bKash merchant account for an online shop: merchant account or Personal Retail Account

Published 8 October 2026 · 5 min read

Most Facebook shops are paid in cash at the door, but an advance, the delivery charge from a customer far away or the price of something made to order, usually comes by bKash. bKash offers a shop two accounts to take it in: a merchant account and, for a shop without a trade licence, a Personal Retail Account. Here is what bKash’s own pages say about each, as read on 8 October 2026: who can open it, what it asks for, what it charges and how much it can take. bKash changes its terms, so follow its page if it differs.

Which account you can open

bKash’s page for online businesses puts it in one line: “If you don’t have a trade license, you may open a bKash Personal Retail Account.” So the trade licence decides. With one, you can apply for a merchant account; without one, the Personal Retail Account is the one bKash offers you.

If you do not have a trade licence yet, our guide to starting an online business in Bangladesh covers where it comes from, with the rest of the paperwork.

The Personal Retail Account

bKash says the Personal Retail Account is for “micro and small businesses operating in retail and f-commerce segment”. A customer pays it by scanning its QR code, through the bKash Payment Gateway, or by typing its number in the USSD menu, where a limit applies. From it you can send money to customers, pay other merchants, and cash out at an agent or an ATM.

To open one you need your NID, a mobile number registered against your NID on which no bKash account has been opened before, proof that the SIM is yours, and your nominee’s NID where one is required. The NID behind your personal bKash account can be used again, but not one already used for a bKash agent, merchant or channel account or any other business account, and a personal account cannot be turned into a Personal Retail Account. For the proof of profession the account needs, bKash’s terms say to contact the nearest mayor’s, ward commissioner’s or union council office.

You register yourself at account.bkash.com/personal-retail-account, with no need to visit a bKash customer care centre. bKash says a future account holder needs to dial *16001# and share the last four digits of their NID. Once it is open, you use the account through the bKash Merchant App or by dialling *247#, and download its statement from the app. For help, bKash’s number is 16247.

What the Personal Retail Account charges, and how much it takes

bKash lists these charges and calls them “a promotional offer” that runs “until further notice”. Receiving a payment from a customer is free, and so is receiving one from another Personal Retail Account or a merchant. Paying another Personal Retail Account or a merchant costs 0.20%, sending money to a customer ৳5, and cashing out at an agent is free up to ৳5,000 for the first three months; the page does not say what it costs after that. Sending money to a bank account, listed for a “next phase”, is 1.3%.

The limits are the part to check against your sales. The account can receive up to ৳30,000 in one payment, ৳30,000 in a day and ৳5,00,000 in a month. Delivery charges taken in advance rarely come near that, but full payments can: ten customers paying ৳3,000 each fill a day.

The merchant account

bKash’s merchant page offers payments “from more than 70 million bKash users” and lists the bKash Merchant App, a merchant QR, counter payment, 24/7 payment collection and transaction history. Its page for online businesses adds that a merchant who already has an account can sign up for the bKash Business Dashboard.

There are two forms. The one on the page for online businesses asks for the business’s name, district and address, a contact person, a phone number and an email, the kind of business, with “Online Shopping” among the choices, and a website, Facebook or mobile app link, which is required. It and the general merchant form both ask whether you have an NID, a valid trade licence, with its number and expiry date, and a bank account. bKash says it will contact you after verifying what you send.

The terms for the bKash Payment Gateway’s tokenized checkout describe the customer’s side: once they agree to bind their bKash account to a shop, they pay that shop again by entering only their PIN. On cost they say only that “based on the understanding between Merchant and bKash, additional fee may be applicable on the payment amount”. None of the pages we read says what a merchant account charges or how soon the money reaches your bank, so ask bKash for both in writing before you sign up.

Taking an advance on a Facebook order

Whichever account you open, keep it for the shop alone, so that every payment in it belongs to an order. When a payment arrives, write it on the order straight away: the amount, the number it came from and the transaction ID. Then take it off the amount the courier collects, so the customer is not asked for the same money twice.

Ask for an advance where a parcel is most likely to come back: a new customer far away, an expensive item, a number with refusals on record. Our guide to reducing cash on delivery returns has the rest, and our guide to cash on delivery in Bangladesh covers what each courier charges to collect the remainder.

Sells Pilot can send a customer a link to pay an advance into your own bKash merchant account, once bKash has turned on its checkout for you, or into your own Nagad merchant account. The money goes to you and never through Sells Pilot, and when the customer pays, the order records the advance and the courier collects only what is left.