The E-commerce Association of Bangladesh (ECAB) stated at a news conference that the country’s e-commerce sector has suffered losses of more than Taka 1700 crore as a result of the recent unrest and the current internet connectivity issue that has persisted for the past 13 days.
At the press conference held by the association at its Banani office, ECAB President Shomi Kaiser demanded that easy terms be applied to credit facilities up to a minimum amount for e-commerce and f-commerce entrepreneurs who are losing their business. She also requested for Government assistance to help them recover from the extensive damage caused by the disruption of internet services and other issues.
According to her, there are currently over 5 lakh F-Commerce entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, and at least 2 million people are employed in this industry, including many lakhs of e-commerce workers, suppliers, and related companies. Every day, about 50,000 delivery service employees in the nation assist over 8 lakh families. She stated that the growth rate of this service is 25 per cent annually. The e-commerce industry has enormous potential, albeit being in its infancy.
Bangladesh won’t be an exception to its expanded global distribution. The recent unforeseen circumstances, mostly caused by the obstruction of multiple routes, made it impossible to deliver items smoothly. Afterwards, an internet outage led to the entire cessation of online operations.
In the first 10 days, the sector faced loss of nearly Taka 1400 crore.
F-commerce entrepreneurs have contributed a significant portion of this, totalling at least Taka 600 crore. It can be at least Taka 100 crore for logistics in e-commerce, and perhaps Taka 300 crore for e-tourism. If an entrepreneur has a bank loan, the loan amount and installments must be repaid over a minimum of six months. They operate on Facebook as small business owners, and as a result, their company has suffered greatly.
She also talked about developing a Facebook substitute platform.
