University of Dhaka: Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19 Report

This report, prepared by Team Diversifiers from the Department of Marketing at the University of Dhaka, examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the smartphone retail industry in Bangladesh. The report explores how retailers adapted to the crisis, including strategies like online sales and home delivery. It delves into the future prospects of omnichannel marketing, analyzing its importance in reaching customers. A PESTLE analysis is conducted to assess the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting the industry. The report also forecasts the performance of the smartphone retail market over the next five years, considering market growth and evolving consumer behavior. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities facing the smartphone retail sector in Bangladesh due to the pandemic.

Smartphone Retail
Industry After COVID-19
A Report on the Effects of Covid-19 on Smartphone Retail Industry of Bangladesh
Team Diversifiers 7/5/20 Retail Management

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page i
Assignment on
Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Course Name: Retail Management
Course no: MKT-414
Submission Date:5-7-2020

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page ii
Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Submitted to:
Muhammad Intisar Alam, Assistant Professor.
Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Business Studies
University of Dhaka.
Submitted by:
Team Diversifiers.
Section: A
Department of Marketing
Name ID Email
Khondoker Sadman Sakib JH-26-093 [e-mail]
Tisha Chakraborty SK-26-013 [e-mail]
MD. Amjad Hossain Sumon JH-26-111 [e-mail]
Md. Sujon Mia JH-26-137 [e-mail]
Anif Nawaz SM-26-085 [e-mail]
Eva Das RH-26-047 [e-mail]
Umme Sadia SK-26-193 [e-mail]
Sudipta Barua RH-26-091 [e-mail]
Nazmin Akter KM-26-037 [e-mail]
MD. Raihan Uddin ZR-26-248 [e-mail]
Rafiur Rahman Sami ZR-26-05 [e-mail]
Rukhsana Hussain Rohini RH-26-015 [e-mail]

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page iii
July 5, 2020
Muhammad Intisar Alam, Department of Marketing.
University of Dhaka.
Dhaka.
Dear Mr. Muhammad Intisar Alam,
As agreed, on 17th June, we are submitting the attached report entitled “Smartphone Retail Industry
After COVID-19” This report examines the possible future of the retail smartphone industry.
I hope you find this report satisfactory.
Sincerely yours,
Khondoker Sadman Sakib,
Representative of Team Diversifiers
MKT-414, Sec-A
Department of marketing.
University of Dhaka.

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We cannot express enough gratitude to the almighty for giving me
enough strength to finish this report.
Our completion of this report could not have been accomplished
without the support of our team members: Umme, Anif, Amjad,
Rimon, Sujon, Eva, Sudipta, Nazmin, Tisha, and Rafiur. Thank you for
your heartiest efforts.
And finally, we offer respect to the teacher who gave us this task and
guidance, Muhammad Intisar Alam Sir.

Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1
1.How smartphone retailers are continuing their business in Bangladesh during the Covid-19
period? ................................................................................................................................................... 2
2. What are the future prospects of Omni-channel marketing for smartphone retailers in
Bangladesh due to Covid-19? ............................................................................................................... 3
3. Do a PESTLE analysis about the impact of Covid-19 in smartphone retail industry of
Bangladesh? .......................................................................................................................................... 5
4. After five years from now, how the smartphone retail market of Bangladesh will perform? ....... 8
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 10
References ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 1: Fall of the Smartphone Industry in Bangladesh ..................................................................... 2
Figure 2: Omni-Channel Marketing Process ......................................................................................... 3
Figure 3: US Smartphone Market .......................................................................................................... 4
Figure 4: PESTLE Analysis ................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 5: Market Growth ....................................................................................................................... 9

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page 1
Introduction
The retail smartphone industry has been one of the busiest industries across the globe (Levy et al.,
2019). It has produced millions of dollars’ worth of transactions every month of the last few years.
This high growth industry however has tremendously been influenced by the hands of COVID-19.
This life-threatening illness has caused major problems for the world economy and Bangladesh has
not been different. The smartphone retail industry has also suffered a serious blow for this pandemic.
From a business and economic point of view, the smartphone retail business is one of the most
profitable industries in Bangladesh. Focusing on its performance after and during the COVID-19
outbreak is essential. For that reason, this report aims to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the
smartphone retail industry of Bangladesh in the near future.

