How Facebook-based businesses are weathering multiple challenges

While e-commerce and F-commerce saw a boom during the Covid-19 lockdown, these businesses suffered massive 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 named ‘Khush’ where she sells clothes she designs herself, with the patterns mastered by her mother. Besides having customers across the country, she occasionally ships her products abroad.

The profits from this business allow her to pay her university tuition fees and other living costs, as well as contribute to her family. This business, however, has been severely impacted by the recent internet blackout.

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

She continues to suffer now, because, although the internet connection has been partially restored for broadband users, mobile users are still without service. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram also remain restricted.

Some people may have used VPNs to access these platforms over the past few days, but most of Shaily’s customers within the country are inaccessible, causing her losses to keep piling up.

According to reports, e-commerce businesses suffered daily losses of at least Tk60 crore during the five-day internet blackout, totaling at least Tk300 crore. Small businesses were the most affected, especially those that operate primarily through Facebook pages and lack offline arrangements to receive orders.

Now, while major e-commerce platforms with their own websites have regained access and can resume operations, many Facebook-only businesses remain in the dark, with no clear indication of when normalcy will return.

I have no idea how I could recover this loss, and whether I should do this business ever again.

Shamim Ahmed, an online mango seller

The business owners made it clear that the internet blackout and curfew are nothing like the Covid-19 lockdown. While e-commerce and F-commerce saw a boom during the lockdown, these businesses suffered massive losses in the past few days.

Among Facebook-based businesses, those selling perishable food items are the biggest sufferers. 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 blackout, he hasn’t received any new orders through Facebook since July 18, resulting in mangoes worth at least Tk7-8 lakh rotting on the trees. “I have no idea how I could recover this loss, and whether I should do this business ever again,” lamented Shamim.

A Facebook-based bookstore owner shared that, given the current circumstances, they don’t expect their business to recover anytime soon.

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

Meanwhile, the struggles faced by Facebook-based businesses run deeper than they appear at first glance. Asif Hossain, another Facebook-based business owner, broke down the issue in detail.

According to him, Facebook businesses rely heavily on their reach. Unless a page reaches a large audience, it cannot achieve financial success. Therefore, most Facebook-based businesses invest a significant amount of money to boost their posts.

Due to the dollar crisis, Bangladeshi businesses had already been facing complications in this regard for a long time.

In this situation, their saving grace was regular postings and interactions with customers, which helped them organically retain existing customers and reach new ones. “But the internet outage has put a big brake on that,” said Asif.

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

As a result, the reach of their posts and pages has dwindled to almost nothing once they came back online. “Now it feels like we have to start from scratch again,” Shaily said.

In an effort to start afresh, many Facebook-based business owners resorted to Facebook Live as soon as the internet connection was restored. They had their reasons: Facebook Live sessions help reach a larger audience, attract new interactions, and consequently gain new customers.

Unfortunately, this strategy backfired for many. A significant number of Facebook users in Bangladesh found it intolerable that, while the country was mourning the loss of lives, injuries, detentions, and damage from the violent protests, some people were focused “solely on selling products.”

Thus, many Facebook-based business owners were labeled as “selfish” and “greedy.” Some Facebook users even went so far as to call for a boycott of these F-commerce pages.

“I don’t understand why people are targeting me,” said one Facebook-based business owner who wished to remain anonymous. “It’s not like I am committing any crime. My whole family depends on the earnings from this business. Also, it’s not as if what I say or don’t say will make any difference.”

Not everyone is going so hard on the Facebook-based businesses, though. Many seem to be sympathetic towards the sufferings of the business owners as well.

For example, a post by Habiba Akter Shurovy, a renowned entrepreneur and head of design at ‘Shorodindu,’ has gone viral. In her post, she explained why it’s not the time to turn against Facebook businesses. She noted that like everyone else in the country, F-commerce owners too have the right to continue their professions.

She also called for people to “not fight among ourselves.”

That said, Shaily suggested that adopting a sensitive approach when promoting products in the current situation could be effective. “While it’s true that we need to continue our business online to survive, we can at least acknowledge the emotions of our fellow countrymen,” Shaily concluded.