Inside a Mirpur Clothing Startup That Only Sells Online: How F-Commerce Really Works

Editor’s note: The three founders in this article are an illustrative portrait, built from the way many small online clothing businesses in Dhaka operate. They are not one specific company. The rules, courier terms and market figures come from published sources; the business numbers are our clearly labelled estimates.

The warehouse is a single room above a pharmacy in Mirpur 2. Shelves of folded kurtis and three-pieces line the walls, a ring light stands in one corner, and a stack of courier bags waits by the door. By 11am, the first courier rider is already on the stairs.

Nusrat, Shuvo and Mithila started the business three years ago with Tk 2 lakh between them, a borrowed sewing machine and a Facebook page. Nusrat handles design and sourcing from the wholesale markets. Shuvo runs ads and the page. Mithila manages orders, couriers and the money. They have never had a physical shop, and they do not want one.

Their story is the story of thousands of small businesses that make up Bangladesh’s “f-commerce” economy: shops that live on Facebook and Instagram, take orders in Messenger, and deliver through couriers with cash on delivery. This article goes inside how such a business really works, what each order earns, and what founders wish they had known before starting.

What f-commerce is, and how big it has become

F-commerce means selling through Facebook, rather than through a separate website or marketplace. In Bangladesh it took off because it is cheap to start: no website, no shop rent, no stock in a mall. A page, a phone and a good supplier are enough to begin.

Nobody knows the exact number of Facebook-based businesses. A Centre for Policy Dialogue survey cited by The Financial Express estimated about 50,000 Facebook-based entrepreneurs, and industry leaders say the real number including all social media sellers is higher. Courier firms give another clue: Pathao alone said it served nearly 200,000 merchants in 2024.

Clothing is one of the biggest categories, especially women’s wear: kurtis, three-pieces, sarees, hijabs and modest fashion. It suits online selling because buyers want to see new designs often, and photos and short videos sell them well.

How one order moves through the business

Here is the life of a typical order at the Mirpur startup:

1. The ad. Shuvo runs a boosted post or video ad showing a new kurti. A customer in Uttara sees it in her feed.
2. The message. She sends “price?” in the comments or Messenger. Someone on the team replies with price, sizes and delivery charge, often within minutes.
3. The confirmation call. Before shipping, Mithila calls the customer to confirm the order. This one step, they found, cuts fake and impulse orders sharply.
4. Packing and booking. The item is packed and booked with a courier through the courier’s merchant app.
5. Delivery and cash collection. The courier delivers, usually within a day or two inside Dhaka, and collects cash.
6. Payout. The courier deducts its delivery and cash-on-delivery charges and pays the rest to the business, often to a bank or mobile wallet, a few days later.
7. Or the return. Sometimes the customer refuses the parcel at the door, is not home, or does not answer the phone. The parcel comes back, and the business has paid for a trip that earned nothing.

The couriers: the backbone of online selling

Without courier companies, f-commerce would not exist. Firms such as Steadfast, Pathao Courier, RedX and Paperfly pick up parcels from sellers, deliver them, collect cash and pay sellers back.

Charges depend on weight, size and destination. As one example of how terms work, Steadfast’s published terms say it charges a 1% cash-on-delivery fee, applied after deducting the delivery charge from the cash collected, and that it does not charge for returned parcels. Delivery inside Dhaka is commonly much cheaper than delivery to other districts; in our example below, we assume Tk 70 inside Dhaka, which is our estimate of a typical rate for a light clothing parcel. Check each courier’s current price list.

Most sellers charge the delivery fee to the customer on top of the product price. That works when the parcel is delivered. When it is returned, the seller usually ends up paying that trip.

The numbers on one kurti

Let us follow a single kurti that sells for Tk 1,200, with delivery charged to the customer separately. All of the cost figures below are our illustrative estimates for a small Dhaka brand, not quotes.

Item	Per delivered order (Tk)
Selling price	1,200
Fabric, tailoring and finishing	− 550
Packaging (poly bag, tag, thank-you card)	− 30
Facebook ad cost per order	− 150
Cash-on-delivery fee (1% of amount collected)	− 13
Left before returns and fixed costs	about 457

Our estimates. Delivery is paid by the customer, so it nets to zero on a successful order.

On paper, that is a healthy 38% margin. But not every parcel gets delivered.

