Even as the countrywide lockdown continues to be in force in Bangladesh in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus cases in the country, online sales are said to have jumped significantly in April and are set to get a further impetus in the coming days ahead of the Eid as people will feel safer to get products delivered to their homes.
To tap this increase in demand, e-commerce sites and brands have been offering discounts on digital payments and a recent hike in digital payments indicates that more and more people are responding to such offers, claimed media reports even as according to the central bank’s data, online sales picked up in the middle of 2020 against the backdrop of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While July 2020 logged Taka 640 crore in transactions in e-commerce, the figure fell to Taka 406 crore in September, which again climbed up to Taka 663 crore in February this year and transactions in e-commerce in April were likely to be double that in the previous month, as per Mastercard’s Country Manager, Syed Mohammad Kamal even as according to reports data for March and April was not yet available.
E-commerce in Bangladesh had expanded for more than a year due to the coronavirus pandemic and many new entrepreneurs have joined and learnt how to do business online, reportedly, stated the Secretary of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB), Abdul Wahed Tomal while speaking to the media.
