How to sell handmade products online from home in Bangladesh

How do you sell handmade products online from home?

In seven steps, in this order: choose one product you can make again, price it so your hours are paid, photograph it in daylight, open a Facebook page with the price in every post, take advances by bKash, book a courier that collects cash on delivery, and add a marketplace once orders run smoothly. Don't build a website first. Your buyers are already on Facebook, and a new website brings no visitors on its own.

Plan for cash on delivery from day one. In the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' 2024-25 ICT survey, 86.8% of online shoppers paid cash on delivery.

What you need to start, and what it costs

What is f-commerce, and does it still work?

F-commerce is selling through Facebook: a page, posts, Messenger and groups, with payment on delivery. It's how most Bangladeshi home businesses sell. e-CAB, the e-commerce trade body, estimated in 2024 that f-commerce sellers ran 2 to 2.5 lakh pages, and that about 60,000 of them made regular sales. So the competition is real, and most pages never sell regularly.

It still works, but it's harder than it was in the pandemic years. Women sellers told The Business Standard in November 2025 that their posts now reach half, or even a third, of their old audience, and that one account restriction can stop a business. Two habits protect you:

• Keep your buyers' numbers, with their permission, so you can reach them on WhatsApp or by SMS if Facebook cuts your reach.
• Add a second channel once the page sells. Our guide on where to sell handmade products in Bangladesh compares the options.

How do you price a handmade product?

Add up what a piece costs you, including your time, then add a margin. The most common mistake is pricing your own hours at zero.

• Materials: cloth, thread, clay, paint, frame.
• Your time: hours worked × the hourly rate you want.
• Packaging: bags, boxes, tissue, tape, a thank-you card.
• The courier's cash-on-delivery charge: usually 1% of the cash it collects.
• Losses: a share for refused parcels and damaged pieces.
• Margin: what turns the work into a business. Even 20% gives you room for a slow month.

Charge the delivery fee to the buyer, separately, and say so in the post.

A worked example: a kantha cushion cover

These numbers are an illustration, not a survey, so put in your own.

Then check it against the market. In January 2026 Prothom Alo found kantha cushion covers under ৳600 at Karupally in Dhaka. At ৳610 you sit just above that, so trim the cost a little or show why yours is worth more: finer stitching, a better fabric, a design no shop has. If your cost comes out far above what similar work sells for, change the design or the materials, not your hourly rate.

Three pricing habits lose sales:

• "Price in inbox." Buyers scroll past posts without a price. Put the price in the post.
• Matching machine-made prices. You can't, and you don't need to. Show what makes your piece handmade instead.
• Launch discounts. A discount in your first month teaches buyers to wait for the next one.

How do you photograph handmade work with a phone?

Daylight and a plain background do most of the work. Shoot near a window in the morning or late afternoon, never under a yellow bulb, and turn off the beauty filter.

Take five photos of every piece:

• The whole piece, straight on, on a plain cloth or wall.
• A close-up of the handwork: the stitches, the brushwork, the weave.
• The back or underside. For kantha and jamdani, the back proves it's handmade.
• Scale: the piece in a hand, on a sofa or on a wall.
• In use: a cushion on a chair, a lamp switched on, a sari worn.

Show the real colour, even if a filter looks prettier. A buyer who receives a different colour from the photo refuses the parcel, and you pay the return.

How do you sell on Facebook in Bangladesh?

Treat the page as a shop window, and fill in everything a buyer needs before they message you:

• Name: your brand name, the same one you'll use everywhere else.
• Profile photo: your logo or your best piece, clear at a small size.
• About: what you make, where and by whom, plus your phone number and the hours you reply.
• Terms in Bangla: delivery charges, delivery time, and what you do if a piece arrives damaged. Missing Bangla terms is a leading reason Digital Business ID applications are rejected, so write them once and reuse them.
• A pinned post with your current pieces and prices.

Facebook and Instagram Shops aren't available in Bangladesh, and checkout inside the apps works only in the United States. Selling here happens in posts and Messenger, so reply fast: a buyer who waits a day buys from someone else.

Groups bring the first buyers and other makers. Start with your district's "উদ্যোক্তা পরিবার" entrepreneur group: the BSCIC Online Market links to one for each district.

Post the making, not only the finished piece. A short video of your hands at work shows what a photo can't: that you made it.

Cash on delivery or bKash: how should buyers pay?

Use both. Cash on delivery wins strangers' trust, and bKash handles advances and repeat buyers.

