Despite brick and mortar shops opening up, the country’s growing e-commerce sector saw sales rise by 40% with online sales booming throughout the holy month of Ramadan.
The e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), which has 1,693 e-commerce companies as registered members, reported a daily sales volume of around 350,000 at the very end of the last week of Ramadan, which averaged 250,000 prior to the start of the holy month.
“We usually see high growth in sales ahead of Eid and it was the same this time even with brick and mortar shops open,” e-CAB Vice-President Shahabuddin told Dhaka Tribune.
Since the very start of the Ramadan, businesses in the sector reported receiving an aggregate of 50,000 to 60,000 orders per day, which boomed further near Eid.
According to the association, the average basket value of each delivery was between Tk2,150 to Tk2,200, which increased to Tk2,500 during the Ramadan, explained the e-business leader.
Daraz Bangladesh even surpassed last year’s milestone with its Eid Shopping Fest campaign, receiving a massive response from customers around the nation with an average of 99,000 orders per day.
The organization achieved the target for the entire month within the first three weeks as the campaign was designed to help the customers purchase their desired products with lucrative offers, helping Daraz Bangladesh to generate 91.3% more revenue this April, which is almost double the amount generated last year.
“Even though Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted, from the last Eid campaign, we have noticed people are comfortable purchasing more online. The number of buyers using our app has increased by 33.5% from the same period of the year 2021,” Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Daraz Bangladesh Md Tajdin Hassan said.
The platform also registered 63.9% more daily active users (DAU) during this April in comparison to last year, and a 40.4% growth in order numbers.
Online grocery shopping also boomed
Chaldal, the largest online grocery shop in the country also surpassed last year’s milestones, crediting an increase in e-commerce adoption.
“You can safely assume 50% year-on-year growth for the sector. We recorded a 60% business growth surrounding Eid-ul-Fitr and the holy month of Ramadan,” CEO of Chaldal Waseem Alim said.
He further said that people have become more dependent on online purchases throughout the pandemic. Delivering bigger volumes of products pushed Chaldal’s sales growth.
"Our operations had to be revamped to keep up with the increasing volumes of online orders received surrounding Eid,” another Chaldal top brass said.
However, Waseem Alim pointed out that the sales growth was recorded despite the shortage of soybean oil supply. If that did not happen, the growth could have been more based on consumer demand.
“Last year was the first Eid experience for Green Grocery. But this year, we are really happy to share that we have received wonderful feedback from both individual consumers as well as corporate clients,” Co-founder and Director (Marketing and Customer Service) of the platform Noor-E-Saba told Dhaka Tribune.
“We are also seeing our number of orders increasing with time. Currently, we receive more than 100 orders per day where 25-30% are from new customers. During this Eid, we initiated a new service named Grocery As a Gift (GAG). We have received more than 1,000 orders under this service and served 15 corporate clients,” she further said.
Green Grocery is a D2C (Direct-to-consumer) grocery e-commerce business that started to initially serve the Metropolitan cities but is currently receiving orders from rural areas as well.
“The good thing is that people are now more accustomed to online purchases and it will be crucial to do everything possible in ensuring the sustenance of the growth,” Syed Almas Kabir, the former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis) said.
According to the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) research, Bangladesh’s e-commerce market will reach $3 billion by 2023.
The e-commerce market is worth roughly Tk22,000 crore and is expected to reach Tk30,000 crore towards the end of the year.
E-CAB Vice-President Shahabuddin pointed out that despite offline markets opening up, more and more people are shopping online and will continue to do so as trust in the sector has slowly returned following the intervention of the government and its structured policies.