Returns: the silent profit killer

Cash on delivery is the norm in Bangladesh, because many buyers do not trust paying in advance. The downside is that customers can simply refuse the parcel at the door. For the seller, a return means the ad money and packaging are wasted, and the delivery trip, which the customer was supposed to pay for, now comes out of the seller’s pocket.

Here is how return rates change the picture, per 100 parcels shipped at the prices above:

Return rate	Parcels delivered	Profit per 100 shipped (Tk)	Profit per delivered order (Tk)	Margin on sales
0%	100	45,730	457	38%
10%	90	38,660	430	36%
20%	80	31,580	395	33%
30%	70	24,510	350	29%

Our calculation. Returned items are put back into stock; the business loses the ad cost, packaging and the unpaid delivery trip.

Going from 10% to 30% returns cuts profit per 100 parcels by more than a third. That is why the founders treat return rate as one of their most important numbers, alongside sales.

How they keep returns down

• Confirmation calls before every shipment.
• Honest photos in natural light, with a short video showing the real fabric and colour. Most refusals happen when the item looks different from the picture.
• A clear size chart with measurements in inches, not just S, M, L.
• Partial advance for outside Dhaka, such as asking for the delivery charge in advance by bKash or Nagad. Many serious buyers accept this.
• Tracking repeat refusers. A simple spreadsheet of phone numbers that refused parcels before.
• Allowing the customer to check the item in front of the rider, where the courier allows it, which builds trust.

A month in the business

Per-order profit is only half the story. The business also has fixed costs that do not change with sales. Here is an illustrative month for the Mirpur startup, shipping 600 parcels with a 20% return rate. All figures are our estimates.

Item	Monthly (Tk)
Profit from 600 parcels shipped (480 delivered)	about 1,89,500
Warehouse room rent and utilities	− 25,000
Two staff for packing and messaging	− 30,000
Photo and video shoots, models, props	− 15,000
Internet, phones, software, bank and wallet charges	− 6,000
Damaged or unsold stock written off	− 8,000
Left for three founders	about 1,05,500

Split three ways, that is around Tk 35,000 each a month, before setting money aside to grow. Many small brands look busy on Facebook while their founders earn less than they would in a salaried job. The difference is ownership, flexibility, and the chance to grow, which is why so many keep going.

Facebook ads: the biggest variable cost

For most f-commerce brands, paid ads are the main way new customers find them. In our example, ads cost Tk 150 for each order, more than every other cost except the product itself.

Lessons the founders learned:

• Measure cost per order, not likes. A post with thousands of reactions that brings no orders is expensive decoration.
• Short videos beat photos. A 15-second clip of someone wearing the kurti usually sells better than a flat-lay picture.
• Repeat customers are cheap customers. Selling again to someone who already bought costs far less than finding a new buyer. A simple Messenger broadcast or WhatsApp list of past buyers can be worth more than a big ad budget.
• Pay for ads legally. Use a proper international card from your bank. Paying through informal “dollar sellers” carries risk and can be blocked.
• Watch rule changes. In August 2026, the government’s draft cross-border digital commerce policy proposed that foreign platforms like Facebook register for a DBID before running new ads in Bangladesh and comply with VAT and income tax. If adopted, this could affect how sellers buy ads and what they pay.

Making it official: DBID, trade licence and tax

Many f-commerce sellers start informally. As they grow, getting the paperwork right protects them and opens doors to bank accounts, payment gateways and loans.

DBID (Digital Business Identity)

The DBID is a unique ID for online businesses, issued through the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC). The Commerce Ministry launched it in 2022, and its guideline says e-commerce and f-commerce businesses must register. According to The Financial Express:

• A trade licence is not always required; a business with an official website or social media page can apply.
• Terms and conditions must be shown in Bangla on the page, and the DBID number must be displayed.
• Membership in a recognised trade body such as e-CAB or the SME Foundation helps.
• Many early applications were rejected for incomplete documents, so prepare carefully.

Other paperwork to consider as you grow

• Trade licence from your city corporation, needed for a business bank account and many partnerships.
• e-TIN and tax return for each founder, and for the business once it is registered.
• A business bank account, so business money and personal money stay separate.
• VAT registration once your turnover crosses the threshold set by the National Board of Revenue.
• A partnership deed if you have co-founders. Write down who owns what share, who does what, and what happens if someone leaves. Many friendships have ended over a business with no written agreement.

