Pickaboo, the largest omnichannel e-commerce startup has built its strong position in the mobile phones and tech gadgets category, which is believed to be the largest vertical in ecommerce. Started in 2016, Pickaboo has become one of the trustworthy e-commerce platforms for tech consumers in Bangladesh. Although there have been rumors in 2019 that the company was going to stop their operation as the parent company Edison group did not want to invest more in Pickaboo. However, there were not any reliable sources for that rumor, but Pickboo did get external investment last year, hence they survived. Today, we will get to know the story of Pickaboo. Read F-commerce in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects According to Pickaboo, they claimed as themselves “the largest one-stop shopping destination in Bangladesh.” This e-commerce platform offers a wide range of products which includes household appliances to electronic items, cameras, the latest smartphones, accessories, health equipment, and more. Pickaboo offers the most efficient delivery service via their own logistics system so that the customers get prompt and hassle-free product delivery at their doorstep. The company works with local and international vendors along with 200 brands and serves all over Bangladesh. Nevertheless, the free return service from Pickaboo sets an example for Bangladesh’s e-commerce industry. They offer various payment systems, such as cash on delivery, card, online payment system, and bKash. Read  Key Challenges to Start E-Commerce Business in Bangladesh How Pickaboo became the dominant player in the mobile and gadget sector? Although Pickaboo has different product categories, apparently they were overly focused on a single category, which eventually worked in its favor. As a result, the company walked towards leading the market in the mobile and gadget sector. However, it faces competition from other top e-commerce players as mobile is the largest and most demanded category in e-commerce. But, among the competitors, Pickaboo is ahead as they constructed a strong position by using its domain expertise. Usually, successful e-commerce platforms are often taking aggressive steps with the longest collection of products. For example, Amazon started their business with one vertical and gradually added more products to their line. Now they decisively grabbed almost all the product lines in the world. However, Pickaboo stayed exclusively on one product vertical and will continue to focus on that which is mobile and gadgets. Read Product Shipping: Tips to find the perfect delivery partner for online business By focusing on one product vertical, a company can compete better and can go deeper. And this is what Pickaboo applying in their business. Normally, a startup is a resource-constrained entity. Therefore, if a business has a limited product, there is a good chance that it will become an expert on that. And ultimately this applies to Pickaboo as they have been focusing on mobile and gadgets since 2016. Here comes the 80/20 rule to support them. According to the 80/20 principle, 20% of the product brings 80% of the profit. Hence, concentrating on one element, instead of focusing on a broad range, brings success early. Pickaboo has been successful by applying this rule and has become a role model for the overall e-commerce industry in Bangladesh. Read Common Challenges faced by Startups in 2021 Declining stage to comeback Pickaboo had a declining phase in early 2019 when the parent company denied investing (according to a rumor/source). But the company returned to the track in mid-2019 as they received funding of $700k in the seed round. After that in late 2019, the company returned with a new website, new app, and new product in a completely different way. Further Pickaboo’s business-to-business and business-to-consumer website is underway too. According to Pickaboo official, it has so far been just an e-commerce platform. From now on the site will take shape in the marketplace. The new investments were used to emphasize customer service, product procurement, and building new technologies. Read:Best Business Ideas Amidst the Pandemic and New Normal According to Pickaboo’s CEO Morin Talukder, Pickaboo’s core strengths are customer service, genuine products, and fast delivery. Pickaboo is the only marketplace in the country that ensures the highest quality products as well as fast delivery. Delivery service is being launched on the same day in Chittagong. If customers choose the fast pick option when buying the product, the buyers will get the product on the same day and the normal delivery takes 2 to 3 days. Pickaboo was able to provide this service as it uses its delivery system without relying on any other courier service or delivery chain. Even though electronics and gadget items have been sold in Pickabu for so long, lifestyle products are added after the investment. All kinds of lifestyle products can be found in Pickabu. At the same time, a lot of new things will be added in the case of ordering products from the site. Further, if the business to consumer is launched, different merchants will be able to post information for selling their products on the site, the price will also be different. As a result, buyers can buy the lowest price. Read Seed Fund Raising for Startups: Things to Know About Started offline journey After dominating the online mobile and gadget market, Pickaboo began its offline store in February 2020. This time the domestic ecommerce site Pickabu.com also started offline. The company has launched online as well as offline shops for mobile phones and gadgets. Pickaboo plans to become the largest smartphone retailer online and offline where shoppers can shop with confidence. Pickabu.com is already a trusted place to buy mobile and electronic products online, that's why they expanded their business offline intending to provide the same service offline. Read Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch Through in 2021 Usually, ecommerce does not have any physical outlets. What Pickabu will sell online will also sell specialized products offline. Mobile and gadget retail shops will be offline. Currently, they have 7 offline stores in Dhaka and Chittagong, though, they had a goal to launch more than 30 offline shops in the country's divisional and major district towns. Buyers will be able to obtain the best customer satisfaction by purchasing products from these stores. Final thoughts According to Pickaboo, they will continue their expansion in the mobile and gadgets category. The company has included new features which include Tempt, Buy now pay later, fast pick, club points, official 12 months warranty, exchange program, and more. In the coming days, they aim to continue to innovate vertically and keep dominating the mobile and gadgets industry. Read E-commerce Scams: Ways to Protect Your Investment from Online Frauds

