 100 cities with infrastructural investment, it has since been compelled to reduce its operation to half. Notably, the urban middle class, who make up the bulk of the consumer base for Bangladesh's food delivery businesses, has been under intense strain as a result of the recent national inflation, which may have had an impact on the decision.

01/08/2022

Ministry of Commerce, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has decided to temporarily shut down websites and pages of six e-commerce companies for operating illegal online multi-level marketing (MLM) businesses. The companies are Tholay, Glitters RST World, Annex Worldwide Ltd, Excellent World Agro Food and Cosmetics Ltd, Alif World, and Green Bangla E-Commerce Ltd.

E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (ECAB) says it has found evidence these companies have been running illegal MLM businesses.

According to Md Hafizur Rahman, additional commerce secretary and director general of the WTO Cell at the commerce ministry, the IDs of the websites and pages of these six companies will be sent to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to close them down.

As per current regulations, it is illegal to operate without getting registered by the commerce ministry after successive MLM embezzlement by companies like Jubok, Destiny, Global Neway, and recently Evaly and E-Orange.

01/08/2022

To increase online exports of Bangladeshi goods, the government of Bangladesh is planning to prepare a policy for cross-border e-commerce.

The country currently lacks the policy to govern cross-border trade through digital platforms. Currently, the global cross-border e-commerce market size is estimated to be around $1,000 billion, which is anticipated to grow to $4,820 billion by 2026. The main products in the cross-border e-commerce trade sector are entertainment and education, clothing and accessories, consumer electronics, home furnishings, cosmetics, personal care, food and drink, footwear, digital wallets, and consumer electronics.
According to a source, in the current absence of a proper policy, the Government is failing to grasp the opportunity of a significant amount of revenue.

Additionally, many people are operating their e-commerce businesses while living abroad, which is against the e-commerce guidelines-2021.

Three sub-committees were formed to this effect - one by the National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh (NRB), and two others by the Bangladesh Bank-The Central Bank of Bangladesh and the Directorate of Post.

01/08/2022

Bringing you both verified information and insights on what’s happening in and around E-commerce.

30/06/2022