Their expectations have risen well above acceptable cost and quality. They now want top-level service, individualized conversations, and linked, seamless digital experiences throughout all retail locations, touch points and platforms.

Electronic commerce,

sometimes known as e-commerce, refers to any business or commercial transaction that involves data transmission via the internet. It is one of the essential parts of the internet to exist in the present times.

E-commerce has expanded fast both globally and in Bangladesh. Internet access is already widely available in Bangladesh. It is used for e-commerce by Bangladeshi manufacturers to experts, besides access inputs will be determined by their desire and capacity to utilize this medium, as well as the willingness and skills of consumers of final products and suppliers of intermediate services and products. In Bangladesh, there is a limited application and use of hashtag#b2c e-commerce among the parameters of e-commerce. However, a sizable proportion of overall e-commerce websites engage in hashtag#c2ce-commerce, which is auction-based trade between customers. Other fields are still underdeveloped in Bangladesh.

What do hashtag#consumers in hashtag#Bangladesh want?

If recent industry missteps have taught us anything, it is that all is not well, and while there has been significant growth in this sector over the last decade due to infrastructural and technological advancement in the country, it is nowhere near that of our neighbors. In the period 2018-2020, India experienced approximately 40% year-on-year growth. Let us investigate why we have not been able to attain comparable growth despite the fact that our economy has been operating well and increasing at or above the rate of our neighbors for years. There are various variables that contribute to lower client penetration, including operational issues, culture, and overall inadequate digital literacy.

A reliable hashtag#delivery service: Although Bangladesh has a well-developed road and railway network, it is undeniable that we lack a well-developed delivery channel. We are a small country, therefore the distance between major hubs in Dhaka and smaller cities is much shorter than in many western countries, yet we need a strong and dependable delivery channel on which buyers and sellers can rely.

Strategic action plan:

Another area where Bangladesh falls short is sellers behavior. Many of the merchants or dealers listed on various e-commerce websites or even Facebook pages do not have their own inventory or business. These are essentially resellers who, upon receiving an order, source the goods from another wholesaler or local merchant and then resell them on websites for a profit. This is a fine business strategy in and of itself, but when a substantial section of the seller’s sources items upon purchasing, there is usually a longer turnaround time, which stretches the entire process, and because they are delaying sending their product to e-commerce hubs, there is a delivery delay.

Appropriate payment method:

Bangladeshi customers have always preferred cash transactions for their purchases; however, this pattern has shifted in recent years owing to the emergence of payment systems such as hashtag#bkash , hashtag#rocket , hashtag#NexusPay, and iPay. bKash, a subsidiary of Brac Bank Limited, was launched in 2011 and since then become the preferred online payment channel among consumers.

Deals: Our customers are more concerned with pricing than with everything else. Although the brand name is crucial, the pricing of branded things must be advantageous to them. When it comes to shopping selections, some people favor rebates or hashtag#BOGOdeals, while others prefer discounts.

What do consumers in developed countries want?

Online shoppers are becoming pickier. They have the freedom to choose, as well as access to the world of internet vendors. If one online business does not meet its demands, they simply switch to a rival.

High-performing website: Customers may browse elsewhere because your store loads slowly or your items are difficult to discover. This also implies that people can purchase their goods from an internet business in another country.

Dyn, a cloud-based Internet performance firm, polled over 1400 people in 11 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and published the results in a study. At least 85% of survey participants anticipate making at least as many or more purchases online this year as they did last year, with 56% intending to make more online purchases.

In Germany, over 100% of customers do at least a quarter of their purchases online, but in the Netherlands, this figure is somewhat lower, at approximately 90%. Nonetheless, 40% of all customers prefer to buy in stores, where they make almost 75% of their purchases. So, what is preventing customers from purchasing more online?

Online businesses should work hard to enhance website performance and alleviate consumer concerns about security because those are the primary concerns of today’s internet customers. For over two-thirds of those polled internationally, these two considerations prevent them from making a purchase. Only 17% of Dutch shoppers would return to a sluggish website. In Germany, on the other hand, 48% of shoppers polled said they would return to the same site.