The pandemic has brought several noticeable changes in our day-to-day life. Billions of people around the world stayed in home-quarantine during the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown period. In this period people developed many new habits and/or changed their lifestyles. This change is especially visible in the purchasing trend of the people. The convenience of the system soon caught up and it is adding value for both the customer and the retailers. But it has also opened the door for e-commerce fraud. Let’s dig into this issue and learn some safety tips against e-commerce scams. What Is E-commerce Fraud?  E-commerce fraud is in the process of eluding the customers or the retailers. A customer might order a certain product and receive a duplicate copy or a damaged product. There are reports of no product delivery at all after payment. Simply put, e-commerce fraud is the process where multiple discrepancies occur either through the customer, the retailer, or the platform itself.  The pandemic accelerated the e-commerce business platforms. With that, several scams rose too.  Read Investment: What Factors to Consider before Investing Money? There are several common scam types when it comes to e-commerce platforms. All of them affect retailers, e-commerce platforms as well as the customer. The nature and intricacies of these frauds make them almost impossible to recognize by the untrained eyes. However, all of these scams follow certain patterns which can be prevented with effective steps.  Ways To Avoid E-commerce Scam  These ways are specific to each of the e-commerce platforms, the retailers, and the customer. Since all three of the stakeholders in the e-commerce ecosystem face different forms of scams.  Conducting Site Security Audits  Sitewide audits can help to pinpoint the issues regarding scams. The thing about online scams is that they tend to exploit a small loophole within the system. So effective measures to secure any loophole can go a long way to prevent scams.  Read F-commerce in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects The scam itself occurs in a few different ways. Site security, dashboard, and admin access, payment channel access are a few of them. Regularly updating them and checking for malware can help to effectively protect against attackers.  Check For PCI Compliance  PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. The PCI standard requires e-commerce platforms to maintain certain conditions to ensure transaction transparency. PCI standard helps to effectively monitor the card transactions. It also checks for fraudulent payments and ensures complete security in the payment gateway.  Check For Suspicious Activities  Shoplifting is a common thing. Not just in physical stores but in e-commerce platforms as well. This type of fraud is carried out by false billing addresses or fraudulent payments. Just like physical stores, a customer’s activities can be traced to ensure there is no fraud. Many e-commerce sites appoint fraud experts to check for any kind of suspicious activity in the ordering process. Some services ensure the legitimacy of the billing address which is detailed in the next point.  Read Key Challenges to Start E-Commerce Business in Bangladesh

Many people keep pets as a hobby, and this pet once became the companion of all time. Although, this scenario might be common in first-world countries. Even a few years ago, rearing a pet was more like a luxury and troublesome hobby in Bangladesh. The main reason was the wide unavailability of pet food. However, over the last few years, the situation has improved. Having a pet is not a luxury anymore, and many people are buying and adopting pets. Furthermore, buying pet foods is not troublesome at all due to Chaldal.com's vertical product line Pet Care. Dogs and cats are on the list of many people's favorites in Bangladesh as pets. But, it was difficult to find proper nutritious foods for the pets; many people refrained from keeping dogs and cats at home. So, for the pet owner's convenience, online grocery shopping site Chaldal.com has created a special Pet Care category for dogs' and cats' food. From where customers get SmartHeart, Whiskas, Me o, Lara, Drools Fiskis, Mio, Delico, Purina, etc., for cats and Kennel, Bonacibo, Drools, SmartHeart, Maxi, Goodies, etc. for dogs. Let's get to know more details about Chaldal Pet Care. Read ShopUp Raised $75 million, Largest Series B Funding for a B2B E-Commerce Platform in South Asia What is Chaldal Pet Care? Pet Care is a new product line from Bangladesh's largest online grocery shop Chaldal.com. The Pet Care industry has experienced a rise in the last few years. Chaldal’s Pet Care service came into action around 2014. When the Chaldal saw a growing demand for pet food as well as pet care items, they started the journey. Over the last few years, this product line has seen excellent growth. And currently, Per Care is one of the largest categories on Chaldal. The company started this service with dog food initially and now sells pet foods alongside the accessories for dogs, cats, rabbits, and fish. Since the demand for pet foods is increasing, the company works hard to ensure the best quality product from authentic suppliers and sources. Nevertheless, they also ensure the best possible prices for pet owners. Read Vroom App: End-to-End Platform for Car, Automobile Related Services in Bangladesh Chaldal treats ‘Pet Care’ as a regular food category. So, it works as a demand pet