Jannatul Islam Rahad
The second biggest festival of the Muslims of the country, Eid ul Azha, is knocking at the door. People have started crowding cattle Haats to choose the best animal from thousands of sacrificial animals up for sale.
Besides, these traditional Haats, a new dimension has been added to this Eid too by online buying and selling of sacrificial animals. The practice has increased substantially since its introduction three years ago. These business provide all services associated with the holy sacrifice, including selection of the animal to be sacrificed, hiring of butcher and distribution of the meat among the less privileged.
Customers can even browse through pictures of the available animals online and make selections on the basis of its weight and price. Payments are then made via bank cards or mobile banking services.
The idea is initiated by amardesheshop.com, online urban market place of Future Solution of Business (FSB) under their Amar Desh Amar Gram (ADAG) project in 2012, first ever in the country. Anyone can choose the best by clicking on amardesheshop.com/qurbani.
"We have uploaded some 160 cows already on our portal. We have sourced them from Pabna, Gopalganj, Gaibandha, Narsingdi, Rangpur, Jamalpur and Tangail. ADAG offers to deliver your purchased animal just three days before Eid day" FSB Managing Director Sadeqa Hassan Sejuti told The Daily Observer.
"We are focusing on our customers, living abroad. They can purchase any cattle from the e-shop, and we will deliver the cattle to their relatives as they wish," Sejuti said.
"We sold some 75 cows in 2012 and 25 cows last year. We hope the number will increase this year," she added.
"We take care of the entire process starting from the purchase to the distribution of meat on the customer's behalf. We will compile necessary documents, photos and videos of the Qurbani that will be brightening up hundreds of people's life during the festivities," Sejuti explained.
All one needs to do is fill up a form online make his pick and make the payment through debit or credit card, bank draft or mobile money transfer and get home delivery.
Through representatives the company reaches the farmers in different districts. ADAG representatives, reaches the farmers willing to sell their cows and make a deal with them. The deal is done by the representatives who then take the measurement and weight of the cow and upload the details along with its location and price.
Some 160 cows are available for sale at prices ranging from Tk 25,000 to Tk 110,000 including service and bank charges.
Bikroy dotcom is the other online market place in the country. It provides customer to customer (c2c) service. Anyone can sell their cattle or other products here. The market is offering its sellers the chance to win a cow or a goat by posting free adverts on their site. Besides, cattle business, there is a competition for the customers at Bikroy dotcom.
Over 800 sacrificial animals from 64 districts are up for sell online as of yesterday, said Bikroy dotcom marketing department.
"We have started our campaign on Eid ul Azha to make buying and selling of cattle easy for the sacrifice," Bikroy.com. Marketing Manager Eshita Sharmin told The Daily Observer.
"Besides, sellers, more often than not, lose their hard earned money to hijackers or robbers every year. The online market is safer than the traditional Haat in that respect," Eshita said while focusing on the safety and security of the online market place in cattle business.
"As lot of cow and goat ads are posted on Bikroy dotcom during Qurbani Eid, we want to reward our customers by giving a cow or a goat for posting free ad on Bikroy dot com," Eshita explained.
At the end of the campaign, a randomly selected seller will win a cow as first prize and second prize will be a goat.
www. ekhanei dot com is the e-shopping solution of its parents company Telenor. They have also placed thousands of animals including sacrificial animals here. The nationwide market place has thousands of cattle from 64 districts across the country.
One of the important parts is to process the meat and preserve it during the Qurbani Eid. Ekhanei dotcom brings a special offer for the refrigerator selling this year.
Biponee dotcom, the e-shopping concern of Brain Station-23 brings some products to fulfil customers' interest. People will crowd blacksmith's shop before the festival for necessary knives and choppers. Biponee dotcom has necessary items related to slaughtering of sacrificial animals.
Biponee dot com Chief Operation Officer Ahsanul Alam told the Daily Observer, "We want to assist our customers in this regard. Products like ropes, knives, knife sharpeners, antiseptic solutions and bleeching powder will be available on Biponee dotcom during the festival," added Ahsanul.