Saturday, October 20, 2012Front Page
First time, fantastic
Online eid cattle sale intrigues buyers
<i>First time, fantastic</i>
Suman Saha
A single parent, Taslima never dares to go to cattle market to buy sacrificial animal. Given the hassle, it is a task too painful for her or any woman for that matter. Then there is the risk of carrying huge cash during eid time when muggers are out on the streets for their catch.
So Taslima, a computer software and hardware businessperson, has always relied on her father to buy eid cattle until last year. Maybe, it's time she relieves her "old man".
This year, she has bought her eid cattle herself, sitting in her Dhanmondi home. All she had to do is to go at
Home, an online market, choose a cow and make the payment through her debit card.
I've bought a cow at Tk 52,000 for the eid on the virtual market, says the mother of one child, adding: It took about three minutes to complete the transaction.
Amardesheshop.com, a component of the Amar Desh Amar Gram e-commerce initiative of Future Solution for Business (FSB) Ltd, has been an online market for fish and vegetables, among other things, since October 2009. But it has come up with the new item, eid cattle, considering the ever busy city dwellers and non-resident Bangladeshis.
All one needs to do is fill up a form online, make his pick and make the payment through debit or credit card, bank draft, or mobile money transfer and get the delivery within 24 hours.
October 22 is the last date for order this year.
What is unique about this e-market is that it has direct link with farmers in different districts. Through representatives, the company reaches the farmers willing to sell their animals and makes a deal with them. The deal done, the representatives then take the measurement and weight of the cattle and upload those details along with its location and price.
When ordered, the company through its representatives collects the animal and delivers it to its buyers, said Sadequa Hassan Sejuti, managing director of FSB.
"The online trading will reduce the cattle price and ensure fair price for the farmers as there is no middleman," she told The Daily Star.
As of yesterday, 17 cows were available for sale at prices ranging from Tk 32,000 to 70,000, including service and bank charges.
Since the opening of the service on October 6, the company has so far sold 14 cows, nine of them in the last three days. Photos of some 200 cows are expected to be uploaded today.
Though the company offers to deliver the animal within 24 hours of the payment, most of the buyers, preferred to get it just three days before the eid. Taslima will get hers on October 24.
The cattle trading site comes at a time when online shopping is fast becoming popular in Bangladesh.
Last year, about a dozen online shopping portals or e-trading platforms popped up following Bangladesh Bank's introduction of online payment service through debit or credit card in local currency.
Freedom fighter Momin Ahmed, who has left the country after the liberation and is now a permanent resident in the Netherlands, takes a great pride to have found such a service available in Bangladesh.
"I'm surprised that I could pay online, like I do in European countries, in my Sonarbangla," Momin, former MP of North Holland Province, told The Daily Star in an email.
He bought three cows online, and is coming home after many years to celebrate eid.
FSB, a youth enterprise that introduced e-commerce in the country in 2009, has clinched the United Nations World Summit Youth Award 2011 for "creating outstanding digital content for rural people".
The e-portal company has direct links with around 5,500 rural people, including farmers, weavers and fishermen, who can post their produce at the portal for sale.
The company, currently serving its customers through its seven e-centres in Mongla, Narsingdi, Tangail, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Rangpur and Sylhet, has also a database of around 8,000 registered customers, according to officials.