DHAKA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh electronic commerce recorded an impressive growth of about 67 percent in the first three quarters of 2016, thanks to the country's large young population and high rate of internet penetration, a central bank official said Monday.
Electronic commerce, commonly written as e-commerce or eCommerce, is mostly based on debit and credit cards in Bangladesh.
The unnamed Bangladesh Bank (BB) Official told Xinhua that the country's e-commerce transaction reached 3.59 billion taka (50 million U.S. dollars) during the January-September period this year. The figure for the same period last year was 2.16 billion taka (30 million U.S. dollars).
The official said usages of credit cards are higher than the debit cards in Bangladesh where the number of internet users this year topped 60 million, almost one third of the country's population.
According to a study by Kaymu Bangladesh, a leading online shopping community, a large young population and high rate of internet penetration have made Bangladesh a potential market for global e-commerce giants in recent years.
A recent study noted that Bangladesh is all set to record immense growth in e-commerce transactions in the coming years, given the unprecedented increase in internet use.
The study is one the basis of a 10-percent exponential growth in e-commerce transactions for each quarter over the past years.
UNCTAD B2C (business to consumers) E-Commerce Index 2016 showed that Bangladesh is one of the top 10 economies by difference between predicted and actual share of internet users buying online.
Leading logistics provider DHL which is investing to seize opportunities in the B2C global e-commerce market said, "Today's global B2C cross-border e-commerce market comprises approximately $400 billion and is expected to expand rapidly. Particularly emerging markets are going to fuel the estimated annual growth rate of 28 percent, followed by Western Europe and North America."
