Online shopping is increasing rapidly in India. Many people love shopping online, because of the convenience it offers. Online shopping allows you to buy whatever you want, from the ease and comfort of home.
Many e-commerce companies are offering huge cash backs and discounts to lure people to shop online. In the year 2017, 108 million consumers indulged in online shopping. But unfortunately, not everyone who shops online will be happy with the online shopping experience. According to a survey which was conducted in the year 2017, 73% of Indian online shoppers faced challenges while shopping online. In this blog, we will discuss the most common problems faced by consumers while shopping online.
The most common problems faced by shoppers who shop online, is the quality of the product. When you shop online, you do not have any guarantee on product quality. You can't just rely on product reviews as they are not reliable. Many e-commerce websites just function as an aggregator of sellers.
So, there are high chances of fraudulent sellers registering themselves on websites, selling fake products in the names of branded ones. As a huge volume of products is sold each day, it is not possible for e-commerce companies to check each and every product sold. Many a time sellers refuse to replace the faulty product and refund the money. Websites which sell fake products instead of genuine products do not accept cash on delivery and insist on payment upfront. Not receiving clothes and footwear of proper sizes, is another problem faced by consumers while shopping online.
Other than cash on delivery, e-commerce websites also allow you to pay through various modes like credit cards, debit cards, net banking and mobile wallets. Another important problem faced by online shoppers is the failure of digital payments. Sometimes, due to a bad internet connection or technical glitch, the amount gets debited from the customer's bank account, but it does not get credited to the sellers account. In such a case, customers can get back this money by contacting the customer care of the company. It will take around 7-10 days for the amount to get refunded.
Before purchasing any product online, it is very important to go through the website policies. Some websites do not have a return or refund policy. In such a case, even if you receive a fake product, you will not be allowed to return it. Most of the websites which have unclear return policies end up selling low-quality products. You must also go through the policies vis-a-vis product warranty. In case you find any website having unclear policies, avoid making a purchase from them.
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Another important problem faced while shopping online is the delivery date. Most of the e-commerce websites have an option where you can track your order, but this doesn’t always hold true. Sometimes, delivery executives deliver the product when you are not at home. In such a case, product delivery will be rescheduled. If this happens say more than three times, your order will be returned to the point of origin. In some cases, the product will be lost in the transit.
Another major issue is logistics. As a large number of India's population lives in rural and tier III cities, they are not able to shop online, because most of the e-commerce companies do not deliver products to these places.
Another problem faced while shopping online, is additional charges incurred while making the payment. The amount you pay for the product will not be same as the one you see at the website. Price of the product will be displayed on the website without tax, shipping, and handling charges. When you make the payments, all these charges will be added and the price goes up.
As many people shop online these days, cyber criminals come up with innovative techniques to hack e-commerce websites and steal money from online shoppers. E-commerce sites will have important customer data like names, phone numbers, address, and bank details. If these details fall in the hand of fraudsters they can be misused.
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