E-commerce businesses have lost at least Tk 600 million during the five-day nationwide Internet blackout, according to entrepreneurs, as they said their sufferings included difficulties ranging from tracking inventory to delivering goods amid a curfew.
The situation, according to them, affected the small businesses most -- who mostly run operations through Facebook pages and do not have offline arrangements to receive orders.
"An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 small entrepreneurs who rely on online businesses have been severely affected," said Biplob Ghosh Rahul, chief executive officer of eCourier Limited.
The Internet blackout began on Thursday night after anti-quota protesters reportedly attacked and damaged a data centre in Dhaka's Mohakhali area.
The outage shut down e-commerce and f-commerce, which are Facebook-based businesses and largely popular in Bangladesh.
While broadband Internet services resumed on Wednesday, mobile internet remained unavailable. Besides, fixed-line broadband users were experiencing slow speeds.
While estimating the initial loss, e-commerce leaders anticipated that the overall loss would be much greater, which, they said could go up to Tk12 billion at least.
Mr Rahul said they were mainly worried about perishable items that could not be stored for extended periods.
During the unrest, he said delivery men, especially young people who are paid based on deliveries, were also largely impacted.
The eCourier Limited CEO said around 80 per cent of their delivery staff are on contracts and are paid per delivery.
Sabbir Hasan Nasir, managing director of ACI Logistics Limited which runs the retail chain Shwapno, said they are currently taking orders by phone due to Shwapno's presence in both online and offline markets.
However, Mr Nasir said that 175 of Shwapno's 483 outlets remained closed due to the nationwide curfew. "Our sales have dropped by 30 per cent, resulting in losses of Tk 20 million so far," he added.
Shwapno's sourcing of perishable goods is directly from farmers, but the online grocery shop cannot procure them due to supply chain disruptions, Mr Nasir said.
Similar to Shwapno, ChalDal Chief Operating Officer Zia Ashraf expressed concerns over the Internet disruption.
Mr Ashraf said internet-based businesses are suffering in many ways, ranging from tracking inventory to delivering goods. "Our daily sales of Tk 8 million have stopped due to the network disruption," he added.
He said Chaldal employs over 600 people in its delivery channel, most of them salaried employees.
Jahangir Alam Shovon, executive director of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-Cab), said freelancers would also be hurt if the situation is not normalised. However, he hoped that the situation would be resolved soon.
According to e-Cab data, around 350,000 people are directly involved in e-commerce businesses, with an additional 200,000 working part-time or as homemakers. Some 23 per cent of e-commerce business consumers are from rural areas, with the rest being city-based.
The average basket value -- which refers to the number of items sold in a single purchase -- was Tk 850-950 per order before the Covid-19 pandemic. This jumped to an average of Tk 2,200 during the pandemic. However, the value came down to Tk 1,450 in the post-pandemic period until 2023.
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