The Basic Problems Consumer Face in E-commerce

Consumer, most vital element of business ecosystem. A business can never be worked without a satisfied and a happy consumer. The future and success of a business always depends upon the behaviour of a consumer. In today’s time, one such behaviour of a consumer is inclined towards the E-Commerce or online transactions business processes.

Though E-Commerce has enabled the Indian consumer to cross boundaries of states and countries to procure products of their choice from the wide variety across the world available to them, the e- commerce is not well protected by the various consumer laws. The laws with respect to the same have proved to be stagnant, leaving many such customers remediless. Non-protection of data made available online, ineffective delivery system, misleading advertisements, uncertainty with respect to jurisdiction in case of disputes are some of the emerging concerns in field of e-commerce.

There are many problems that consumers basically face because of the tractable approach of following laws by E-Commerce Industry. Many cases had come into light featuring the problem of not getting the exact product of what it was shown in the website. Many websites not making return policies consumer friendly. Talking about the problems that consumers face while doing online shopping we all know some of the basic problems that we all might have faced that are:

The quality issues

The product that is delivered to us is not always the same what is shown on the screen and if the site is not having the refund or return policy then the consumers are left with very complex redressal process or even no redressal. Sizes varying from brand to brand and lack of proper information and details mentioned, misleading quality issues generally coming up putting consumers in a situation of hot waters.

Additional changes

How many times has it happened that you’ve came across a great deal and when you click to order it great sort of additional charges are added upon it.

Unclear return and guarantee policies

Most sites having vague return policies make purchasing doubtful for consumer leaving them with low quality product and no way to return it.

Pointing out the specific misleading acts of e-commerce wesites in one of surveys by a Hindi news channel it was revealed that

• 62% of people truly believe that there is a major difference between the product showcased on website and the product delivered. 56% of people don’t believe on the reviews and ratings shown on the website, major cause being there has been revealed in many surveys that many consumers have experienced a situation where their negative reviews posted on the website have been removed.
• As per many local news channel surveys, many E- Commerce websites don’t allow negative reviews in their sites.
• The survey has also revealed a situation where the e- commerce sites take money for the fake positive and favourable reviews and ratings, acquiring the feedback which suits their website.
• This is true that many consumers before going for online shopping consider the reviews and ratings of that website. But after the misleading act of the E-Commerce websites itself there leaves no chance for consumer to claim relief for the same.