05.08.06
E-commerce in Sri Lanka
Let's talk about e-comerce in Sri Lanka. Its practically non existent. What we see mostly are either sites that started out with a good intention and then their customer base just lost interest. There is the other group of sites that initally start off with a strong approach but due to lack of foresight, follow up or general mismanagement have to shut down. Why is it so difficult here to be e-commerce friendly? Does it have to do with the general cost of using the internet ? Is it the technichal side of things that irk us over here. At the recent E- Carnival in Hambalantotta we noticed that there was a high degree of interest. They saw that e commerce could cut out the middle man effectively increasing their revenue. Also the fact that they would be connected to an international market almost immediately. So why has it still taken time to catch on ?
janantha said,
May 8, 2006 at 11:01 am
lanka should promote e-commerce. Can be done by having a ebay version for sri lanka.. India has got it as well. Before that should be there. The banks should improve on security plus educate their staff abt ecommerce and its potential and also get a paypal certifited bank certificate. Paypal isn’t still available in Sri lanka because of the lack of bank ICT infrastructure. Plus there can be other convinient stores like ebuyer for instance.. So people can buy stuff from home.. i guess this hadn’t happen because the major brains are abroad and also the lack of ICT based education for the people of sri lanka.I’m also working on an ecommerce based project for SL right now. Will keep you posted of its developments
Deane said,
May 8, 2006 at 3:19 pm
The way i see it, it’s just the payment option. Not many Sri Lankans use credit cards, and those who do, are not really comfortable using them online.
Sri Lanka has no PayPal and someone some time ago told me that PayPal cannot operate here because of the current Finance Laws or something. not quite sure. ICTA should look into this, coz after all this is the kind of stuff they should Really be doing.
Bottom-line is for e-commerce to survive there should be easier payment methods, including micro-payments using Your mobile phones etc. an initative like that will sky rocket e-commerce and indeed M-commerce (if there’s something like that)
it’s up to either the phone companies themselves to offer the service, or for a local software company to come to an agreement with one or more of the major phone companies.
i belive the ICTA was lookin at a project along the lines of an e-cheque. the last time i heard it was in the pilot stages, but that was years ago.
i suppose there are other ways too like pre-paid internet cards which also could be used to purchase stuff online. i think it should be easy enough to implement for a company like SLT.
childof25 said,
May 9, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Hi, some interesting topic being raised here, hope your traffic increases and some meaningful debates can be had. In the meantime with regard to cellphone payment schemes, check this article out http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4648049.stm . The BBC programme series PETER DAY: WORK IN PROGRESS has some pretty interesting articles regarding development, business, povery, etc.
Wolfie said,
July 10, 2006 at 12:06 pm
I have seen this deabate online over and over again; ppl just keep cursing the country and the government, but nothing gets improved. Here are my suggestions:
* Top IT ppl (University brains) should apply pressure on the gov. (they are currently way to passive as I see it)
* business community should voice their IT requirements.
* practical steps should be outlined and acted upon. (just saying ‘lets build an e-SL’ and putting up some web sites wont help; STEP 1 = get a online payment system like PayPal to support SL. how difficult is it??)
Sri Lanka has good IT brains and potential entrepreneurs who just needs some infrastructure support to compete in the global market. How can one do online business without a standard payment gateway?? can’t we even have the simplest facility of supporting PayPal?? If there are legal barriers fix it! There are people who get paid (from our tax money) to do it!?
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October 3, 2006 at 1:47 pm
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Nishanthe said,
October 20, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Hi All,
)..or tedious Bank transfers.
Good topic with timely value. I just wrote to ICT about paypal support. I think we should keep wrting them (Dont know to where our posting are going – This is Sri Lanka, anything can happen)
I am a freelance software developer and currently doing failry good. but it was very painful experiance to get my First payment to Sri Lanka. HSBC asked my Passport to open RFC along with my NIC and $500 inward remittance :O.
And Currently I have RFC with Commercial bank, but the hurdle was I had to guarent them of the $500 inward remitance, which most of the small scale persons cannot provide. I have already lost many many valuble projects only because of lacking easy hazzle free payment method. Average US clients dont like Credit card (To Accept credit card payment Sampath bank asked me $10,000 – If I had that amount I would rather put vegetable boutique
What I am saying is we should write them again and again, to anyone we can posible.
