How Facebook-based businesses cope with the many challenges

While e-commerce and offline retail were booming during the COVID-19 lockdown, these businesses have suffered huge losses in the past few days

Raisha Amin Shaily, a third-year student at a fashion design university in the capital, runs a Facebook page called “Khush,” where she sells clothes that she designs herself, with patterns learned from her mother. In addition to customers across the country, she sometimes ships her products abroad.

The profits from this business allow her to pay her university fees and other living expenses, as well as contribute to the family’s support. However, this business was severely affected by the recent internet blackout.

I have no idea how I could make up for this loss (Tk 7-8 lakh due to internet outage) and whether I should continue this business at all.

For five days, from July 18 evening to July 23 evening, Shaily, like all other Bangladeshis, was cut off from the rest of the world. Naturally, she did not receive a single order during those five days. Due to the curfew, she was unable to deliver orders that had been placed earlier, and she was also unable to receive payments for cash-on-delivery orders.

It continues to suffer because while internet connectivity has been partially restored for broadband users, mobile users still have no access to the service. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Messenger and Instagram also remain restricted.

While some have been using VPNs to access these platforms over the past few days, most of Shaily’s customers in the country remain offline, causing her losses to continue to pile up.

According to reports, e-commerce companies suffered daily losses of at least Tk 60 crore during the five-day internet outage, taking the total to at least Tk 300 crore. Small businesses, especially those that operate mainly through Facebook pages and do not have the ability to take offline orders, were hit the hardest.

Now that major e-commerce platforms with their own websites have regained internet access and can resume operations, many Facebook-only companies are still in the dark and have no clear indication of when things will return to normal.

Business owners have made it clear that the internet lockdown and curfew have nothing to do with the COVID-19 lockdown. While e-commerce and F-commerce boomed during the lockdown, these businesses have suffered huge losses in the past few days.

Among the businesses operating on Facebook, those selling perishable food products are the worst hit. One such business owner is Shamim Ahmed from Rajshahi, who has his own mango gardens and sells mangoes online during the mango season.

Due to the internet outage, he has not received any new orders through Facebook since July 18, resulting in mangoes worth at least Tk 7-8 lakh rotting on the trees. “I have no idea how I can make up for this loss and whether I should ever run this business again,” Shamim lamented.

The owner of a Facebook bookstore admitted that given the current circumstances, he doesn’t expect his business to recover anytime soon.

“Students and young people are our main customers. They are still struggling with huge psychological trauma from the recent protests and their aftermath. They don’t seem to be ready to return to books,” he said.

Meanwhile, the problems that Facebook-based companies face are deeper than they first appear. Asif Hossain, another Facebook-based company owner, has discussed the problem in detail.

According to him, Facebook businesses rely heavily on their reach. If a page does not reach a large audience, it cannot achieve financial success. That is why most Facebook businesses invest a significant amount of money to promote their posts.

Due to the dollar crisis, businesses in Bangladesh have been struggling with problems in this regard for a long time.

In this situation, their saving grace was regular posts and customer interactions, which helped them organically retain existing customers and reach new ones. “But the internet blackout really put a damper on that,” Asif said.

How so? Shaily explained that the blackout not only prevented businesses from conducting regular transactions, but also from posting anything on their sites.

As a result, the reach of their posts and pages dropped to almost zero once they came back online. “Now it feels like we have to start over,” Shaily said.

To get a fresh start, many Facebook-based business owners turned to Facebook Live as soon as internet connections were restored. And for good reason: Facebook Live sessions help you reach a larger audience, attract new interactions, and ultimately gain new customers.

Unfortunately, this strategy backfired for many. A significant number of Facebook users in Bangladesh found it unbearable that while the country mourned the deaths, injuries, arrests and damage caused by the violent protests, some people were focused “solely on selling products.”

As a result, many Facebook business owners have been called “selfish” and “greedy.” Some Facebook users have even gone so far as to call for a boycott of these F-commerce sites.

“I don’t understand why people are attacking me,” the business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said on Facebook. “It’s not like I’m committing any crime. My whole family depends on the income from this business. Other than that, what I say or don’t say doesn’t matter.”

Not everyone is so scathing about Facebook-based businesses, though. Many seem to sympathize with the suffering of business owners.

For example, a post by Habiba Akter Shurova, a well-known entrepreneur and head of design at “Shorodindu”, went viral. In her post, she explained why it is not the time to turn against Facebook companies. She noted that just like everyone else in the country, F-commerce owners also have the right to continue their professions.

She also urged people “not to fight among themselves.”

That said, Shaily suggested that taking a sensitive approach when promoting products in the current situation can be effective. “While it is true that we have to continue our online activities to survive, we can at least acknowledge the emotions of our fellow citizens,” Shaily concluded.