Nowadays if you ask someone where they bought their latest piece of gadget or their new stylish Ray Bans, the answer is, most often than not, online! Shoes, clothes, books, gadgets, there’s no end to what the evolving online marketplace in Bangladesh seem to offer. I on the other hand, am a skeptic. With so many e-commerce sites cropping up every few months it’s hard to trust the quality of the products and services they offer. Also, with the advent of technology and an e-commerce space, physical businesses seem to be suffering. These e-commerce sites do very little to help businesses other than just showcasing their products. At least that’s what I believed in until I met with Syeda Umaila Akhter, the Head of Public Relations of Kaymu.com.bd to talk about what Kaymu Bangladesh is and what they’re doing to help the young aspiring entrepreneurs of Bangladesh.
Q. So tell me about Kaymu Bangladesh.
UA: Kaymu is the largest and safest online marketplace for emerging markets. It connects buyers and sellers to allow them to take advantage of the best deals on an extensive range of products including electronics, books, fashion items, gadgets and even cars. Thanks to a fixed price system, Kaymu guarantees that users will always find the lowest prices on the market.
Q. E-commerce is still a new concept in Bangladesh when we compare to other emerging markets in Asia. What is Kaymu doing to accelerate that growth of e-commerce in Bangladesh?
UA:Well it starts off with entrepreneurs. What we want to do is motivate new entrepreneurs and other individuals to take an active role in developing online businesses and for that it’s very important for them to understand the model and how the e-commerce concept actually helps them grow their businesses beyond potential.
You’ll see a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs but you don’t see them moving into online marketing. That’s because, as of yet, they don’t know about the tremendous benefits of trading online! They don’t know that online marketplace provide a bigger audience and bigger scope for business. We offer entrepreneurs the unique opportunity to start selling through our platform and we don’t just focus on entrepreneurs who already have an established business, we seek out anyone who’d love to start their own business.
Q. So what are the benefits entrepreneurs are getting from signing with an online platform like Kaymu?
UA: First of all, when you do have an office, there’s a lot of cost to set up a physical store. There’s overhead cost, lack of office space, labour costs etc. and a never-ending stream of bills! Kaymu basically compacts everything you need to run a business into a virtual storefront and there’s no startup cost.
If you’re a budding entrepreneur and you don’t have that much capital to start with, Kaymu is going to help you with that. There’s no signing or listing fee to start doing business with Kaymu and our extensive portfolio of services provides you with all the support your new business might need.
When you enroll with us, you have our key account managers to help your business take off. They’re your personal relationship manager who’ll be helping you, catering to all your needs and will advise you regularly on all your business strategies which will help you to boost your sales.
At Kaymu we have three basic teams, the acquisition and sales team, seller management team (the account managers) and the content team that handles all the product listing, product management/promotion. Etc.
Q.You’ve talked about a lot of people being unfamiliar with the e-commerce space, what are you guys doing to facilitate that transition?
UA:We have a lot of sellers who started off with nothing and they literally had no idea on how to sell or buy online! We actually educated them about the e-commerce platform with a hands on approach. We don’t just acquire but also educate the players in the e-commerce market to fuel the growth of the e-commerce sector in Bangladesh.
We’re giving these people a lot of knowledge on how to interact through the use of internet. Just five years back you wouldn’t imagine ordering food online. Or your necessities like shoes or clothes online, so you see how people are already moving beyond the traditional means of shopping and shifting to online purchase and sale. This is because they know the comfort of trading on a platform like Kaymu. Online purchase and sale saves time and effort and the returns are higher.
Q. You’re heavily geared towards helping young entrepreneurs grow so what have you done so far regarding that?
UA: When you take a look at student entrepreneurs, what we want to do is empower them when they’re already very busy with their own schedules. Balancing a student life and a worklife is very hectic. Time management is a great issue. You have classes at odd hours so it’s extremely difficult to have a physical store up and running.
So what Kaymu is doing is that, we’re literally looking after your business for you! When, as a student, you enroll with Kaymu, you have your store with us and we make sure you’re connected to a huge database of customers. Apart from connecting you to a huge market, we’re also helping you with the basic business stuff too. We’re giving customer service, we’re taking pictures of the product, and we’re also helping you with your business options.We provide entrepreneurs with relevant and crucial business statistics to help them determine which products are doing well and which aren’t. Your account manager gives you a holistic idea of the market.
Q. How is Kaymu helping the buyers and sellers?
UA:Kaymu’s mobile platform connects both buyers and sellers. Buyers are benefiting from convenient interface and since there’s a lot of competition, vendors are charging conveniently low prices which are attractive to the buyers.
Sellers are minimizing their cost and at the same time are able to reach a large customer base. It’s good to have one platform where you can find everything. Starting from clothing, gadgets, accessories etc. We also have segmented stores especially for occasions. For example, for wedding season, we have our own wedding category where you can find all wedding related products and gifts all in one place!
