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It is not difficult to understand for any person that today’s e-commerce businesses are struggling compared to what it was just 1 year ago. Let us bring some examples to understand it better. Khaas food or Chaldal both are struggling to create recurring customers or to keep the old customers loyal. The same goes for other e-commerce businesses as there are many now.

Some of you may draw a simple outline that it is for growing competition. What it was 12 months ago, now the competition is fiercer. I would say simply “NO”. This is not the reason. According to demand and ever-growing need by Bangladeshi consumers, there could be more than 1000 e-commerce entities with the same product line according to demand and ever-growing need. Then where is the problem? What contemporary mistakes e-commerce sites are making. What they should do? How they should be reacting? To know these facts we need to dig a little further.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the best tool for any growing or established website. You need to keep continue creating buzz; meaning once you have done a campaign you will receive generous traffic driven through the campaign. Once you stopped the campaign or there is a gap, you will lose the traffic for sure. Keeping your customers up to date is the most essential part of the e-commerce business. One who is doing business for an online grocery store needs to remember two key factors; one is replenishment cost and another one is value for the customers. Making an order through a website unless a dynamic errorless app like Daraz it is very difficult for anyone to make an order. For each order, it takes an ampule amount of knowledge in English, computing, and familiarity. Each e-commerce website has its CSS style and database with a check-out process that implies new customers' new knowledge requirements. On the other hand, a customer will never spend more than 10 minutes in a boring site just for the sake of grocery orders.

It is very familiar with Bangladeshi inhabitants to get their grocery supplies from the nearest grocery stores through a phone call, making it easier to order and receive. Unless the charm factor the uniqueness factor is there no one will spend time on the sites. Let me ask my readers a simple question; How many times you have purchased groceries online? For me, it is 3-4 times over the last 24 months even during this pandemic. Bangladeshi people have lack entertaining areas like our neighboring countries. We have a lack of relaxing, fun, and entertaining places and as a result, shopping is our prime entertaining area and interest. To change this habit our infrastructure development has to be world-class. Movies, theatres, theme parks are very expensive in terms of our GDP and per capita income index. Unless these become affordable, shopping will be our relaxing and entertaining destination.

Any e-commerce operation manager makes a common mistake which is driving traffic through Facebook. VERY WRONG! You need to be careful now and you need to understand how Facebook algorithms work. There are millions of business pages on Facebook today. The easier way to open startups makes it harder for competing within the same business areas. Unless the customers keep themselves locked into a single interest like e-commerce you will never get a chance to showcase your products even if it is a paid service of Facebook. Facebook is losing traffic from western countries and only remains popular in Asia, Africa, and Arab countries. Sooner or later Facebook will lose this traffic too for their greedy attitude. The second choice of our e-commerce managers is either sending SMS or making direct calls. Again WRONG! Now BTRC has imposed restrictions on sending SMS and also anyone can block promotional SMS through the USSD code. Getting calls for my grocery from either Chaldal or Khaas food is not desirable. I feel embarrassed when they call me as I am not always prepared to take the call or in a position to express my interest in their offers.

Recurring customer generation and making your first-time customer loyal is an art. It is not written in any books in the world. It cannot be formatted as we are working with human psychology. But the thumb rule can be applied as general. Any brand needs attention from its target audience and what Khaas food or Chaldal did to get this attention? What they are doing is just to show their logo and some so-called campaigns. Can you see any uniqueness in their approach? Can you tell the difference between them and a new company that just started its engine during this pandemic? Making egg prices lower can't be considered a wise campaign. You can get it done at a mastery level, any company that is working with mass-level consumers can take expert advice, expertise, and next-level marketing ideas.