Safer online services:

Spam (unsolicited e-mail), spyware, Web squatting, forgery, and intellectual property theft, as well as privacy infringement, bullying, denial of service, and illegal entry into business or personal computers and networks, are all examples of Internet security issues (and theft or manipulation of the information stored in them). Some of these issues have grown to be rather significant; spam is now spreading at an astonishing speed. An estimated 50% of all e-mails flowing on the Internet by the end of the year could be unsolicited. In terms of squandered IT resources or lost user productivity, the global cost might be as high as $20.5 billion. In order to combat this issue, an increasing number of nations are enacting anti-spam legislation.

Transactional confidence:

E-commerce is a revolutionary behavior that defies convention and society. Many basic assumptions about trust are being challenged by the shift to e-transactions. Confidence and trust are necessary for safe computerized trading. The issue of trust is more prevalent in the virtual world than in the physical world.

What is bad customer service?

Bad customer service occurs when a company fails to satisfy the expectations of its customers in the quality of services, turnaround time, or customer satisfaction. Inefficient support workers, a lack of real-time help, and an inability to comprehend your customers’ demands are all issues that have a detrimental impact on customer service.

Poor customer service not only ruins relationships with current customers, but also jeopardizes new prospects and, clearly, reduces your company’s bottom line. According to a study conducted by the Association for Psychological Science, we are more likely to remember negative experiences than positive ones, which means that one bad customer service story has the potential to undo all of our excellent work and outweigh any positive service received before or after.

Here are five examples of poor customer service:

– Not having a proper communication strategy

– Unhelpful and unfriendly chat

– Transferring customers from one agent to another agent

– Lack of empathy

– Making customers wait too long

A bad experience like this will lead the customers to drop negative reviews that can greatly affect your business.

How do bad customer services affect the ecommerce industry?

Here are the consequences of poor customer service:

Turnover rate: When you provide a wonderful experience, clients will return to you, however poor service will push them to churn. A single episode of poor customer service is a sufficient reason to transfer to a different firm.

Brand loyalty: Because loyal consumers are long-term, customer loyalty is a powerful indicator of a company’s long-term sustainability. Poor customer service reduces customer lifetime value (CLTV) because customers leave you after a bad customer service experience.

Customer service costs:Acquiring a new client might cost five times as much as keeping an old one. When customer service standards deteriorate, the number of touchpoints grows, resulting in a significant increase in customer service expenses.

How a bad review affects your business?

Consumers search online reviews first because they don’t want to waste their time or money on a company that isn’t up to standard given the diversity and global character of today’s industry.

The marketing firm Invesp put together a compendium of data on online reviews. Some of the significant figures are as follows

Everyone is checking into reviews: 90% of customers research a business online before going there.

Ratings are reliable: 88% of people trust online evaluations just as much as they do personal recommendations.

Positive reviews boost sales: Consumers are likely to spend 31% more at a business with outstanding recommendations.

Bad reviews lead to fewer leads: Negative reviews deter customers from doing business with a company 86% of the time.

Trust in reviews: Consumers estimate that favorable evaluations increase their trust in a company 72% more than negative reviews.

This demonstrates unequivocally that a business’s ability to expand and survive depends on its ability to monitor online reviews.

The mindset of Bangladeshi consumers

Discount vs Service? The rise and fall of Evaly The fastest growing Ecommerce in Bangladesh

On December 16, 2018, Mohammad Rassel, a former young banker with expertise in vigorously marketing the diaper brand Kidz in the market, launched the e-commerce website Evaly.

With free gifts for signing up as a customer and cashback of up to several hundred times, it didn’t take long for customers to choose Evaly’s offerings.

Unbelievably low prices on high-ticket items like appliances, gadgets, and motorbikes simply added to the number of buyers while bringing in more brands and retailers to help clear any inventory overnight. Everything up to that point seemed like a magnificent tale of e-commerce penetration in a highly promising area.

However, the business strategy that Evaly developed to scale up and compete with Alibaba’s Daraz caused concern among onlookers.