I agree with many posters who always says this is a CURSED COUNTRY. we are waiting for a PRINCE’s KISS to wake up
-Nish
Udara said,
February 16, 2007 at 7:16 am
Hi all,
This is useful topic. And i like that comment which is keep on telling authorities to allow pay pal in our country. I think we should tell this to ICTA. There is no other authrity in sri lanka worried about IT. I’m also a freelance Web promoter and
currently in pain because of the delay of receiveing payments.
Fr0z3nfl4m3s said,
February 20, 2007 at 12:52 pm
The fact that PayPal doesn’t operate in Sri Lanka bothers me greatly. Our country is meant to be one of the fastest developing in South East Asia, yet we haven’t got a standard payment system for internet purchases as a previous commenter said. I would definitely give credit card details to an established firm like PayPal and so people shouldn’t be as worried in terms of divulging with their credit card details.
Anthony said,
March 5, 2007 at 2:56 am
PayPal or e-commerce. The problem is not in the Infrastructure. It is, I believe (in my humble openion), all to do with Stupidity, Greed and Corruption.The control is all for the common man. Like the Sunday Paper says ‘Sri Lanka has two classes, the powerful and the powerless’. As for Sri Lanka’s development compared to the rest of the World; two words – ‘Inversely Reciprocal’.
Fr0z3nfl4m3s said,
March 17, 2007 at 7:47 am
I too believe it is not the infrastructure. As far as I’m concerned, our infrastructure is comparable to many other countries in SE Asia.
Tony said,
April 1, 2007 at 1:55 am
Paypal cannot operate here because the Central Bank won’t allow dollars to flow out easily. Any idea how I can send money without RFC accounts through a bank or any financial establishment. The scenario is I’d like to purchase something in the states (for my pleasure) and have them ship it here. I am all ears.
Nimal Prakash said,
May 29, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Pay Pal now allows registrations from Sri Lanka.
Also they are accepting both credit and debit cards.
I tried, why don’t you.
julian said,
June 7, 2007 at 9:35 pm
since you guys are so interested in transferring money. why not earn some first. check out this site http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBY6851 if you think this is a scam do a little bit of research about agloco google.an you will start to belive.
julian said,
June 7, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Oh i forgot to mention. use xoom for online money transfer. i live in Kandana Sri Lanka. they are gr8 very quick. thats how I redeemed the money i earned from http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBY6851
pulasthi said,
June 16, 2007 at 8:09 am
Thanks yaar. xoom is gr8. i dont know how i can thank this blog and julian
pulasthi said,
June 16, 2007 at 8:11 am
this is unbilievable xoom is the best, i love it. but anyway, sri lankan ITC people and banks should improve their infrastructure and make paypal withdrawals easy for us.
Azmil said,
July 31, 2007 at 3:35 am
Hello all,
When I was googleing to see if Paypal was supported in Sri Lanka what appeared was this site with some interesting substance. However, further down on the search results one site claims that Paypal is now active. I am yet to verify it. However, the link is below:
http://seejay.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/yahooooooo-we-got-paypal-in-sri-lanka/
Hope its true !
ns said,
September 23, 2007 at 12:23 pm
hi… can you get a Paypal debit card in Sri Lanka and use that in the ATMs there? How much does the bank charge to withdraw money this way?
Ack said,
November 22, 2007 at 6:04 am
Hi All,
I have registered for payPal account recently as it allows to register… so i made the premier account. but one of my friend was trying to transfer to money to my account form UK he had got a message that “payPal account in Sri Lanka is not eligible for receiving money” i dropped a mail to paypal but still didn’t get any replay..
Thiwanka Wimalasuriys said,
January 5, 2008 at 2:26 am
Hi all,
Eventhough I hear that paypal now supports sri lanka, if a paypal account is created with SL address, we are not able to receive funds. We can only pay.
So it’s not of much use yet.
(Last checked on 4th January 2008)
regards
-Thiwanka
Yasas said,
January 23, 2008 at 11:34 am
Hi can i use my current a/c in HNB to receive payments from xoom ? Pls let of kno
e4c5 said,
October 12, 2008 at 11:06 am
More than two years have passed since you made the original post, paypal even let’s you upgrade your account from basic to premier or even to business – but still you cannot receive payments.
It’s the government that should take the blame and not paypal. Someone should file a lawsuit against the government.
mayooresan said,
November 6, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Still we can’t receive money from PayPal. I found a work around and wrote an article on it.
http://mayuonline.com/receive-money-from-paypal-sri-lankan-context/
Sudarshana said,
October 30, 2009 at 5:31 am
Its true that paypal is a headache. But I am doing online business and very success without paypal. I use 2Co, Moneybookers and Alertpay to receive payments to sri lanka.