Bangladesh’s largest online retail brands have nearly overcome obstacles in offering their consumers the products they need and are now taking steps to expand them as winter approaches.
Fayez Ahmed, a businessman living in Dhanmondi, trusted to buy groceries online to buy his daily wishes for the national closure. Although the closure has been lifted and the restrictions have been relaxed, Fayez still chooses to go online to make purchases.
As experts expect a imaginable resurgence of coronavirus infection in winter, Fayez expects online facilities to be well-stocked to deliver orders to his door on time.
“I don’t go to the market to avoid the crowds, and I probably wouldn’t do it for several days. So I count on online department stores. I had a lot of disorders with them closing. I hope the online department store will make arrangements in advance in case the stage deteriorates next winter,” Fayez said.
“[During closing], a product arrives long after I placed an order. I didn’t get a good enough service,” he added.
And this was the case when retail outlets suffered to deliver amid an avalanche of orders due to the boom in pandemic purchases.
The managers of those online stores expressed their shortcomings, noting that they may simply not keep up with the sudden accumulation of calls, largely due to the lack of staff and limited capacity of their servers.
This struggle, the store’s representatives said, also allowed them to equip themselves accordingly for such a boom.
The new coronavirus claimed the lives of more than a million international people after it first made its impression in Wuhan, China, in December last year.
In Bangladesh, the first known case in March and now the death toll exceeds 5,500, along with more than 381,000 reported cases of infection, according to government data.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also called on the government to prepare well, both financially and logistically, for winter through a talk at a recent ceremony.
In retrospect, Chaldal. com, the country’s main online destination for daily needs, has made innovations by expanding its stock and staff, and also plans to deliver abroad in Dhaka.
“In March, when the first case of coronavirus (here) was detected, we were receiving between 2,500 and 3,000 orders in line with the day. The number rose to 16,000 when the blockade began. Of course, disorders have arisen,” said Zia Ashraf, director of Consistent with Actions and founder of Chaldal. com.
“We have a greater ability to learn from the blocking experience. When we started, there was no one else in the online grocery business. But now many others have entered the ring. Others are gradually building their capabilities. “
Supershop Shwapno began its online foray into closure.
“Initially, we provide online from six retail outlets. As the epidemic intensified, we began to integrate more retail outlets. Online orders are expanding and we now have 32 retail outlets to serve our online consumers,” said Sabbir Hasan Nasir, CEO of Shwapno.
“All those disorders that we have all faced in the early stages of the epidemic, we have succeeded them in this new normality. We have more labor, more outlets and more generation infrastructure. “
Similarly, Shaheen Khan, general manager of supercommunication Meena Bazar and Meena Click, his online arm, spoke of adjustments imposed through virtual closure at the national level, such as the progression of greater and ordering over the phone. to a central call center to take control.
“In fact, the activity of online supermarkets was not so great before closing. We didn’t do it too seriously either. But now we’re in a position if the stage in the future, especially in winter, requires it,” Shaheen said.