future startup logo
Subscribe

Evaly Connect: Adding Social Factor To eCommerce In Bangladesh

Evaly Connect: Adding Social Factor To eCommerce In Bangladesh
Evaly Connect

Amidst the crowded e-commerce market, Evaly is rising up to be the cream of the crop. With ambitious features already underway to improve the e-commerce industry, we had a never-before-seen look into Evaly’s latest feature, the Evaly Connect.

Evaly Connect, which Evaly plans to launch in the next few months, will be an independent app connected to Evaly’s main app similar to that of Facebook Messenger. It will allow users to do a long list of things such as communication between sellers and buyers, update status, share feedback, ask friends for reviews on products and shop in a group among other things.

In a nutshell, Evaly Connect is a one-stop solution for buyers and sellers without any hint of exaggeration. Taking inspiration from the massively popular Facebook-Messenger duo, Evaly Connect aims to bring the buyer and seller relationship closer by integrating a social aspect into its platform.

“Our ambition with Evaly Connect is to add a social experience to digital shopping,” says Mohammad Rassel, Founder, and CEO of Evaly.

News Feed, a flagship feature of Evaly Connect has already been deployed across Evaly’s platforms and is enjoying rave reviews and feedback. Evaly Newsfeed, which is similar to Facebook's newsfeed, allows Evaly app users irrespective of buyers or sellers to post, react and comment in a public space within the Evaly app.

Evaly Connect: Adding Social Factor To eCommerce In Bangladesh 1
Evaly Connect demo

There are several benefits to adding a feature that could engage your users. One apparent benefit is, of course, it will improve user engagement. Since the news feed allows users to share their thoughts and opinion, a large number of users is likely to take advantage of the feature and participate in the conversation, eventually driving up the overall engagement in the app. And engagement often leads to conversion. “We have introduced an MVP of NewsFeed feature on Evaly App and to our surprise, the response has been overwhelming,” says Mr. Rassel. “It has meaningful added to our overall user engagement.”

The company says an update to the News Feed is on the way which will allow users to post reviews and ask for products or product reviews, a first for Bangladesh’s e-commerce industry. Additionally, buyers will be able to negotiate prices and mention friends to see a product together and share the product with them directly without the hassle of copying links.

The ambitious project involves an independent second app called Evaly Connect, as mentioned before, which will be a hub for private conversations for buyers and sellers. The app will be seamlessly integrated into the existing Evaly app along with having exclusive features like “Area-Based Search” where users will be able to check out products and offers nearest to their location.

Potential customers will also be able to communicate with other customers to ask for reviews of products they desire. “We have big plans with Evaly Connect and we have been working on some exciting and novel features for our markets that are on the way.”

News Feed has already been a massive success with Evaly raking up $5 million in revenue in the last month alone. Needless to say, website traffic has increased exponentially and users are spending more time on the platform. Lots of additional features are under development and are slated to be released at the end of this year, the company says.

Adding social factor to online shopping

Evaly Connect is offering something unique to the online marketplace scene in Bangladesh. Adding a social factor to digital shopping will undoubtedly be beneficial to all sides involved and the concept will grow to be more widespread in years to come.

Shopping is social by nature. Consumers enjoy social interaction while shopping besides looking at products. People go to the shopping mall because there is a social aspect to it. You not only shop in shopping malls, but also interact with people. In many ways, shopping is a social experience.

While there are examples of successful social eCommerce companies in markets like China (Pinduoduo in China that introduced a group shopping model), India and Indonesia, it was not the case in Bangladesh. This was a limitation for digital commerce companies across the board where shopping became a mere task and a matter of a few clicks.

Evaly Connect aims to change that and add a social factor to eCommerce in Bangladesh. The company says it hopes that the new social ecommerce features will improve customer experience and positively impact consumer adoption of online shopping in Bangladesh.

Ruhul Kader contributed to this story.

Ahmed Husnein Choudhury is an experienced software engineer specializing in mobile application development and a seasoned creative content writer. He can be reached at ahmedchoudhury18@gmail.com

In-depth business & tech coverage from Dhaka

Stories exclusively available at FS

About FS

Contact Us