Minimization of Distribution Channels for Efficient Supply Chain An agricultural & e-commerce perspective of Bangladesh

Abstract

A typical agricultural supply chain is built around middlemen throughout the whole
network - which is especially true for a developing country like Bangladesh. In both
economic and agricultural perspective, the roles of middlemen can both directly and
indirectly affect the market in terms of prices and product quality. Due to the
frequent change of hands in the middlemen roster, it causes an offset in the
appropriate pricing and quality of the products – which is equally valid for the ecommerce
sector.
In
addition,
the
concept
of
e-commerce
is
relatively
new
in
the

economy
of
our
country.
All
the
more
reason
for
a
better
setup
of
the
e-commerce

supply
chain.
As
a
developing
country,
Bangladesh
faces
a
great
deal
of
challenges

when
it
comes
to
keeping
the
supply
chains
intact.
A
survey
has
been
conducted
on

agricultural

and e-commerce purchasing behaviour of consumers. The major
problems identified in the survey were increasing price of agricultural products,
decreasing product quality, prolonged delivery time and unavailability of products.
In order to address this problem, it is necessary to come up with ways to minimize
the number of middlemen in the agricultural and e-commerce supply chains. Some
possible potential methods such as co-operative model, contract farming, common
buyer-seller platform, linking the distribution with technology can be introduced to
effectively eliminate this problem. For e-commerce, skipping steps in circulation
channel, market feedback, website-to-customer transportation are the potential
solutions.