Facebook restriction keeps F-commerce entrepreneurs at bay

Infographic: TBS

The resumption of mobile internet yesterday failed to bring back smiles for the tens of thousands of F-commerce sellers, who rely on Facebook to sell their goods and services.

As the Meta services including Facebook were yet to resume in the country after a 10-day disconnection of both mobile internet and the key social media platform, the F-commerce entrepreneurs' worries kept intensifying.

"All sorts of online commerce have already resumed, except for us. I do not know how long I have to wait for the next order," said a bachelor student in the capital running his F-commerce business of apparel and wearable accessories.

"I have an employee whom I have to pay every day and I cannot ditch him at this tough time," he said, adding that prior to the internet and social media outage from 18 July he had a daily revenue of Tk4-5 thousand that dropped to zero as the virtual shop on Facebook became inaccessible to all from Bangladesh.

Exactly how many of the online sellers are suffering like the young entrepreneur, is unknown to the authorities.

However, Facebook, the most popular social media platform in the country, has over 5 lakh Bangladeshi business pages, according to estimates from the E-commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB).

"Not all the pages are by Facebook-only online sellers as Omni channel businesses also present there," said its executive director Jahangir Alam Shovon.

Some 2 to 2.5 lakh pages are being run by F-commerce entrepreneurs, he estimates, adding that some 60,000 of them were generating regular sales.

Online commerce ecosystem partners, however, believe the number of active Facebook sellers might have been much higher.

AKM Fahim Mashroor, the founder of BD Jobs, AjkerDeal and Delivery Tiger, told TBS that of the 2-2.5 lakh social media sellers, most generate more or less sales every week and he believes that the active F-commerce sellers created around a million jobs in the economy informally to support their operations and deliveries.

Two of top tier smart logistics firms that pick and deliver e-commerce parcels across the country said both of them have around 2 lakh F-commerce businesses registered as logistics clients.

Mashroor, also a former president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said if the sales losses continue the small businesses will become sick and the number of affected would not be small at all.

Some Facebook groups, onboarding hundreds of online traders, help them generate sales.

Fahim Ahmed, CEO of Pathao that leads the smart logistics market alongside its food delivery and ride sharing businesses, told TBS that almost all the F-commerce entrepreneurs are young, educated, and tech-savvy and their turnover accounts for 65% of the overall digital commerce sales that include e-commerce, quick commerce like food and grocery delivery, and ride-sharing.

Also, of the Tk45-50 crore in total daily e-commerce sales, F-commerce contributes to around 80%, said Ahmed based on the analysis of his company's parcel delivery patterns as it collects cash from online shoppers on deliveries on behalf of the sellers.   

The courier service companies like his are losing some Tk4-5 crore a day as the number of deliveries drastically dropped.

Since the F-commerce clients have not received new orders for the past 10 days, third-party logistics services are getting only a handful of parcels, mainly derived from the pending deliveries, he added.

"Social media became the source of my income. When e-commerce platforms like Daraz charge a double-digit commission on my sales revenue, selling through my Facebook page needs no cost except for the internet bill," a housewife from the capital's Mirpur area who sells jewellery online told TBS.

Social media is also important for marketing the products and services by the online sellers, she said, adding that live sessions for promoting their products help attract orders.

She hopes, like the internet, the social media platforms will resume soon.  

State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak yesterday said that Meta and TikTok have been called for a meeting with the telecom regulator on Wednesday and if they show their respect to the local laws in terms of removing contents having provocative misinformation, their services will be resumed.

Mobile internet resumed after 10 days at 3:00 pm yesterday, following the resumption of cable broadband internet on Tuesday.