Promoting online marketing for shoppers

A three-fold expansion of the virtual market in Bangladesh in just one year indicates increasing interest of consumers or users in e-commerce. It bodes well for the future growth of on-line markets. Such a market, as a report in this paper last Monday indicated, is already taking roots in the country. This will pave the way for its wider embrace by a larger segment of the country's population in the coming days, if the right kind of supportive public policies is put in place to ensure security of on-line trading and help foster and sustain people's trust and confidence in deals in the virtual markets on a wider scale.

The government has so far been pro-active about pursuing technology-friendly policies. Also the private sector has as well been energetic about reaping the benefits from an otherwise tech-savvy policy environment. Furthermore, the existing state of terrible traffic jams in Dhaka and other cities and overcrowding at market places have become nightmares for citizens. This has spurred a relatively faster growth of virtual markets to serve people who are sickeningly getting tired of all such hassles. Thus many shoppers now order purchases of goods and services they need just from home without visiting markets physically. Internet marketing has also enabled businessmen to be open for business round the clock without worrying about store-opening hours or overtime payments for staff.

There is no denying that offering products and services for sales on the Internet is convenient for customers. They can browse on-line stores at any time and place orders when it is convenient for them. With the passage of time, virtual marketing will surely widen the scope for greater competition with physical shops, leading to supplies of goods and services at affordable prices to customers. More than 300,000 people do reportedly visit three such on-line markets in the country daily. The link between the virtual shops and the customers is a third-party vendor whom one can call as the middleman.

As the internet user-base continues to expand, striking changes are taking place in the country. According to available statistics, more than 350,000 Bangladeshi professionals have registered to work on-line courtesy of only one website. The earnings of online professionals in Bangladesh since 2010 have been estimated at more than US$53 million, out of which US$21 million were earned in 2013 alone through two websites. The country earns now roughly US$100 million a year in the form of export receipts by its information technology (IT) industry. Independent professionals contribute, as of now, to about one-fifth of the annual export earnings by this sector. Such professionals have not received until recently any support from the authorities. On-line works are provided with support including promotional assistance. Such programmes are aimed at creating self-employment opportunities for more freelance professionals.

Some words of caution against possible fraudulent practices will be quite relevant here. Such practices are not unique to the IT sector alone. These hold true for marketing in general. As far as virtual markets are concerned, goods displayed on-line may not conform to the choice of the customers when these are brought home by the third-party vendors. To counter such malpractices, the webs that put ads on display must be careful in choosing items for sale. The authorities concerned do also need to be pro-active about dealing effectively with fraudsters in virtual marketing. After all, it is the quality of goods put up on-line that matters most to the virtual customers. That makes the case stronger for not getting lax on those who are found to be indulging in any kind of fraudulent activities in the virtual markets.