Thanks to the governments' encouragement to women entrepreneurship online, the post-pandemic scenario is fast reverting back to its earlier vibrancy. The two-year Covid-19 shutdowns caused periodic disruptions to online business in the form of drop in demand. But the virtual platforms' utility could not be belittled. In cases, the online platform's necessity saw a sharp increase. Now that coronavirus has almost departed, the online business in home delivery of various domestic products ought to have experienced a drop. Instead, the market players find a different picture. It emerges in the shape of rejuvenation of online sales. The spectacle has not excluded a developing, yet online savvy, country like Bangladesh. Traffic snarl-ups in Dhaka and the other cities have long been an urban blight to discourage shoppers. Online shopping, or broadly e-commerce, gets preference. Clients can now choose products on links given online or on Facebook. The virtual shopping outlets, mostly owned by women entrepreneurs, go by the clients' orders and send the commodities at the clients' addresses. Human couriers or postal service are used for supplying commodities.
In the process, buyers can avoid the hassles they go through during traditional shopping. Once confined to the capital Dhaka, small and medium online businesses are now spreading throughout the country. A large number of them operating in semi-urban areas are run by women, along with men. Not long ago, this technology-based and home-centred trading based on small capital and hard physical labour would be regarded as amateurish. With the entry of seasoned female entrepreneurs in Dhaka and other parts, e-commerce activities attained a professional character. The whole phenomenon could be termed a pillar of the fledgling Bangladesh online business in the country. Now there are few large urban centres in the country which do not enjoy the facilities of virtual business.
The experts keeping a tab on the progress of virtual business platforms in Bangladesh had underscored the need for stringent supervision of the sector. They do not rule out financial malpractices. The sensational scandals involving a few e-commerce houses still haunt the public. Reports of those company's financial irregularities may instigate others to follow suit. So, along with streamlining policies on such business, constant vigilance is necessary.
The authorities lost enough time to bring such firms' questionable activities under scrutiny and make those public along with alerting the gullible to deceptive commerce. It's now mandatory for all e-commerce platforms to get registered under it. But that is not enough, close follow up will be needed to yield results. Of all the players in the e-commerce sector, it is the women online entrepreneurs, facing many adversities, who will benefit the most from the corrective steps required for the purpose.
