Online Shopping in Bangladesh – How to Order Safely

Online shopping in Bangladesh isn’t that established yet. As a developing country, its digital commerce is also developing. Yes, it is in some problems for now because of the Covid hit and then the Ukraine-Russia war. But we believe it’s a short-term economic problem that will be sorted out over time. Between all these, eCommerce is developed from the vendor side as well as from the customer side. Every people know there is a thing called eCommerce. But everyone’s experience is not that happy. We live in a society mixed with good and bad. The online shopping platform is also like that. But obviously the bad is very tiny. If we shop online consciously following a few basic safety things then there is almost no chance to be cheated. Let’s talk about those.

Online Shopping in Bangladesh – what is the best site

There are a lot of eCommerce websites in Bangladesh right now, but only a few are recommendable. Almost every site has a back loop, but there are a few which are comes first when it is something to recommend to someone. Below are a few of the best eCommerce in Bangladesh.

• Daraz – Overall best, backed by Alibaba, selling almost everything.
• Pickaboo – Hero is customer service, mostly selling electronics products.
• Startech – Best for computers, laptops, smartwatches, accessories, etc.
• Rokomari – King of book selling online, they have started selling electronics products too.
• Othoba – RFL company, mostly selling plastic, furniture, & household products.
• Chaldal – Leading the online grocery market, added medicine recently.
• Khaasfood – Not that big brand, but the best in the organic product market.
• MonarchMart – An initiative by Shakib Al Hasan, new in the market.

There are other sites/brands selling products online very well, if I didn’t mention then possibly I forgot or that is not recommendable in my judgment. And a lot of others are coming sure. At the end of the day, practically, Daraz is the leading country’s eCommerce in the overall category.

How to shop safely – Online shopping in Bangladesh

• Choose the best product and brand
  Chose the best product and brand first. The best brand doesn’t make low-quality products. So, you will be secure by the brand image/value. Then select the best product that you do not need to change or return for any reason, our eCom doesn’t support return by change of mind, though.
• Search for similar alternative products too
  Search for similar products from other brands or shops. Maybe you could find one for less money but still the best quality. You have the facility to visit another shop by clicking but not physically moving one shop to another. This is a very useful feature for me when I shop online. Use this trick.
• Shop with only authorized and trusted seller/site
  There are multiple online shopping platforms in Bangladesh, like Daraz, Pickaboo, Deligram, MonarchMart, Othoba, etc. which all are backed by some existing bold brands. When you visit any online shop for something, visit others for the same products to see if somewhere less price or offers running. Then choose only authorized sellers. For example, when you are looking for a shoe, look for Bata, or Apex, obviously if you have the budget for their products, not another seller who just added Bata to their product name/title.
• Check & compare the product price online and offline
  Always check and compare your desired product price online and offline if possible. Online prices are always less because they don’t need to spend money on a few measures like electricity cost, rent, staff salary, etc. to sell their products online. But checking the price in a physical shop and comparing it with online is always safe. Also, you can compare the price with different eCommerce platforms to see which one selling or less.

• See the product review and rating consciously
  Always see product reviews and ratings carefully and briefly. Almost half of the reviewers gave the product text feedback more precisely but with the wrong rating. Like, sometimes, we search for a product and find the best 5/5 start rating items, but when entering the product page, even the 5-star rating has very disappointing text feedback. This means, the customer is not happy with the product but s/he didn’t notice the rating carefully and posted the feedback. An eCommerce platform like Daraz keeps the rating section always 5-star active when someone gives product feedback, and people posted wrong ratings with actual text feedback without noticing the rate. So, be careful about it when checking the product rating/feedback. And obviously, you’ll also give a proper rating/feedback after purchasing/receiving/experiencing the products. If we give products rating all the time, shopping Online shopping in Bangladesh will be safer for all customers.
• Read their warranty and return policy
  Before submitting the order, check the product warranty and return policy. Most of the products have at least a 7-day easy return policy, but most of them also don’t support the ‘change of mind’ which is acceptable.
• See the estimated delivery date and fees
  Check the estimated delivery date with the delivery charges carefully. Don’t order the product based on any previous experience with delivery, every product could have a different product delivery policy. So, check if you can wait for the estimated delivery date. Most of the time the product came before the/within the estimated delivery date, though. Also, check delivery charges. Daraz offers their warehouse pickup for a very low cost like 10 tk per order while the actual home delivery charges 50-70 tk. So, if a Daraz warehouse is located near your location, you can use that option to save some money. Check this on the delivery options.
• Chose the right payment option and if there are any prepayment offers
  Payment is the final process to submit an order online. Most of the online shopping platform in Bangladesh offers cash-on-delivery except for some exceptional products. Personally, I like paying while submitting the order. Because of pre-payment discounts, and cashless transactions. In cash-on-delivery, sometimes, we don’t have enough cash in hand for paying the price to the delivery man, sometimes, we don’t present at the location, etc. could be a hassle. Plus, most of the time prepayments have discount offers, go check that too.
• Unpack the product immediately after receiving the package
  Open the box in front of the delivery person if possible. It helps to keep proof if there is something bad that happens with the product like damaged, broken, etc.
• Keep a video of unboxing if possible
  For sensitive and valuable products, it is always recommended that make an unboxing video, if possible, do that in front of the delivery guy.
• Give the shopping & product experiences rating/feedback
  After you receive, unbox, and use the products, give your shopping and product experience a rating with text feedback on the product page. So, others will get helped to decide on their purchase by seeing your review/feedback as you do.

Purchasing products from a Facebook page or shop

Facebook is not only a social media nowadays, it’s a shopping platform too. Selling and buying products from Facebook was known earlier but it got strong after they launched Marketplace. As long as the shopping feature gets easier, the bad experiences will be increased too over time. Some page owners do live to display their products and get orders. But some are posts some product photos and boost their post to get orders.

Cash on delivery is Ok, none of our courier service providers doesn’t allow unpacking the package before paying the condition money or product price. So, if you see something wrong inside the package after paying the money, it gets very difficult to return the product or get the money back. Fraud use these tactics to keep their activities running on Facebook scamming people. So, we have to be careful to shop from F-commerce like Facebook.

Before ordering, something from a Facebook shop, see the page rating/review, follower count, page design, page age, etc. to judge a business’s authenticity. Do not pay in advance any portion of the product price for shopping on Facebook. Look at the product photos carefully if those downloaded photos seem to be originally taken by the sellers.

Happy shopping and exploring Online shopping in Bangladesh.

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