A bKash Personal Retail Account is built for micro and small businesses in retail and f-commerce, and needs no trade licence. Customers can pay you through a payment link. These were its published terms on 29 October 2026, under a promotion bKash says runs until further notice:

• Receiving payments: free.
• Limits: ৳30,000 per transaction, and ৳5,00,000 a month.
• Cash out at an agent: free up to ৳5,000 in the first 3 months.

A personal bKash account costs ৳18.50 per ৳1,000 to cash out (July 2026), so taking business payments into a personal account eats your margin.

Advances for made-to-order work. For a custom piece, such as a name-stitched kantha or a portrait, take part of the price by bKash before you start. A piece with a stranger's name on it can't be sold to anyone else. Say so in the post, so nobody is surprised.

Cash on delivery for ready pieces. The courier collects the cash and pays it to you, minus its charges.

Which courier should you use, and what does it cost?

Choose one that collects from your door, pays out fast and reaches the districts your buyers live in. These are the published rates for a parcel sent from inside Dhaka:

Heavier parcels cost more: Pathao charges ৳90 inside Dhaka and ৳170 outside Dhaka for 1 to 2 kg. Steadfast's rates exclude VAT. RedX and other couriers also collect cash on delivery, so get their rate in writing before you sign up.

The fine print matters as much as the rate:

• Returns. Pathao charges 50% of the delivery cost for a returned parcel outside Dhaka metro. Steadfast says it doesn't charge for returns, but its terms charge the delivery fee on every parcel handed over, delivered or cancelled.
• Payout. Pathao's merchant terms promise payment the next day, after its fee.
• Rates change. Check the courier's own calculator before you set your delivery charge.

Most refused parcels can be prevented. Call every new buyer to confirm the order before you hand it to the courier, and for a buyer outside your city, ask for the delivery charge in advance by bKash. Never offer free delivery to win a first order: a refused parcel then costs you twice.

How do you pack handmade pieces so they arrive whole?

Pack for a rough ride:

• Textiles: fold with tissue, seal in a clear bag against damp, then a mailer bag.
• Clay, ceramics and glass: bubble wrap, then a box with padding on every side, then a second box. Write "fragile" on the outside.
• Framed art and mirrors: corner protectors, and cardboard over the glass.
• Every parcel: a thank-you card with your page name and how to care for the piece.

Photograph each parcel, sealed and labelled, before you hand it over. If a buyer says it arrived damaged, the photo is your evidence.

What rules apply to home-based online sellers?

Three matter most:

• The Digital Business ID (DBID). Required for online businesses, including Facebook-only sellers. RJSC issues it free at dbid.gov.bd, and no trade licence is needed: you upload your NID, photo, signature and addresses, then show the DBID number on your page. By March 2026 only 2,136 of 13,541 applications had been certified, so write your Bangla terms before you apply.
• The Digital Commerce Operational Guidelines 2021. They cover sales through websites, marketplaces and social media. Once a buyer has paid, deliver within 5 days if they're in your city and within 10 days elsewhere.
• A trade licence. You don't need one to start, and bKash points sellers without one to the Personal Retail Account. Get one as you grow, from your city corporation, pourashava or union parishad: bank loans and government schemes usually ask for it.

How do you find buyers beyond friends and family?

Your first buyers know you. The next ones have to find you:

• Post on a schedule. Three good posts a week beat ten rushed ones in a day.
• Ask happy buyers for a photo. A real customer's photo is the most convincing post you'll ever make.
• Go to a fair. The National SME Product Fair runs from 22 to 28 November 2026 in Agargaon, and BSCIC holds fairs through the year at its Tejgaon office. Our fair calendar has the dates.
• Add a marketplace. It brings buyers who have never heard of you. If one design sells, our list of handmade business ideas suggests what to add next.

Which mistakes cost new sellers the most?

• Twenty designs at once. Make one design well, then add the next.
• No confirmation call. Unconfirmed cash-on-delivery orders are where refused parcels come from.
• Filtered photos. The colour on the screen has to match the colour in the box.
• Boosting too early. Paid reach works better once the page has real photos, prices and buyers' comments.
• Taking orders you can't make on time. Write your making time in the post, and keep to it.

Can a marketplace do the selling for you?

Yes, and for many makers that's the better split: you make, someone else sells. JADUZ was built for this. We vet makers, list and market your pieces to buyers across Bangladesh, take the orders, send a Pathao rider to collect from your door, collect the cash on delivery and pay you out to bKash, Nagad or a bank account. You set the price, and JADUZ keeps a commission on each sale, never on the delivery fee; the Maker Terms set out the rate and every rule.

You can keep your Facebook page as well: the page for regulars, JADUZ for buyers who don't know you yet. Read how selling on JADUZ works and the listing guide, then apply in a few minutes.