While bold e-commerce platforms throughout the world burn their money for subsidized growth, Evaly, with its small financial base and lack of outside investment, simply burned money from its customers. Millions of the general public paid for expensive things costing more than a few millions of BDT when Evaly used to advertise shipments in 45 days and 30–50% discounts. Millions of Evaly shoppers waiting for goods worth at least BDT311 crore and hundreds of vendors to whom the platform owes BDT206 crore. Because none of the investors came forward to help the company.

Better service is not only expected in the service sector but in the FMCG sector as well

Fast-moving consumer goods (hashtag#FMCG) are items that are high in demand, readily available, and reasonably priced. Processed food, cosmetics, drinks, stationery, over-the-counter medications, laundry and sanitation supplies, plastic goods, personal care items, and less-priced consumer electronics like smartphones and earphones are some examples of fast-moving consumer products.

At USD 4-5 million, or roughly 0.03% of the nation’s total grocery market and 3-4% of the country’s overall ecommerce industry, Bangladesh’s e-grocery market is considerably smaller. Being the first of its kind in Bangladesh, Chaldal earned a name for itself in the online grocery market. They began in 2013, essentially at a period when selling fresh was uncommon in the worldwide grocery scene. Instacart (USA) and Bigbasket (India) were the only two businesses offering it. With the growing market of FMCG, it is absolutely crucial to maintain the standard quality of these goods for a powerful profit margin.

Are the people well-trained in ecommerce?

Consumers:The inadequate digital literacy and education level of the bulk consumers is a significant barrier to progress. Although using an app or website to place an order or operate it doesn’t require a solid command of the English language, there is nevertheless an increasing concern for digital literacy. Outside of urban regions, it’s frequently a big problem, especially in less affluent or rural areas. In order to access and use information digitally and to benefit from various programs, websites, and social media platforms, people need to have the knowledge and abilities known as “digital literacy.”

Service providers:Finding the right people for the appropriate jobs is challenging, and it’s even harder to find someone with the entrepreneurial mindset required for a start-up. Finding this ideal balance is difficult, and much more difficult is finding someone with the requisite skill sets who is from the same business.

How are these platforms performing in Bangladesh?

 Some of these platforms have made significant investments in technology and human resource development rather than product discounts or subsidies in order to ensure customer happiness.

With a staggering 99.25% complaint handling rate, Pathao topped the list of domestic and international e-commerce enterprises. “We have continually invested in technology as well as in building a strong team to improve our services in the region. For every complaint raised, we follow a structured process where we first confirm the veracity of the complaint, gather relevant information from all parties, and then take appropriate action,” said Pathao President Fahim Ahmed.

With an 88.95% success rate in resolving customer concerns, hashtag#Chaldalalso topped the list of domestic companies. Additionally, it had made technology investments with an effort to grow the company through customer pleasure rather than product subsidies, particularly in the competitive perishable goods market. “Assuring customers of our service quality takes a lot of effort. We had to invest a huge amount in just the supply chain to ensure customer satisfaction.

While in an interview hashtag#Darazsaid, “We have an efficient issue resolution team dedicated to resolving customer complaints to give them an incredible experience in online shopping. Which in turn enriched customers’ experience and assisted us to resolve customer complaints swiftly. This, in turn, established Daraz as a reliable e-commerce organization.”

Government policies

The government released the long-awaited National Digital Commerce Policy in an effort to attract domestic investment.

–       To safeguard and support local investors, the new regulation prohibits foreign investors from owning more than 49% of any e-commerce business in Bangladesh.

–       In order to avoid fraud and safeguard customer rights, the regulation also required that the e-commerce organizations. Prominently display information about the products they sell online, such as the product’s quality and return policy.

–       To ensure that customers’ rights are properly safeguarded, e-commerce businesses will also need to sign agreements. With the items’ suppliers, delivery services, and payment gateways. This is an effort to make the supply chain visible.

All of the above measures have been implemented to ensure the long-term sustainability of the business and protect the rights of consumers.

By Ahmed Shoyeb Iqbal