Q. Sounds great! How do entrepreneurs sign up at Kaymu, is there a contract they have to sign?
UA:Well. all it takes is five minutes. If you have a valid email address, all you have to do is go to our platform, put in your email address and all your necessary information. On our website you can see we have a breakdown on how to sell and how to buy.
With the number of smartphone users increasing and internet data package charges decreasing in recent times, the scope for e-commerce is becoming huge in Bangladesh. Keeping that in mind Kaymu also has “Kaymu Android App” and most internet users are pretty familiar with this App. Sellers can take pictures with their phone and upload it onto their account directly.
Q. So what does Kaymu get out of it?
UA: Well in terms of setup cost, there’s none. It’s that simple. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s no signing or listing fees. We do take a small commission of the profit like any other e-commerce site but since we’re not charging for signing up with us, we only make money when our sellers do! So that is our incentives to push and market our sellers’ products effectively.
Q. So can you tell me about a few success stories?
UA: Well, we have entrepreneurs who started with nothing and are now making BDT 100,000 profit per month. Jisan Aftab, the owner of Trendy Touch and a student from North South University has a virtual shop on Kaymu and he said, “This is very beneficial especially to us students because, first of all little investment is needed, you don’t need to have a physical shop to run it so this completely eradicates the amount of bills you need to pay, and also it gives us students extra income that we really need in order for us to sustain in our daily university life and fixed budget”. Kaymu is eager to work with small entrepreneurs, students and housewives to help them capitalize on this business opportunity.
During my visit at Kaymu’s office, I also got to meet the Head of Sales of Kaymu Bangladesh, Janayed Mustafa and learn from him how Kaymu is helping student entrepreneurs through their Student Partnership Program.
Q. Why is it better to sell through Kaymu than just selling through Facebook or just a website?
JM: You’re right, in Facebook there are a lot of consumers but to sell through Facebook, you have to boost your page. You have to have a content strategy, you have to build content and that takes a lot of time, effort and most importantly, money.
At Kaymu, we keep your brand name intact, we give you control of your store and at the same time we promote you heavily through Facebook and other social media. So there’s no extra promotion cost for sellers.
When you’re operating through Facebook, customers can call you up at odd hours when you’re busy, so it’s a 24/7 routine you have to keep up. When you sign with us, all that goes through Kaymu! Also, the amount of traffic a website like Kaymu receives is significantly high compared to a small Facebook page, ensuring a larger customer base for you.
Q. Can you tell me about the student partnership program Kaymu started off?
JM:Recently we’ve had a Kaymu Student Partnership Program where we had gone to top universities in Bangladesh and signed up students who worked as ambassadors for us. They got the feel of being a portfolio manager for an e-commerce site. They’ve signed up sellers for us and they’ve also signed up themselves as well to sell on Kaymu. They’ve been highly instrumental in helping us put the word out on Kaymu.
It was not just about boosting their entrepreneurial spirit but it was also about finding out new graduates and providing them with a career development platform. We actually got some of our interns from this program.
Q. How was this program different than any other competition or business program?
JM: Unlike competitions, we gave them real work. There were no hypothetical situations to solve. We put them in real life work situations.
We gave them training on how to perform the task of account managers, content managers and sales and acquisition managers. They had to convince their peers, family, and friends and take them through the Kaymu experience. They signed up new entrepreneurs and managed them for a week. Each of the student partners managed to sign up around 10 or more sellers in such a short period of time!
In the end, we gave them feedback on how well they did and it was a great collaboration between Kaymu and all the other universities. We even set up a booth in our office so that students from different universities could come up to sign up and participate in the program. We also chose 12 student partners from the 100 and gave them certificates and also conducted a separate workshop on how to further build their business.
Q. Do you think student entrepreneurship is going to help build the e-commerce business in Bangladesh?
JM:I believe so. Most of the students from our student partners program became our seller. They’re earning from BDT 5000 a week to more than BDT 100,000 a month so the numbers speaks for themselves!The increasing cost of living, lack of space for office area or showroom and poor infrastructure has been a big problem for potential entrepreneurs to get a head start with their business.
Bangladesh being a land of opportunity for entrepreneurs is just what Kaymu.com.bd is looking for. At Kaymu.com.bd, we aim to empower young and new entrepreneurs, educate them on how e-commerce actually works and help them boost their sales to make more money using Kaymu. Students and female entrepreneurs are always encouraged at Kaymu and many housewives have found Kaymu to be the easiest source of making some extra money without hampering their daily routine. Online business is the new trend all over Bangladesh.
Well there you have it folks! If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, Kaymu should be your first choice as an online market place to trade in. With its unparalleled services and dedicated, hardworking and inspiring teams, your business couldn’t be in better hands.