I’m two-day late with this week’s update. I usually try to finish writing the update between Friday evening and Saturday morning and run it by Sunday. It gets delayed at times because writing is hard work and sometimes it takes much more work to complete an idea. However, this time I was on a short vacation. My good friend Nur Mohammad came to visit us and we spent a great time together. This was my first proper disconnected vacation in a few years. And I enjoyed it to my bones. I completely cut me off of internet. I didn't even read ebook. Technology has improved our lives in many ways, but it has also destroyed many critical values in our life. Leisure is one of them.
Today, we are always connected, always on. This has a serious downside - the inability to think and come up with interesting ideas. Not only I have enjoyed my vacation this time more than any time before, I felt properly rested and I came back to work with more power. I’ve decided to go at least one-day device-free from now on. British newspaper Guardian published a fascinating piece a few years ago title Who Killed Weekend, it is a wonderful read to put this idea of disconnected leisure into perspective.
We launched a new channel in collaboration with digital communication company WebAble Digital called Future of Marketing. Our ambition with the channel is simple: there is no place in Bangladesh where you could go and learn about what’s happening in the communication space in Bangladesh and learn about the trends and changes in the communication landscape in the context of Bangladesh, we want to build an outlet to fill up this gap, at least to some extent.
The world of communication is going through profound changes, we feel that there should be more discussion to understand these changes. The foundation of any good strategy is knowledge. That’s what we want to offer our readers. You may read the introduction piece here.
This new series is important for us for several reasons. This, in a way, is our first vertical expansion. Our ambition is to explore a few more verticals this year.
Ecommerce scene in the country is getting hot by the day. Daraz has been investing heavily to expand its lead and build a nationwide operation. It is also moving aggressively into different verticals. It has been paying a lot of attention to grocery of late. It is also working on entering book soon. The ecommerce landscape in Dhaka is likely to change in the next few years.
PrioyShop, one of the earliest ecommerce players in Dhaka, says it has a feasible strategy in place to address the next level of growth as well build a meaningful moat comes the next wave of competition.
It has been working on a multifaceted strategy. An important part of its strategy, the startup says, is rural e-commerce - serving rural areas both as customers and sellers. It has partnered with a host of government and private organizations to deepen its distribution network across the country. It also launched an independent program to create agents in the last mile.
While we are impressed with the progress PriyoShop made on that front, there are many pieces of its strategy that the company has to address if it wants to avoid contingencies, have greater control, and achieve long-term sustainable growth in its rural e-commerce push. I explored the move in-depth in a piece based on my conversation with PriyoShop founder and CEO.