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page 2
1.How smartphone retailers are continuing their business
in Bangladesh during the Covid-19 period?
Coronavirus has been tremendously affecting business activities of all industries for the past 7 months.
Ever since the virus got spread in China, many businesses and industries have fallen at stake since
China is the major supplier of their products. Smartphone retailers are no exception to that. Smartphone
retailers in Bangladesh are mainly dependent on Chinese suppliers as the majority of the smartphones
in Bangladesh come from China. For example, most of the smartphones of Samsung, MI, and Huawei
brands come directly from China. The smartphone industry has taken the major hit from COVID – 19
(Donthu, & Gustafsson, 2020). The supply of smartphones has been severely eroded because of this
pandemic situation. Moreover, people are now less likely to come out of the home to buy phones from
the shops. So, smartphone retailers are now facing serious trouble in operating and continuing their
business. In a country like Bangladesh, it is hard to adapt to commercial changes fast and smartphone
retailers are facing great problems due to that. But they are slowly adjusting to the new reality and
smartphone retailers are implementing new ways to continue their business as much as possible in this
pandemic situation.
As people are avoiding going to shops except for very much necessary product, the sales of
smartphones have been decreased. To encourage people to buy
smartphones, retailers are offering a special discount on the
phone. This way, customers are getting attracted to purchasing
phones. Since customers cannot visit the physical store to
purchase phones due to lockdown, many of the smartphone
retailers in different districts are starting online service through
website development for ordering phones and home delivery for
customer’s convenience. Since the sale in the entire smartphone
industry has decreased by 20% during the past four months
worldwide, the retailers are feeling the utmost pressure to increase
the number of sales (Donthu, & Gustafsson, 2020). And therefore, they are targeting social media
platforms to do online promotion heavily including a paid promotion to gain customer’s attention.
Figure 1: Fall of the Smartphone
Industry in Bangladesh

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page 3
The pandemic situation has created a very uncertain condition in the smartphone market of
Bangladesh. Though the supply of smartphones has been decreased, sales have also been decreased.
But the smartphone retailers are still trying their best with offerings like discount and home delivery
service to sell the existing phones to the customers until the situation improves and everything
comebacks to normal.
2. What are the future prospects of Omni-channel
marketing for smartphone retailers in Bangladesh due to
Covid-19?
The 21st century's marketing landscape has encountered the massive waves of transformations of the
customers' buying behavior due to the COVID19 which shows that the marketing changes more rapidly
than the speed of light.
In the era of technology, a business organization can easily get forfeited in the packed and crowded
business realms due to backdated marketing approaches (Syed & Kabir, 2018). However, this
sophisticated digital era has also opened up new opportunities and passages to reach the ultimate
customers' attention. Omnichannel marketing is one of them which has transformed the digital
marketing channels.
It helps the organization to create an integrated and seamless channel that delivers a smoother and
more customized buying experience from the very beginning to the end across online devices and
offline stores.
To deliver a unified
and undisrupted
message to showcase
the brand image to
the customers,
different marketing
wings work together
in the marketing Figure 2: Omni-Channel Marketing Process

