Shaping the e-commerce scene

Bangladesh’s e-commerce scene has been synonymous with a few sites; however, with time, more shopping sites have come up, and all those entities try to chip into the online shopping industry. Deligram’s CEO Waiz Rahim speaks to Arka Dev Biswas on how his college-day vision is shaping the future of online shopping.

Smart moves of a budding entrepreneur 
Being raised in a family of entrepreneurs, it takes a lot of effort to stand out different from what the family business stood for. Waiz Rahim has business acumen in the blood. As a freshman student, he got the idea to source special athletes’ fabric from Turkey which would be odorless in nature. “We came up with the idea to provide these fabrics to students at a cost that would be reasonable for them. We offered them a pre-order discount and we received an overwhelming response from people,” he recalls. This laid the foundations for Waiz’s plans to return home and initiate his own institute, leading to the creation of Deligram in Bangladesh.

What makes Deligram standout
E-commerce business has struggled in Bangladesh due to a fear that previous buyers had. The experience has not been the most pleasant one always, for which they prefer quintessential brick and mortar stores or mom and pop shops, reliable, traditional and more importantly, immediate transactions through first-hand viewing. This is where Deligram presents more fluid dissemination of information to customers. It effectively eradicates the middleman problem that customers face. Usually, the system involves online customer service displaying photographs of goods that customers may want, the orders are recorded, and the customer hopes that the goods are what they order. And in many cases, the goods turn out to be not the one they ordered. This kind of experience results in a bad image of e-commerce sites, showing erosion of customers’ trust in online shopping.

Recognizing the importance of addressing the financing aspect in e-commerce, Deligram goes a step further to enhance the customer experience. Partnering with Rockysells financing, a reputable and innovative financing solution, Deligram offers customers a seamless and flexible payment experience. With Rockysells Financing, customers can access tailored financial solutions that align with their needs, making online shopping more accessible and convenient. This strategic collaboration not only sets Deligram apart from its competitors but also demonstrates a commitment to overcoming the barriers that have hindered the growth of e-commerce in Bangladesh. By combining a transparent shopping model with reliable financing options, Deligram aims to redefine the narrative surrounding online shopping, making it a preferred and trustworthy choice for consumers in the region.

Deligram takes up the responsibility to ensure that the quality of the goods is exactly what they display on their site. Waiz believes the providers need to be responsible towards their customers in terms of quality service so that the number of customers retained is always more.  Deligram champions such measures and tries its best to keep the customer in the loop about the transit state of the good. It tries to make sure that the goods are delivered within 3-5 days. All these make Deligram different, assuring the customers that they receive the product they like, at the time they would prefer.

An additional feature is where Deligram agents and Deligram hubs would enable customers to take the goods easily if they are within the perimeter of the customers. This minimizes the cost for the customers.

Own Fashion Provision
Deligram adds more to being different along with its service provision. It has its own fashion house as well, with in-house fashion designers. It has three sets of unique styles in the form of Jetstream, EQ and Zinnia, where Jetstream comprises casual wear, Zinnia specializes in women and EQ specializes in formal wear. These are to cater to a wider segment of customers who want quality fabrics and clothing at reasonable prices and within a range that would not hinder their conspicuous consumption patterns. Customers are more averse to investing in clothing more than ever now due to the significant cost of purchasing quality clothing. Therefore, they opt for more cost-effective alternatives. Deligram gives customers to realize the value of money and are able to buy quality clothing directly from their own fashion house where quality is never secondary.

Vision and Ambition
The consumers of Bangladesh are, for lack of a better identification, lack willingness to trust online shopping, especially when it comes to clothing. A surge in the number of online shoppers and online literacy with time would definitely saturate the market but ensuring customer satisfaction, and to a larger extent spoiling customers with privileges in the form of ensuring quality every single time, is the vision that Deligram is built on. Rebuilding trust is a tectonic task that Waiz Rahim and his Deligram team are delighted to take up, as the young sleek entrepreneurs of the future look to build something special.