food and products delivery service. The good thing is that anyone from all four markets- Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chittagong, and Jashore can access the pet food. How does Pet Care source its products? When Chaldal started the pet food business back in 2014, they struggled a lot to find the best quality product. As they were sourcing from the third party, the margin was low. Furthermore, the unavailability of the products was another concern. But, in the last few years, they have improved significantly. They work closely with pet care products, pet food suppliers, and merchants in Bangladesh. They have built a strong supply chain. Further, they also work directly with the importers with a standard payment deal and buy upfront. Needless to say, Pet Care sources high-quality products and foods from reliable sources and then brings them to the warehouse to ensure quality and proper packaging. Read ToguMogu: One Stop Solution for Bangladeshi Parents The evolution of Pet Care In the early days, Chaldal had seen a preview of the pet products prospect. The company realized that pet care products and foods would lead them to acquire a new market. But, the company took this new market seriously in 2016, and they decided to give importance to human products. The company made a small team and a strategy for the business development. The team contacted the vendors directly and made sure of the consistent availability of the products. Further, the company also emphasizes marketing and managing. As the company learned about the market, they managed the inventory accordingly. And finally, they have seen some excellent results. Chaldal's Pet Care products grew significantly in 2016. After that, in 2017, they became the market leader in the online pet food business. However, they are yet to beat the largest offline pet care market, Kataban. Read Key Challenges to Start E-Commerce Business in Bangladesh After seeing the prospect, the company set up a proper supply chain as well as a mechanism to manage the customers. Now the Pet Care category in Chaldal.com has everything related to pet care which includes food, toys, accessories, and more. Challenges While Pet Care aims to offer uninterrupted supplies, it faces some supply chain-related challenges. For example, sometimes the importers for the high demand products stop the operation or stop importing. Further, if an importer ends the agreement, the company faces a problem. The shortage of supply has become a consistent challenge for the company during this coronavirus pandemic. It is because of the border closure and delay in international shipping. Hence, the company is facing issues to ensure the availability of popular products. Read Product Shipping: Tips to find the perfect delivery partner for online business But they try to recover the issue by offering alternatives. However, they are working to solve those challenges. The future Having a pet has been becoming a norm in Bangladesh, especially in the posh area of the country. In the old days, people used to have local cats as a pet, which didn't need much attention. However, a certain social class now adopts or buys foreign breeds, and special care is needed for them. And this is on the rise. Hence, pet foods and products will see a steady rise in Bangladesh. Currently, the pet market is worth BDT 5 crore and growing. Nowadays, pet owners in Bangladesh treat their pets lavishly. Hence, the demand for different pet products will increase in the coming years. So, Chaldal's Pet Care is a bright prospect. However, the growth of the market is lucrative, and many entrepreneurs have already emerged in the past few years. But, Chaldal doesn't seem to pay much attention to the competitors as they are working hard to improve the service along with the quality. Read 7 Local Startups Get Tk 150m Funds from Startup Bangladesh Limited

Starting a small business in a country like Bangladesh can be a difficult task. Traveling around the globe to sourcing wholesale products, arguing with shopkeepers over prices, stockpiling products, looking for customers' homes in the city's alleys for delivery, and much more! Now, if you are told that you can get all the solutions from online business sourcing to delivery without any investment by downloading a free app on the phone! Isn't that cool? More than 6 lakh entrepreneurs have already succeeded in their online business using a single platform. There is a platform where you can get a huge collection of more than 1 lakh wholesale products spread across the country sitting at home! ShopUp has accomplished this impossible task. Now, they have raised $75 Million in new funding to reach more people in Bangladesh as well as abroad. Read Vroom App: End-to-End Platform for Car, Automobile Related Services in Bangladesh What is ShopUp? ShopUp works toward bringing different small and medium traders under one roof. In addition, ShopUp connects the manufacturer with the wholesaler, further, the wholesalers are connected with the retailer and the retailer with the buyer. ShopUp offers a variety of online business services, including promotion of products, timely delivery of products, and high-quality packaging. Besides the website, the platform also has three apps in the Google Play Store. Afeef Zaman, Siffat Sarwar, and Ataur Rahim Chowdhury launched the ShopUp in February 2016 with the aim of turning the country's potential entrepreneurs, especially women, into successful entrepreneurs by using various services of Facebook and information technology. Read ToguMogu: One Stop Solution for Bangladeshi Parents Before that, Ataur Rahim Chowdhury, who has passed Computer Science and Engineering from East-West University, started the smashboard, which used to work with query management through social media. During that time Ataur came to know about the various problems of product delivery services of e-commerce companies in Bangladesh. He discussed the matter with his friends Afeef Zaman and Siffat Sarwar, who graduated from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University. All three agreed that the solution to the delivery problem would change the face of Bangladesh's e-commerce business. Soon