e-commerce companies must deliver products within 5 days

The e-commerce companies will have to deliver products to the customers within five days after the advance payment is made, according to the draft of the e-commerce guidelines awaiting finalisation at an inter-ministerial meeting Wednesday.

However, the delivery time for faraway districts and rural areas is ten days after the advance payment, states the "Digital Commerce Operational Guide-2021" prepared by the commerce ministry.

Currently, orders to some companies with the entire payment cleared in advance take 45 days or more for delivery

As said in the guidelines, the e-commerce platforms will hand over the products within 48 hours of the advance payment to delivery services and notify the customers via sms, email or phone calls. In the next 72 hours, the delivery men or companies will supply the items to the clients.           

For purchase with payment in advance, the guidelines said the e-commerce companies must have the displayed items ready to ship – either in their own stock or with the registered third party.   

"If a product is not ready for handover within 72 hours of the payment, the companies will not take more than 10% of the price in advance," said the draft, adding that a 100% advance payment can be charged in this case only through the Bangladesh Bank's escrow service. 

For essentials, the delivery time will be shorter than five days as the e-commerce platforms will have to specify it to the customers while taking the orders. If an essential item order has multiple products, there will be a uniform delivery charge.

But if the essentials come from different merchants, the e-commerce companies then can charge separate delivery fees. In this case, the customer will have to be notified prior to confirming the order.    

If a company fails to comply with the guidelines, the government will be able to take a number of measures against the defaulter including trade licence cancellation, revoking company registration, banning the online marketplace, and scrapping the value-added tax (VAT) registration. 

The guidelines also enable the affected customers to seek legal remedies at the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection and other courts.

Today's inter-ministerial meeting, convened by the commerce ministry, will be joined by representatives of the central bank, home ministry, finance ministry, national revenue board, law ministry and other trade bodies.

Hafizur Rahman, additional secretary to the commerce ministry and also the chief of the government's central digital commerce cell, said they will send the finalised draft to the cabinet for approval, and then a gazette notification will be published subsequently.            

With the guidelines in place, he hoped the country's booming e-commerce sector would be disciplined.   

After an inspection of e-commerce company Evaly, a Bangladesh Bank report recently said the platform has a capacity to repay only 16% of the huge liabilities both to its customers and merchants. 

Citing the central bank report, The Business Standard ran a news item on 22 June.

There are mounting allegations against some e-commerce ventures including Evaly for neither delivering the products, nor refunding the customers who had cleared the payments in advance. 

The draft guidelines say, "All types of digital wallets, gift cards, cash vouchers or any other medium which can be used as an alternative to cash cannot be launched, used, bought or sold without the permission of the Bangladesh Bank."

E-commerce companies must have the displayed items in their own stock, or to the registered merchants. Any offer must mention the available stock, and it will have to be updated regularly.  

According to the draft, if a delivery with advance payment is delayed due to an unforeseen and uncontrollable issue, the company will notify the customers. But they must not force the clients directly or indirectly to buy any other product in exchange for the delayed one.      

If the product comes with a discount, free shipping or other facilities, the product description must have those mentioned clearly.

The cashback offers or discounts must be effective just after the sales as the e-commerce companies will not be allowed to keep the cashbacks in their wallets, said the central bank.    

The e-commerce platforms will have to appoint a sufficient number of customer care employees as per the size of their market. The companies will have to record and store the customer complaints, and a complaint will have to be settled within the maximum 96 hours.      

The draft guidelines say the customers will have to be provided with the printed copy of the bill mentioning the VAT and other charges (if any). 

According to the draft, if a company fails to deliver a product on time, the customers will have to be refunded within the maximum seven days through the same means the advance payment was made. If the refund takes any extra charge, it will be on the company, not on the customer.  

Besides, once the Bangladesh Bank launches escrow services, the payment gateways will make the refunds upon delivery failure or order cancellation by the customers. The advance payments will wait at the gateways, and will enter e-commerce accounts only after the delivery.     

The escrow service will be launched this week and a circular will be issued, said Mezbaul Haque, general manager of the central bank's Payment Systems Department.

AKM Fahim Mashroor, former president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information (BASIS), said he welcomed the proposed guidelines as it addresses a lot of recent concerns of customer harassment by a few so-called e-commerce companies.

"But I also think a guideline is not enough for bringing discipline in the industry. Proper enforcement should also be ensured," he added.

Fahim Mashroor commented that the government should not leave the e-commerce platforms unguarded as he mentioned some online-based unscrupulous ventures offering people "double your money in three months".