Silently the advancement of domestic products online during the Corona holiday
Due to the corona, from March 26 in the country, offices, factories, everything is on holiday. It’s been a month and the prevalence of corona virus has been increasing in Bangladesh like other countries of the world.
This time we could not organize any big festival of Bengalis on the first day of Boishakh, there is no Iftar market even in Ramadan. It is not clear whether the joy of Eid can be done outside. We do not know if there has ever been such a stalemate. However, even in the midst of this, women and e-commerce (WI) are silently promoting local products online.
Many people in our country, especially in big cities, take the products of foreign imported brands seriously as lifestyle products. It can be said that there is a kind of negligence towards domestic products. We understand the clothes of India and Pakistan (sari, thrips, lawn, lehenga etc.), cosmetics means Europe-America or at least Thailand, Korea and China. In Dhaka and Chittagong, it is difficult to find quality local food hotels with Chinese, Thai and fast food.
This situation is even more horrible online. Many local entrepreneurs and a large part of them are women with foreign products live on Facebook. There are many pages and groups where all kinds of foreign products are available to buy. Compared to that, it has been very difficult to get local products online for so long. This situation has been changed by the hundreds of women entrepreneurs on the Wii platform who sell local products on their websites and Facebook pages.
A common perception among many of us is that not many types of products are produced in Bangladesh. So the only solution is to import from abroad. But we don’t keep track of how many types of products are made in the 64 districts of this country.
Mash can be made much better from a blender with the batna of Rangpur. Cheaper than the foreign carpets of Shataranji in Rangpur, they are cheap, healthy (do not accumulate dust) and can be easily cleaned. Tulshimala rice of Sherpur district is ahead of Basmati rice in all respects.
The tea on the Cassar plate is healthier than any other plate, and the tea from Sylhet division is no less than the tea from Darjeeling, Sri Lanka and China. Wei Group’s women (and some men) entrepreneurs in the domestic product e-commerce industry are not just saying these things every day, they are selling them.
Wei Group has more than 6,000 members, almost all of whom are very active. They have done a very good job with Jamdani and also with Nakshi Katha. Work is underway to create a syllabus of e-commerce for local products. There are also dreams of introducing all products or creating content all over the country.
Wee’s president Nasima Akhtar Nisha has been at the helm of the organization for two and a half years, taking it far from zero. I (Rajib Ahmed) took the helm of Wei Group on 16th August and in 6 months I saw a big change with my own eyes.
Normal life in Corona may have come to a halt, but hundreds of people online are talking about local products day in and day out, posting pictures, placing orders and building the foundation of the local e-commerce industry, the benefits of which we will reap year after year.
Rajib Ahmed is the
founding president of e-Cab