Rural producers can now reach buyers online
Logistics service provider Paperfly in partnership with a2i and the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) yesterday launched Seller One, a service enabling semi-urban or rural producers to sell products directly to customers online.
The campaign will help e-commerce businesses in Bangladesh boost sellers' integrity to produce quality products and win customers' trust, said Shomi Kaiser, president of e-CAB.
"Integrity of sellers to ensure quality of products and win the minds of consumers through building trust fulfilling the compliance are the main key drivers to boost ecommerce in Bangladesh."
"Of course, this will not happen overnight. But with this campaign, we can proudly say that we are one step closer to achieving the goal," she said at a virtual launch of the service.
The Covid-19 outbreak has given a chance to e-commerce to create opportunities for small and medium entrepreneurs to provide customers with logistics support, she noted.
The association is working in an organised way to provide logistics support through e-commerce, which is a challenging task, she said.
Many rural SMEs located outside Dhaka and Chattogram are yet to be brought under the umbrella, Kaiser added.
Financial institutions should help these SMEs grow their business and ensure compliance, according to her.
E-commerce despite being a new industry is emerging rapidly, overcoming the effects of the ongoing pandemic and creating numerous jobs, she said.
"The capital centric economy of our country doesn't exactly facilitate the trade and commerce of outside Dhaka localities at its full potential," said Rahath Ahmed, chief marketing officer of Paperfly.
"We have always tried to come up with new service and solutions being in the forefront of the ecommerce focused logistics industry."
"And this Seller One programme is our latest endeavour, which will help the ecommerce ecosystem to flourish by enabling an increase in numbers of the online seller base throughout the country," he said.
Entrepreneurship and creativity of people cannot be bound by any economic heat map, Ahmed said.
To facilitate any business located out of Dhaka in the arena of e-commerce, Paperfly introduces Seller One, with which anybody across the country can be an online merchant today, he added.
Online presence is not the end of the e-commerce story rather it is just the starting point, said Rezwanul Huq Jami, head of ecommerce at a2i.
"Without full-fledged logistics support, knowledge on how to do online business using Facebook and other online platforms and financial support/bank loans, the budding e-commerce industry of the country cannot survive," he said.
"Now is the right time to put our focus on the seller community that we have around the country and make them e-commerce ready to impact the growth of e-commerce in Bangladesh."
Mohammad Sahab Uddin, vice president of e-CAB; Hosna Ferdous Sumi, private sector specialist, IFC Bangladesh, and Syed M Omar Tayub, head of MSME banking of Prime Bank, also took part in the event.
Bijon Islam, CEO of Lightcastle Partners, presented a keynote speech at the event.
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