Bangladesh is now standing at a crucial point. Poised to become a Developing Country by 2024, it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Bangladesh recorded the highest economic growth in the last ten years. Since Bangladesh’s GDP expanded 188 percent at the current prices.

Of the 165.57 million Bangladeshi people, 82.70 million are females and they have huge contribution to this economic development. Despite facing numerous challenges, women’s participation in the labor force increased faster than men over the years. Currently, 57 percent of our women are engaged in the workforce. In 2010, the number of working women stood at 16.2 million reaching to 18.6 million in 2016-2017. Women, alongside men are working in many public and private organizations. 80 percent of the women are working in the Readymade Garments industry, the most important sector in our country.

Thanks to the Digital Bangladesh initiative of the current government, the Information and Communication Technology sector of Bangladesh observed tremendous growth. e-Commerce is the only ICT sub-sector that saw highest participation from women.

e-Commerce is an emerging sector in Bangladesh and already women are playing a very critical role in this sector. Majority of the online shoppers in Bangladesh are women. Women’s clothing, fashion accessories are top selling items in e-Commerce followed by electronic gadget. Women living in big cities especially, Dhaka, leads a very busy life. Many of them are job-holders. They have to take care of their families as well. Hence, e-Commerce is a blessing for them.

e-Commerce also created opportunities for many women who want to become entrepreneurs. At present, there are 67.245 million Facebook users in Bangladesh.

More than 10 thousand female entrepreneurs are selling a wide range of products and services through Facebook pages. Many female entrepreneurs are also selling products from their online stores. Unfortunately, many of these entrepreneurs will not be able to sustain their businesses due to lack of necessary knowledge and training.

Women & e-commerce Forum (WE) addresses the needs of these female entrepreneurs. WE’s goal is to help the female e-Commerce entrepreneurs to sustain their businesses and empower them.