after, they started ShopUp in a small office in Lake Circus, Kalabagan. In the beginning, they used to provide service on managing Facebook pages as well as order and manage products. Later, they added the merchant delivery service. Gradually ShopUp also started giving loans to entrepreneurs for business development. Later, the company also launched a mobile app. That's how today's ShopUp was started. Read 7 Local Startups Get Tk 150m Funds from Startup Bangladesh Limited How ShopUp works? ShopUp works through a few simple steps, but you will need to put some effort into it. However, you can find out whether the product has been delivered or not from the ShopUp app, sitting at home. ShopUp will do all the work for you, which can make your business successful easily and hassle-free. Firstly, you will need to install the app on your phone. Register in a few easy steps and get more than lakhs of wholesale products for boys and girls, including fashionable dresses, cosmetics, gazettes, and accessories. Download pictures of your favorite products and share them on your business page or do online marketing. When the customer places an order, you will need to place the order in the app and enter the delivery address. Fill out the delivery details, selling price, and other relevant information. You can find out the real-time updates and payment details of delivery through the app. Profits on full-week sales will go directly to your bKash account next week. Read Digital Healthcare Startups in Bangladesh: An Overview ShopUp services ShopUp offers different types of services to make the business easier. Services include delivery, shop management, and ShopUp assist. Own delivery service Delivering products on time to buyers is a challenge for any entrepreneur. That is why ShopUp has its own delivery service to provide entrepreneurs the opportunity to deliver products all over the country quickly. Shop management services Entrepreneurs have to update their Facebook pages regularly to make their products attractive to buyers. But everyone cannot do that on their own. Hence, ShopUp has shop management services to solve the problem. The service provides the opportunity to create a business-friendly page on Facebook as well as add up-to-date information. Read An Overview of Shuttle: A Promising Mass Transit Startup in Bangladesh Shop Assist There is no substitute for product promotion to reach online business buyers. But due to a lack of direction, many people cannot promote the product properly. Many also annoy the buyers by promoting the same product over and over, which later becomes a threat to the business. ShopUp Assist can give a solution to that. Through the service, an entrepreneur can post product promotion or page promotion on Facebook. Even if you need a credit card for that, ShopUp offers the opportunity to pay through a bKash account. To accelerate the business, ShopUp has three additional services, Mokam, REDX, and Baki. ShopUp delivers daily necessities to the grocery store in the neighborhood in 24 hours through the B2B business app Moka. For this, the startup has entered into agreements with various product manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. Read Top 10 Co-working Spaces in Dhaka Apart from that, the products are delivered to the traders through REDX. Launched last year, RedX is currently serving 493 Upazilas. And small traders can buy products on credit through the Baki service. How did they start raising investment? Over the last 4 years, ShopUp raised investments in several steps. Their investment came from an Angel round in 2017, and they raised $120k. Next, the company proceeded to the seed round in 2018 and received $1.6 million funding from Omidyar Network, USA. After that, ShopUp participated in three more seed rounds in 2019 and raised $4.2 million in total. Their second largest investment came in October 2020 from Flourish Ventures, Sequoia Capital India through Series A, and the company received $22.5 million. Finally, ShopUp raised $75 million last week from the Series B round. Read Angel Investment 101: Is It the Right Track for Your Startup? How did ShopUp raise $75 million from Bangladesh? Basically, when a new venture shows good results in the market with initial capital, they become eligible for Series A investment. After that, they can proceed to Series B investment. ShopUp has proved its ability through footprint in all 64 districts in Bangladesh and Bengaluru, India. As a result, they received $75 million from Series B financing led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures. The investment also includes, from "Proses- the investment arm of Naspers, Pierre Omidyar's family office, as well as existing investors Sequoia Capital India, VEON Ventures, and Flourish Ventures." As a Series B, it is the largest investment in any startup based in South Asia. Read The 7 Most Promising Tech Startups in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made significant development on the path of digitalization in recent years. However, the internet penetration rate is still low compared to the developed countries. As a result, in Bangladesh, an eCommerce business faces a lot of challenges even before its inception. In addition to internet access, other bureaucratic and resource-related challenges are a constant headache for many eCommerce startups. Let's take a deeper look at them. The state of eCommerce in Bangladesh Up until 2006, the state of eCommerce in Bangladesh was almost non-existent. The handful of eCommerce sites were exclusively used by the upper-class people with businesses being strictly niche-based. With rapid digitization, the number of eCommerce sites saw a rapid jump of over 70% in 2007, and the growth trajectory has been upward ever since.   