Online shopping in Bangladesh: present scenario and prospect

Abstract

The limitations in shopping at brick and mortar retail stores forces consumer to look for alternative ways to get what they need in a convenient, safe, affordable, and time saving manner. Online shopping seems to be one of the most convenient ways to compare products and services. It is the process or system that provides a secured environment for browsing, comparing and selecting from a wide variety of products and services using the Internet. The merchants provide both products and services through the online by themselves in a safe environment. This type of marketing creates growth for expanding the local products and services in Bangladesh, encourages new entrepreneurs and gives customers an opportunity to choose products from all over the world. At present online shopping system is becoming an inherent part of many people’s daily life in Bangladesh. So to have a clear idea about the present status of online shopping system in the perspective of Bangladesh, it is an urgent need to take depth research in the area. This will lead to the identification of the actions to be suggested and thereby highlighting the prospects of this system as a whole. The study is descriptive and analytical in nature. For gathering primary data the survey method and a structured questionnaire have been used. Sample consists of one hundred respondents. Simple random sampling method is used in this study. The number of questions is 15. The questionnaire includes 9-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Extremely Disagree) to 9 (Extremely Agree). To analyze collected data from respondents, three methods have been used such as multiple regression analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis. The multiple regression analysis of the survey data reveals the demand and growth of online shopping has value 2.661. It means that online shopping system has good demand and growth. Two factors are found by factor analysis. Those two factors labeled as “personal factors” and “online shop related factors”. On the other hand, two clusters have been found by cluster analysis. Each cluster is described on the basis of the centroids by assigning it a name or label. First cluster or group is labeled as “prosperous” and fit in to upper class citizen. The second cluster is labeled as “economical” as the respondents of this group want to cost less for quality products and services. Bangladesh has slow pace of development in telecommunication and Internet technologies. Except the major cities, the benefits of these technology advancements are not dispersed in the same way all over the country. Internet access is limited to specific regions and specific segments of the society. In spite of all these conditions, online shopping in Bangladesh is becoming more popular day by day. Because of proliferated use of handheld and wearable devices at present the reach of Internet seems rapid. In future it may not be quite impossible that the traditional shopping system would be less popular than online shopping.