Bangladesh Post: Md Tajdin Hassan, you have been in the media industry for many years, and now you are in the e-commerce industry, which is completely different. How has the experience been in a new field?
Md Tajdin Hassan: Before joining Daraz, I used to work at a renowned English Daily. Both are industry-leading organizations. I took the decision to switch, primarily because I felt that I would be able to contribute to e-commerce sector. Besides, e-commerce is a very interesting field. So, even if I want to pursue a career in media later, the e-commerce industry shall help me with newer learnings.
If you look at it, e-commerce is one of the few industries which kept on going forward, despite the prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, when a global company like Alibaba invests in one such striving initiative like Daraz, it definitely indicates great potential. Lastly, both industries have one shared value, that is – trust. I felt that I can work on this value and explore the common ground.
Bangladesh Post: The e-commerce industry has been facing some crisis for the last few months, but still, you decided to join this competitive sector. What was the inspiration behind it?
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Md Tajdin Hassan: The crisis in the sector has been evoked by one or two corrupt entities, which should not be held as a benchmark, and such exception cannot be an example.
In terms of my inspiration, I think the name ‘Daraz’ itself came as a great inspiration. Not just Daraz, other e-commerce ventures like Chaldal, too, which supported us during the pandemic crisis; I took inspiration from them. I wanted to minimize the persisting furor and contribute through win-win communications. Given the number of internet users in Bangladesh, we can say that there is still a huge market unexplored for such a thriving industry like e-commerce. This is also another source of my inspiration.
Bangladesh Post: Do you think e-commerce sale campaign will be helpful in this current industry crisis to gain trust from the stakeholders? Daraz’s world’s biggest one-day sale campaign is on 11 November, and how Daraz is going to celebrate it this time?
Md Tajdin Hassan: Before talking about 11.11, I would like to highlight the state of Bangladeshi e-commerce customers. A Google survey on consumers and online shopping, assessing how people perform google online shopping search, the indexes were 48% in 2019, 75% in 2020, and 82% in September 2021. The trend is rising, and we want to accelerate this.
11.11 is now a widely popular campaign in Bangladesh. We have 40,000 sellers, all bringing in something for the customers. We call for the sellers to participate proactively in the festival. Although the campaign runs for 24 hours, the celebration vibe goes on for a week. From mid-October, we started the teasing phase. We also organize programs on TV with our influencers like Shakib Al Hasan.
Bangladesh Post: Daraz has refund return policy for customers. But during world biggest one day sale campaign, how does Daraz maintain this refund return policy?
Md Tajdin Hassan: Our method is; first, you have to claim for a refund. We have different refund methods Voucher, and bank payments have. For campaigns like 11.11, we try to work with our vendors to complete the refunds as fast as possible. With partners like bKash and others, it’s becoming more and more convenient now.
Bangladesh Post: Offers and discounts always is a center for attraction for customers but some irrelevant offers, discounts created this crisis in this industry. How is Daraz providing offers this time in its world biggest one day sale campaign?
Md Tajdin Hassan: Discounts are not entirely placed on one party; rather, those are distributed between customers and sellers. Also, it depends on the sellers’ business objectives. But what is more important to note, is that offers are not everything in this festive. You need experience, customer service strength, issue resolution support, logistical convince, etc., to make the whole arrangement successful. Discount is the baseline of the 11.11 campaign, but it has many more overlapping aspects.
Bangladesh Post: During sale campaign Daraz needs to deliver immense delivery within the timeline. How Daraz manage this during campaign? Is Daraz capable of providing this logistical support?
Md Tajdin Hassan: We have our own logistics service. We have 450 DEX vans, then we have Paperfly, too, for seamless deliveries. There are 84 hubs. We have the biggest warehouses. In terms of capacity, I would say we are ready for general times. During the campaign, however, we need extra hands. Hence, we include 2500-3000 extra people to serve the added pressure.
Bangladesh Post: Customer trust is a prime issue right now in the e-commerce industry. How can this industry overcome this crisis? Maintaining government rules is only enough or need to aware consumers also?
Md Tajdin Hassan: In order to overcome the crisis, we need to bring back trust. Trust is a function of a few variables. It depends on our performances, collectively. Users can talk to the sellers as much as they want. Review them, use our chatbot for live interactions. We are working hard to ensure transparency. Transparency is the reason we arrange Daraz Seller Summit. We train up sellers for performance improvement. We have upgradation program ‘dMall,’ where sellers with positive reviews can get enlisted for better reach. Sellers need to be consistent too. We evaluate whether the sellers are performing with consistency. Therefore – Trust, Transparency, and Consistency –are the three core pillars.
Bangladesh Post: Do you like to give any suggestion to the consumers during buying things from the online? How can they choose a correct platform for buying online?
Md Tajdin Hassan: Suggestion for the consumers would be to – always check for sellers’ reviews and ratings. Then, you too shall incorporate your reviews and ratings to help other users. Then we have a point and coin system, through which you can redeem vouchers. This gives you a total ‘app experience,’ rather than the simple shopping. I would encourage users to explore these, too.