At present, there are about 2000 independent eCommerce sites in the country with another 50000 being F-commerce based. Combinedly they are delivering over 30000 products every day. However, the majority of the transaction is limited to Dhaka, Chittagong, and Gazipur only. The limitation is seen in the transactional aspect as well. There are about 5 million debit cards and 1 million credit cards in circulation. Out of these only, 1% of the people use them for POS transactions. Rest is limited to ATM usage only. This prompts the issue of lack of online transactions, which is one of the key pillars of the eCommerce ecosystem. Read:Product Shipping: Tips to find the perfect delivery partner for online business Key challenges of eCommerce platforms in Bangladesh Product Sourcing Leading international e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Rakuten are not available in Bangladesh. Therefore, there is the challenge of product sourcing. Depending on the customer choice, many eCommerce platforms resort to sourcing products through imports. The entire process and customs together increase the price of the product significantly. As a result, there is a lack of demand in the first place. Local dropshipping can be a good option in this regard. However, maintaining product quality and brand reputation becomes a significant challenge with dropshipping. Read:Common Challenges faced by Startups in 2021 Finding the right customer base The first and foremost issue faced by any eCommerce startup is choosing the niche. It is almost impossible to incorporate everything under a single domain unless you are one of the big players. That being said, there is also a lack of market data. What kind of product are customers interested to buy online? What products sell more? And which niche has the largest online transacting customer base? All of these essential data aren’t readily available. While on average, people under 30 prefer to shop online, that also presents the unique challenge of tailoring the product to their needs. Categorizing a customer base while the majority of the country is interested in offline shopping is a key challenge. Read:Seed Fund Raising for Startups: Things to Know About Low conversion rate One of the positive aspects of eCommerce is that there is no geographical boundary to your customer base. Anybody from anywhere can view your products and if you have an international shipping option can even become a customer. On average a successful eCommerce looks at about 1% to 2% conversion rate of the total hits on a product. However, it's not even 0.2% in the case of Bangladesh. The dire situation can be attributed to a lack of potential lead generation and poor conversion measures. While the local target market itself is small, there is also a general disinterest in buying products online. As a result, eCommerce sites are failing to generate and convert leads.

Employees in India will see bigger pay rises next fiscal year as firms expect to emerge from lockdowns and the supply of applicants lags demand, according to recruiters. Paychecks could rise about 8 per cent in the financial year starting April 2022, especially if authorities avert a third wave of the virus, according to Michael Page and Aon Plc. That's higher than the 6-8 per cent surveys predicted for the current year. India has historically always reported Asia's highest increases - and is expected to do so for at least the next two years - but the magnitude has been declining in recent years after double-digit inflation earlier in the decade eased. Read:Pandemic leaves Indians mired in massive medical debts Consumer prices have risen again during the pandemic, but have been mainly attributed to short-term supply issues. Not enough of qualified The forecasts are focused on the organized labor sector, which accounts for less than 20 per cent of the workforce. Much of the informal labor isn't captured in surveys. The low availability of qualified applicants for the organized sector will also prop up salaries, according to Roopank Chaudhary, chief commercial officer for human capital solutions at India and South Asia at Aon. Read: India's Oxygen Express arrives in Bangladesh "India's number have always been pushed up not necessarily by GDP or inflation - there is no perfect correlation there - but largely because of the fact that there is a demand-supply mismatch of talent," he said. The e-commerce, pharmaceutical, information technology and financial services sectors are predicted to offer relatively larger salary hikes in India, while retail, aerospace, hotels and hospitality will be laggards.

We live in an age of tech innovation where every day something new is being invented or introduced. Unlike most household items, electronic items tend to become outdated quite easily, and with that comes the need to replace them. But it’s often difficult to sell the used electronics at a fair price. Sometimes the seller is scammed as well. However, in retrospect, there are several sites where you can easily sell your used electronics without much hassle. Let’s look at the 5 best sites to sell used electronics in Bangladesh. Top Bangladeshi platforms to sell your used electronics SWAP SWAP is one of the most revolutionizing platforms for selling electronic goods online. SWAP allows you to sell your product easily at the best possible rate in the market. Instead of wasting time through haggling with the customers, you can sell your product smartly via SWAP. Read The SWAP story of Bangladesh's first reCommerce startup The company was founded in 2020 amid the pandemic. The reputation of SWAP is increasing day by day for its exceptional service and innovative model. The best aspect of SWAP platform is its exceptional security features. SWAP easily allows you to maintain anonymity and hold direct transactions with the platform itself. This secured platform focuses on electronics and automobile related products for the time being. Therefore, SWAP is one of the best places to sale your used electronic gadgets. Read 8 Mistakes to Avoid in a New Ecommerce Startup in Bangladesh in 2021 Bikroy.com Bikroy.com is one of the oldest buying and selling marketplace of Bangladesh. This platform was founded in 2012. Owned by a Swedish company called Saltside Technologies, the website has steadily built its customer base through a secure C2C platform. bikroy.com has been organized with more than 80 product-categories for selling different types of goods. Not to mention, this is an exclusive marketplace for buying and selling second-hand goods. To sell any item, you will be required to sign up with the platform as a user. During the