Ctg Fagun Mela offers in-store experience for online shoppers

A group of women entrepreneurs in Chattogram city, who mainly sell clothing, jewellery, craft and gift items on their Facebook pages throughout the year, have come together and organised a fair named "Fagun Mela", aiming to promote locally-made items among customers and interact face-to-face with them.

The three-day fair at a residential building on Zakir Hossain Road in South Khulshi area of the port city started on Thursday and will continue until Saturday.

This is the second edition of the fair and named "Boithok".

The fair, jointly organised by the online business platforms—"Mourita", "Madur" and "Bichitra"-- remains open to visitors from 10:00am to 8:00am every day.

Throughout the year, locally-made clothing items are sold through the Facebook page "Mourita" while ornaments and gift items are sold through the pages "Madur" and "Bichitra" respectively. 

Businesses through online platforms don't allow the customers to communicate with the sellers directly. Customers also have to pick and purchase only by seeing the product photos. Therefore, this arrangement has been made with the aim to exhibit the products directly and create buyer-seller interaction. It has been done in a completely homely atmosphere, said the organisers.

One of the organisers Meher Nigar, a teacher of Premier University in Chattogram, told The Business Standard that 'Boithok' is a distinct arrangement to form a relationship of trust with the customers. 

"This arrangement is for the promotion and expansion of the country's traditions," she added.

According to her, at the fair, hand-printed sarees made with handloom fabrics collected from Rajshahi and Sirajganj and hand-painted and wooden block-designed clothing items are being sold at the stall of "Mourita".

"Madur" is selling a wide variety of ornaments made of oysters and pearls collected from Cox's Bazar while various gift items created from glass and clay are available at the stall of "Bichitra".

The three-day fair will wrap up on Saturday.