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Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page 4
Omnichannel. A study in different countries over millions of people shows that people are around 19
percent more engaged with the brand in Omnichannel marketing campaigns than the single-channel
marketing campaigns (Chowdhury et al., 2018). Here engagement with the brand does not refer to the
final purchase of products and services rather its emphasis on the awareness of the brand, loyalty
toward the brand, etc.
As customers are eager to explore seamless experiences through different platforms or mediums, they
are using, the companies are trying to provide more detailed information about the brand without any
misleading and conflicting information. Which can only be attained through a seamless shifting
experience from different devices to offline and online channels?
Covid-19 pandemic has presented a set of challenges to the marketers in its reign in 2020. The Global
spread of this highly contagious virus has changed the way marketers can approach the customers.
And it also made it clear that the effect will stay for years to come even after the virus has been if ever
neutralized.
The nature of the pandemic
has restricted consumers from
going to physical stores.
Marketing efforts that are
targeted at crowds are less
affective now (DATA BD,
2020). People need to stay at
home to stay safe. They are
spending more time online and
in virtual life. The sales of
luxuries went down as the
sales of essentials went up.
Customers are earning less and are willing to spend less.
As for the opportunity presented by the pandemic, there is a list too. Online traffic skyrocketed for
essential products. Television advertising has become relevant again. The new behavior is opening up
new grounds for marketers to roam. Home entertainment services like Netflix, Hulu, and the gaming
industry is experiencing a nice bump in sales. People do not want to miss out on COVID-19 updates
so media and newspaper sales are going up too.
Figure 3: US Smartphone Market

Smartphone Retail Industry After COVID-19
Department of Marketing. University of Dhaka. Page 5
All these changes made it all the more important for companies and businesses to hold on to their
existing customers. Omnichannel marketing can provide marketers with the opportunity to do just that
(Wang et al., 2013). When the customers can have the same seamless customized experience on the
different devices they use, they are more likely to be satisfied with the business and less likely to leave.
They can order the same commodities from their home which they used to purchase from stores. The
pandemic can stop the customers from going to stores, but that does not mean they cannot buy if the
business is Omnichannel.
It goes the same for the Smartphone retail sector as they are making an effort to minimize buying
hassle of the customers. So, Smartphone retailers are continuously updating the information across the
marketing channels. Additionally, they are improving the in-house data regarding the customers'
preferences to give personalized information that they want. As the product nature of smartphones, it
has long been more important for consumers to know about the specifications of the product and take
a long look at the reviews before they buy it. It allows the sales to not be restricted to offline shop sales
and be available online.
So, the pandemic is presenting more opportunities to the smartphone sellers who utilize Omnichannel
marketing compared to those who don’t.
3. Do a PESTLE analysis about the impact of Covid-19 in
smartphone retail industry of Bangladesh?
PESTLE analysis is a marketing tool used by marketers to determine the impact of the macro-
environment on the organization. PESTLE stands for all the external factors of an organization. Due
to COVID-19, the smartphone industry has faced many obstacles in many forms which can be
discussed by the PESTLE analysis. PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological,
Legal, and Environment. COVID-19 has greatly affected all these factors of the smartphone industry
(Data Reportal, 2020). The impact of COVID-19 on these factors are discussed below-

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Figure 4: PESTLE Analysis
Political Factors
Following the outbreak of Coronavirus, the Bangladesh government has imposed lockdown from 26th
March of 2020. Every year local companies fulfill only 8% of the total demand of smartphone and
assembled companies fulfills 40% of total demand (Daily Star, 2020). And the rest of the demand is
fulfilled by importing smartphones from different countries. During this pandemic, the manufacturing
companies were completely shut down for many days. And importing was quite tough due to the higher
restriction of govt. and it is also very costly nowadays as govt. has proposed to increase the tax.
According to Asifur Rahman, head of WALTON mobile their sales and production were completely
shut down and their sales percentage has dropped around 60% to 70%. The two largest shopping malls,
Jamuna and Bashundhara are still closed until now. In these two malls, there are almost 100 mobile
showrooms of well-known brands that are out of business now.
Economic Factors
The smartphone industry is also being hit hard like every other sector by the COVID-19 global crisis.
The report states that sales of mobile devices have never decreased so quickly. The sales percentage
of the smartphone for the first quarter of 2020 was 13% lower than the same period last year. Analysts
are noticing a major decline in smartphone production and sales. It is the first time since 2014 that less
than 300 million units have been shipped. It’s a huge blow for the smartphone market as it has been
flattening its sales curve for quite some time.
Social Factors
Political Economic Social
Technological Legal Environmental