sign up process, you have to provide contact details. After verification, the system will allow you to post a sell order along with your contact and expected price. Read: Renowned online payment gateways in Bangladesh for domestic, international transactions Moreover, bikroy.com offers an option of taking membership that comes with its own unique perks. For instance, you can have a separate verified page of your own with several advertisement opportunities. The advertisements come in different packages and help to highlight your product precisely. Overall, bikroy.com is an amazing marketplace to sell your electronic items safely and at a good rate. Cellbazaar.com Cellbazar was one of the first e-commerce platforms in Bangladesh. The platform was founded by Kamal Quadir, a serial tech entrepreneur who also introduced mobile banking in Bangladesh through bKash. The platform is unique considering that it was one of the first of its kind in Bangladesh. In addition to being a C2C platform, Cellbazar also offers B2C transactions. The site is divided into different categories and you can easily choose the electronics category from the list. Besides being available in all the metropolitan areas of Bangladesh, Cellbazaar is also offering its service in all the divisional cities. Read Visa’s Fintech Initiative for Bangladesh: New Opportunities for Start-ups? The sign-up process is somewhat similar to that of bikroy.com. You also get the chance to promote your product through advertisement. They have different plans for direct clients as well as businesses. Cellbazar’s website is also compatible with all the leading payment gateways of Bangladesh. Therefore, transactions are usually secured and hassle-free. Clickbd Another well-known e-commerce platform of Bangladesh is clickbd. Often hailed as the first e-commerce platform of Bangladesh, the site popularized the concept of classified advertisements in Bangladesh. In its initial days back in 2005, the company was solely dependent on classified ads, and in 2011, they launched their website. However, over time the company has been able to grab a significant market share and is now one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the country.  Read 20 Most Promising Education Start-Ups in Bangladesh In addition to having classified ads, Clickbd mainly focuses on electronics and gadgets. The site has different classifications for different types of electronics items. You can choose an appropriate category based on the type of product you are trying to sell. The signing up process of Clickbd is super easy as the system will guide you through the entire process. We may found the website to be quite intuitive. This site provides options to modify and promote the ads. By virtue of its good traffic volume, this platform can be considered as one of the best platforms to sell your used electronics products. Read Top 7 Truck Rental Apps in Bangladesh Fastbikri.com The last marketplace on our list is Fastbikri. Founded in 2017, this platform has acquired its position among the largest marketplaces for classified ads in Bangladesh. Interestingly, Fastbikri has a separate segment for electronics where you can easily sell your product. One of the common features of any online marketplace is that the platform tends to charge a percentage from the sales. Sometimes, the marketplaces offer special ads schemes for displaying products on the trending page. If you want to avoid this process go for fastbikri. Read Arogga: The Bangladeshi Medicine Delivery Startup Which Raised $200k This website came around with a unique concept and provided a platform where clients can really sell their products without any charges. The policy of the site is simple. It aims to provide a platform where people can buy and sell products easily without facing any hassle or monetary inflictions. The sign-up process is pretty intuitive and you can easily sell any goods here. Read Mango Mania: The Fastest on Demand Mango Delivery Network by Chaldal.com Bottom Line The concept of building C2C platforms to sell used goods is not new in Bangladesh. As the number of online marketplaces has increased, the options for selling products have extended too. You can consider our discussed platforms to sell your used electronics products through safe and secure transactions. However, risks are often associated while doing business transactions with a third party and/or exposure of personal information. So, it behooves upon you to review the associated rules properly before choosing any platform to sell products. Read Truck Lagbe: Story of a Successful Digital Trucking Startup in Bangladesh

The Mango is the king of fruits. It is difficult to find people who do not like to eat mango. Not only is it incomparable in taste and smell, but both ripe and raw mangoes have many nutritional properties. But many people face confusion while buying mango from the store, as it is difficult to know the mango varieties. Also, buying from the store is time-consuming and risky, especially during this covid-19 pandemic. Besides, the controversy about chemically modified mangoes is there too. With these in mind, the e-commerce site chaldal.com has started a unique mango delivery service called Mango Mania. Here we will give you an in-depth idea of Mango Mania and the current situation of Bangladesh’s Mango business. Mango Business in Bangladesh According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the country produces about 12 lakh tons of mangoes a year. Further, this production is increasing every year. M Asaduzzaman, a former research director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), said the mango production has increased due to the increased demand. Besides, the health awareness among the people also increased at the same time as their increased purchasing power. Also read: Mango desserts: Some mouthwatering recipes for trying at home Mango business is nothing new in the context of Bangladesh. However, before the advent of digital media, a mango seller had to collect mangoes from the orchard and sell them to distant warehouse keepers. In most cases, sellers do not receive a fair price. Again, the money would have been left for many days, and