Prospects and Challenges of the E-Commerce Industry in Bangladesh

Abstract

Due to the wide usage of internet, the global ecommerce industry is booming. The same is true for Bangladesh or perhaps has become too much since the ecommerce industry is booming at an outstanding rate. Internet and smart devices have become widely available among the people of Bangladesh, online payment is also becoming flexible, opening up a business as ecommerce faces almost no challenges and for all of these reasons an ecommerce-based business is usually an entrepreneur’s first choice in Bangladesh. But all good things have their own dark side, because it is very important to monitor business transactions and operations by the government so that consumers are not scammed and also for stopping illegal transactions. But due to the lack of government regulations and proper monitoring, a lot of people in Bangladesh have lost millions of dollars because of ecommerce businesses that took the money but did not deliver the product. By keeping all the ups and downs of the ecommerce industry of Bangladesh in mind, the following report tried to put a light on certain burning issues like what are the prospects, what are the challenges and also if the recent scams had left a dent in the trust of the consumers of the ecommerce industry. The ecommerce industry of Bangladesh holds great prospect since many international and local companies are competing in the market which is eventually leading to greater quality assurance, internet usage, and smart device usage is increasing rapidly which is paving the way for more new markets to target, the advancement of the ecommerce industry is also helping other businesses like marketing agencies, software companies. On the other hand, if we look at the challenges of the industry, we could see many lurking such as the growth of the industry is mainly Dhaka city-focused or in other words, other districts of Bangladesh have not quite adopted the idea of ecommerce. Secondly, there is a very high concern regarding the quality of goods or services purchased online. There are other problems that surround the ecommerce industry like lack of regulations which leads to online scams, avoidance of online payment due to quality issues, etc. Also, in order to understand, whether online scams have left a dent in the trust of the consumer of the industry the report has come out with some findings such as, people still do not feel that much inconfidence when purchasing online, also not that many people have lost their trust on the government regarding taking action for making ecommerce transactions more secure. Also, the report has highlighted new fields of research that should be conducted for the future expansion of the ecommerce industry. The research will be based on analyzing demographic, psychographic, literacy, income level, etc. for each of the districts of Bangladesh which will eventually help new businesses develop strategies to enter new areas of Bangladesh through ecommerce. The main finding that the report has focused on is that the Bangladesh government has the major role to play in expanding and in securing the rights and responsibilities of the consumers and ecommerce firms. Proper regulations will surely encourage more businesses to perform their operations more confidently and will also keep fraudulent practices away from the industry. Also, with the help of the government, the general consumers will feel more encouraged to purchase online which will eventually lead to the betterment of the industry and the economy of the country.