Managing money in a cash-on-delivery business

Cash flow, not profit, kills most small online brands. The business pays for fabric, tailoring and ads today, but the money comes back from couriers days or weeks later. Some practical habits:

• Reconcile courier payouts every week. Match every delivered parcel to a payment. Missing payouts add up quietly.
• Do not overstock. Make small batches of new designs, test them with ads, and reorder only what sells.
• Pay yourselves a fixed amount. Taking money out whenever it arrives makes it impossible to know if the business is really profitable.
• Keep a cash buffer. At least one month of fixed costs in the bank, for Eid seasons when you need to buy stock early, or slow months after.
• Accept digital payments too. Offering bKash, Nagad or card payment for those who prefer it reduces returns and speeds up cash flow.
• Be careful with loans. Borrowing to buy stock before Eid can work, but read the terms first. Our guide on reading the fine print on a loan explains what to check.

The seasons that make or break the year

Clothing sales in Bangladesh are heavily seasonal. Eid-ul-Fitr is usually the biggest month of the year, followed by Eid-ul-Adha, Pohela Boishakh, Durga Puja and the winter wedding season. A small brand may earn a large share of its yearly profit in the weeks before Eid.

That brings risks: buying too much stock, couriers overloaded in the last week before Eid, and parcels arriving too late to be accepted. Experienced founders plan Eid collections months ahead, set a last order date, and keep part of their stock as safe, simple designs that will still sell after the festival.

What the founders would tell someone starting today

1. Know your numbers from day one. Track cost per order, ad cost per order, return rate and courier payouts in a simple spreadsheet.
2. Start small and test. Ten pieces of a new design tell you more than a hundred pieces you cannot sell.
3. Quality and honesty build repeat buyers. A kurti that looks like the photo brings the same customer back three times.
4. Answer messages fast. In f-commerce, the shop that replies first often gets the sale.
5. Get the paperwork done early. DBID, trade licence and a bank account make every next step easier.
6. Do not depend on one platform. A Facebook page can be restricted or hacked overnight. Build a customer phone list, an Instagram presence and perhaps a simple website as backup.
7. Pay yourself something. A business that cannot pay its founders is a hobby, not a company.

For founders who also freelance or receive payments from abroad, our guide on getting paid from abroad covers the banking side. And if you are saving your first profits, see where to keep your first 1 lakh taka.

This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or business advice. Courier charges, ad costs and regulations change; check current terms with each provider and the relevant authorities.

Frequently asked questions

How much money do I need to start an online clothing business in Bangladesh?

Many start with Tk 1 to 3 lakh for a first batch of stock, photography and a few weeks of ads. Starting small and testing designs before buying in bulk keeps the risk low.

Do I need a trade licence to sell on Facebook?

Not always to start, but the government’s DBID guideline says online businesses must register. A trade licence becomes important for a business bank account, payment gateways and growth.

What is DBID?

Digital Business Identity, a unique ID for e-commerce and f-commerce businesses issued through RJSC. You can apply with an official website or social media page and the required documents.

How much do couriers charge?

It depends on weight, size and destination, with delivery inside Dhaka usually much cheaper than outside. Steadfast, for example, charges a 1% cash-on-delivery fee and says it does not charge for returns. Compare current price lists.

How can I reduce returned parcels?

Call to confirm every order, use honest photos and videos, give a clear size chart, take a small advance for outside-Dhaka orders, and keep a list of repeat refusers.

Key words explained

Term	What it means
F-commerce	Selling through Facebook pages, groups and Messenger instead of a separate website.
COD	Cash on delivery. The customer pays the courier when the parcel arrives.
Return rate	The share of shipped parcels that come back undelivered or refused.
Cost per order	How much you spend on ads to get one confirmed order.
DBID	Digital Business Identity, the registration ID for online businesses.
Payout	The money a courier sends you after deducting its charges.
Fixed costs	Costs that stay the same each month, like rent and salaries.

How we reported this

The three founders are an illustrative portrait based on how many small online clothing brands in Dhaka operate, not a profile of one company. Courier terms come from Steadfast’s published terms and Pathao’s 2024 statement. DBID rules and seller estimates come from The Financial Express. The draft digital commerce policy comes from the Daily Observer’s August 2026 report. All product costs, ad costs, delivery rates, return scenarios and monthly figures are our own estimates and calculations, labelled in the text. We have no arrangement with any courier or platform mentioned.