many times sellers could not even withdraw the money. However, the current picture of mango sales is very different. The use of the internet and social media has opened the door to a new possibility. Many are now creating pages on social media and reaching out directly to buyers through e-commerce. And since there are no middlemen, sellers are getting better prices through digital and are able to sell in cash. Read Visa’s Fintech Initiative for Bangladesh: New Opportunities for Start-ups? Chaldal’s Business Structure Chaldal.com is an online shop for home food items, health and beauty products, but it is mainly popular for grocery items. Since we don’t get much time to do grocery shopping every day. At Chaldal.com, you can buy products like rice, lentils, curry, vegetables, fish, meat, frozen food, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, baby cosmetics, stationery, and all kinds of daily necessities. Their main goal is to save their customer’s valuable time. That’s why they deliver the necessities to their customers as quickly as possible at their doorsteps every day. The world-famous magazine Forbes selected the top 10 startups among the top 500 new ventures in the world in 2019. Chaldal was at number 9 in the only top 10 from Bangladesh. Using digital technology, Chaldal.com is delivering daily necessities to more than 6 lakh customers in more than 230 areas of the country, including Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chittagong and Jessore, at a delivery charge of just Tk 9. And more than 2500 employees of Chaldal.com are doing this task very efficiently and regularly. Read Arogga: The Bangladeshi Medicine Delivery Startup Which Raised $200k Mango Mania by Chaldal Mango Mania is an initiative by e-commerce chaldal.com. It is basically an on-demand 1-hour mango delivery service. It is available in all four areas Chaldal operates in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj and Jessore. The service was launched in 2019 for a test purpose but has seen significant growth this year. The company claimed it as one of the biggest on-demand mango delivery networks. Chaldal currently delivers tens of tons of mangoes per day. This season it has already delivered over 450 tons so far. Read The SWAP story of Bangladesh's first reCommerce startup How does Mango Mania Work? The procedure is very simple; Chaldal has a contract with mango producers across the country to find out the chemical-free and high-quality mangoes from the garden. After sourcing, the mangoes then arrive at Chaldal’s vegetable network to check the quality and do the packaging. After that, the packages are sent to 25 warehouses within the four-coverage area. Each package comes in 3 Kg, and the price starts from BDT 179 per package. Customers can order as many packages as they want, which depends on availability. After ordering, the customer will get delivered within one hour at their doorsteps. Read 20 Most Promising Education Start-Ups in Bangladesh Packaging and Returning Policy For the packaging, Chaldal uses an environment-friendly brown paper box hooked with carrying ropes. The packaging ensures that the mangoes won’t get damaged. However, if you still get the damaged and low-quality products delivered, they offer a no-questions-asked return policy. Which means you can return your product. Through this customer-friendly returning policy, customers can get a replacement for any partial or full damaged products or even if the quality is compromised. However, the returning process is simple. The customer can simply contact Chaldal through customer service or Facebook and file a complaint. Usually, the company sends a new fresh box on the same day or sometimes the next day. Further, they also provide an equivalent refund if you want.   Read Top 7 Truck Rental Apps in Bangladesh Availability of the Service The stock is available almost all day. But sometimes, the company may run low on stock for a few hours as stocking constantly is not an easy task. Moreover, sometimes they end up with overstock and face some damages too. But Chaldal makes sure that the customer gets the delivery on time. Relationship with the Supplier As Chaldal directly works with the garden owners, the company maintains a good relationship to get the supply the whole season. However, Chaldal recently started a bidding system for the supplier when 20-25 garden owners attend the bids every day with their stock. Nevertheless, the company works hard to make sure that the gardeners get the best possible price for supplying the best quality product. Final Words Every day 8-9 thousand customers are buying mangoes from Chaldal.com. The taste, smell and meaning of getting the best mango will no longer be limited to any particular area. Anyone who orders from Chaldal online can buy the best, juicy and chemical-free mangoes of Chapainawabganj selected from the garden. Read Top 5 Mobile Apps for Farmers in Bangladesh

A recent study showed that almost 40% of the eCommerce transactions in the world happen through Amazon and more than half of all the startups in any category fail. The truth is, it's never easy to run a successful eCommerce startup considering the risk involved. Amazon doesn’t operate in Bangladesh and even though there are successful eCommerce sites in town so it’s possible here.  