Meena Bazar, one of the leading supermarket chain in Bangladesh, is exploring opportunities to expand its ecommerce platform called Meena Click. Although Meena Bazar is one of the earliest retail stores in Dhaka to launch its own website, it launched meenabazar.com.bd website in 2012, but it was not until last year the company started to pay serious attention to ecommerce space.
In April 2017, it launched a re-branded ecommerce site called meenaclick.com and has since been investing in growing its ecommerce operations. If you live around Dhanmondi, you have probably encountered Meena Click branded bike delivering products. After a year, the company is now planning to expand its operation. In an interview with Future Startup on 20 May, GM, Brand and Communication, Ahmed Shoyeb Iqbal said Meena Bazar is exploring options to expand Meena Click.
“Currently, our service is available in Dhaka and Chittagong, we want to expand beyond these two cities. I can’t disclose which city we are going next but it’d happen by the end of this year,” Mr. Ahmed said. “On the product side, until now, we are predominantly about grocery which to some extent is disadvantageous. Category expansion is another priority going forward.”
Major retail companies in Dhaka, particularly grocery superstores, have been eyeing to build an omnichannel strategy. The rise of ecommerce and rapid growth of companies like Chaldal make it an essential long-term strategy for these companies.
For instance, Shwapno, another superstore chain in Dhaka, launched its ecommerce operation last year. In a recent interview with Future Startup, Saiful Alam, a Business Director at Shwapno, said that the company aims to build a hyperlocal ecommerce business.
Meena Bazar has a separate team who looks after the operation of Meena Click - a two-member team who sit at Head Office and manage the operation and another 20-member team who take care of the delivery fulfillment at the stores' end.
Meena Click is currently operating, delivering products to be accurate, out of six Meena Bazar stores, Meena Bazar currently has 17 stores. These stores work as a local hub for Meena Click. Each store has a delivery operation for Meena Click to take care of the fulfillment. It has its own logistics system to handle the delivery.
When a customer places an order, Meena Click uses the nearest store to fulfill the order which helps it to be more efficient and offer a better customer experience.
Meena Bazar is currently in the process of adding four more stores within the next month to its ecommerce operation which, the company thinks, will allow it to serve more customers and improve efficiency.
