Mahmudul Hasan

Qcoom has suspended its physical operations after hundreds of customers thronged its office in Dhaka, demanding products or refunds amid the e-commerce platform’s failure to make deliveries within the promised dates despite receiving payments in advance.

Lured by hefty discounts at e-commerce platform Eorange, Md Sahedul Islam, a private firm employee with a Tk 15,000 monthly income, borrowed Tk 13 lakh from family members, relatives and colleagues to make advance payments for five motorcycles in May and another three in June.  

Existing laws need to be amended while new ones formulated to establish a robust system of clear, enforceable rules creating obligations on e-commerce platforms to adhere to a set of uniform rules on payment and delivery.

The profits of state-owned enterprises plummeted in the last fiscal year as their incomes took a beating from the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Banks and non-banks are increasingly introducing contactless credit cards in Bangladesh as the tap-and-pay technology allows users to make payments digitally and avoid close contact with the staff of stores during in-person purchases.

Md Nabid Rahman, employed at a private company in Dhaka, made a payment of Tk 12.5 lakh to e-commerce platform Dhamaka in March for two motorcycles and other products which were on offer at hefty discounts.

A number of customers of Nagad have alleged that they were facing troubles in carrying out transactions on their accounts as the mobile financial service provider has suspended them on suspicion of unusual transactions with e-commerce platforms.

The country’s largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, ShopUp, yesterday said it raised $75 million or nearly Tk 640 crore in its latest round of fund-raising as it looks to ramp up its operation by bringing small neighbourhood groceries and small retail shops online.

Rights violations have compounded sufferings of consumers in Bangladesh, with the number of complaints rising a staggering 61 per cent in the span of a year.

Business of hotels and resorts in tourist destinations is rebounding slowly as the Delta Covid-19 variant and dengue have turned customers very cautious over whether they would go on holidays.

The number of refuelling stations for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or autogas and its consumption are growing fast with the big LPG players ramping up their operations as the government looks to cut dependency on other fossil fuels.

Getting her period at work has always made garment worker Roksana Aktar uncomfortable.

Women in Bangladesh have increased and diversified their use of mobile internet services ever since the Covid-19 outbreak began as social distancing restrictions in particular have led to a rise in video calls, social media use and viewing of online videos, according to a survey.

Beleaguered e-commerce platform Evaly, which faces inquiries by the government, said its liabilities to customers and merchants stood at Tk 543 crore as of mid-July, which is 35 per cent higher than the amount found by an initial probe of Bangladesh Bank.

City Group, one of the country’s leading consumer goods processor and manufacturer, is to going to build a hi-tech park investing Tk 5,000 crore to manufacture technology products such as microprocessors, chips, circuits, mobile phones and laptops.

Evaly has a liability of Tk 542 crore to its customers and merchants, a top official of the commerce ministry said today.

Top food processor Pran is planning to grab a big share of the country’s fast food market with a retail chain focusing on selling fried chicken defying the gloom of the pandemic.

Spending through credit cards hit an all-time high in June thanks to the acceleration of digital payments on e-commerce platforms amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The government is undertaking a project involving about Tk 200 crore to roll out fifth-generation or 5G mobile network on a limited scale in Dhaka by the end of this year.

The government is set to give a lifeline to Teletalk as the loss-making mobile phone operator looks to make a turnaround by winning customers through modernisation, network expansion and the launch of 5G technology.