In this article, we will look at some of the beginner's mistakes that one should avoid in new eCommerce platforms. Not getting things Down to a Niche Unless you have an angel investor to back you till it reaches a break-even point, it’s almost impossible to succeed with a broad range of products. Narrowing it down to a specific niche product/consumer group is critical. Broadening the niche requires higher volume of communication to the client base which is never easy. It means one is competing with the existing and often established market players. The best course would be to focus on a specific niche to build customer loyalty as well as brand image. Also read: Potential of e-commerce hemmed in by bottlenecks Poor UI/UX design and Navigation Before assessing the product of the platform, a client first interacts with the website itself. if the design of the website is not of quality and the navigation complicated, visitors would be discouraged to be there. The best thing is to hire a professional web developer to ensure a quality, responsive and sales facilitating site. Lack of Product Research Let's say you are passionate about skiing. You love everything about skiing and would like to sell skiing products on your website. However, given the climate of Bangladesh, it is pointless to sell skiing materials as there is virtually no demand for snow gears. A lack of demand means your product won't sell, no matter how good it might be. So it's better to conduct proper market research on your niche before listing products on your website. Understand what the customer wants and then act on it. Read Visa’s Fintech Initiative for Bangladesh: New Opportunities for Start-ups? No Marketing Strategy An eCommerce platform isn’t like a normal business where you open an offline shop and wait for customers to arrive. You need to promote your platform so that people get to know about it and the product. One problem with eCommerce startups is that they focus on the product and the platform, but not enough on the marketing strategy. You need to create a concrete marketing strategy to attract customers and convert them to sales. Undercutting or Overdoing The key to a successful eCommerce platform is its simplicity. As long as a user feels at home on your platform, they will end up making purchases. But keeping things simple doesn’t mean you will underserve your customer. This might often happen with a lack of product description or poor product photography as well as a lack of customer engagement mechanism. There are also instances of overdoing with too much information that confuses the customer or overselling a product. Focus should be to create an amicable environment for the customers. Read The SWAP story of Bangladesh's first reCommerce startup Failing to Add Value If your business strategy only revolves around selling products and not creating value for your customer base, there's a high chance that you won't be able to retain these customers, ultimately depleting your business potential. Focus on personal interactions and relations with the customers to better understand what they require and sell products that will bring value for them. Failing Back-Up Product Claims Your product is only as good as its reviews. You can make bold claims on your platform regarding a certain product but if it's not backed up by sufficient reviews, it's not much good. You should incentivize your customers to write reviews on the platform to make the purchasing process easier for the next customer. A unified review scale across product denominations will help to better certify your platform and increase its reliability. Read Top 10 Co-working Spaces in Dhaka Not Defining Correct Metrics A common mistake of beginners in the eCommerce platform is that they may tend to look at the wrong metrics to define the success of the platform. For example, an eCommerce platform might exclusively focus on driving more and more traffic to the platform but that isn’t a success unless the traffic is converted to sales. The best way would be to reduce acquisition costs and convert the sales to profit. Bottom Line As a startup eCommerce platform, the margin of error is very small. You need to make sure everything that you do, aligns with the overall business goal of the startup. It's very easy to make these rookie mistakes. Make sure that you follow the best practices to ensure the success of your eCommerce platform. Read 20 Most Promising Education Start-Ups in Bangladesh

The pandemic has brought a drastic change in our lifestyle. Whether it's wearing a mask or maintaining social distance, we have adopted many things that weren’t a common practice before. The change is seen in our shopping habits as well and baby care products being an essential need for many households, it was a matter of time before people shifted to e-commerce platforms. Countless e-commerce sites sell baby products. But how do you know which ones are reliable? In this article, we will take a look at the 8 best Bangladeshi e-commerce sites to find baby products in 2021. Some Popular Bangladeshi eCommerce Sites to Find Kids and Baby Products in 2021 Baby Care Babycare.com is one of the premier baby product shops in Bangladesh. The e-commerce platform was founded back in 2012 when there were hardly any e-commerce sites in the country. However, over the years, the company built its trust and customer base and has been recognized as a PLC in 2018. You can find all sorts of baby products on their site. The site is well categorized and you can navigate as per your requirements. The products section has categories for toys, food, diapers, dress, skincare, etc.  there is also a separate mother’s care section and fresh fruits section which is pretty handy as well. Read Some Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh in Diverse Sectors Baby Shoppers Another pioneering e-commerce site for baby products is babyshoppers.com.bd. Baby shops have a wide range of products to completely ensure the overall care of your baby. The company was founded with the motto that every child is special. Over the years, baby shoppers have established themselves as the one-stop solution for all your baby care needs. Their website is very intuitive and categories are also detailed. You will find everything related to baby care, some you didn’t know you needed even. They have a range of delivery options inside and outside Dhaka that you can avail of. BD Baby Mart BD Baby Mart has been a reputable baby care name for two reasons – their on-time delivery and the range internationally. The company boasts of working with over 100 foreign brands to source its products. So naturally, you will be able to get the best for your baby without worry. The pricing of the site is also reasonable, nothing that will break your bank. The site is also extensively categorized and you can avail of the live chat feature to get a better understanding of a product. they provide cash on delivery inside Dhaka and full or partial payment for products delivered outside Dhaka. Read Top Bookstore Cafés in Dhaka: 6 Places Bringing Back the Joy of Reading