Failure Of Dedicated E-Commerce Law Is Going To Be Bane Of Its Most Important Stakeholders
Ease of Online Shopping has made E-commerce Industry a good Alternative to
traditional shops Availability of wide Catalogue of Products at one place,
Doorstep Delivery, Refunds and Returns, Etc. But are all these assurances
perfect or near perfect? No, in practice although E-commerce might have solved
the issues of fulfillment and Supply Chain, yet there are lot of times where
such Electronic Marketplace fall short to Traditional Businesses due to lack of
personal accountability that can be easily raised by customer in physical
Purchases.
I like on everyday evening was scrolling through a product on E-commerce
marketplace for a Hair oil which was non-returnable product, it was Fairly a new
product for me, But Reviews were good or Mostly Good, it had more than 4 points
in rating and I think many would believe It was an appropriate Benchmark for
Utility and Genuineness of the Product, so I went on to buy the same Product
arrived early along with too much unnecessary packaging.
In the Package was a small Coupon Suggesting me to review product with 5 Stars
on their Website and win Cashback by sending A screenshot on WhatsApp to certain
Number and I would receive Cashback within 2-3 days, The Product I had Bought
was on basis of reviews and now I know that these reviews were fake or in a way
bought, I contacted customer care and told them regarding what had happened.
They insisted that I contact the seller as it was problem between them and me.
They had no policies to prevent sellers from engaging in such conduct to sell a
product. Neither were they ready to provide return as it was covered under No
returns Policy nor interested into looking into matter as it was not there
problem and I quote exactly what they said "Since Fl***** is a Marketplace we Do
not Buy, Sell products or determine the policies but only have sellers list
their products on our portal" and after two-three rounds of bickering and
changing the Support Agent the Most Conclusive answer they were able to give me
was "We'll Share this Feedback with seller so that they can put in additional
measures to make your Shopping experience a delightful one." In this scenario
Final remedy that was left with me was Law, But to my surprise there was no
dedicated law towards E-commerce hence everything related to such things were in
grey area. Therefore there was no other Mechanism to prevent this from happening
to shoppers.
E-commerce platforms are relied by people to deliver quality products in a
diligent manner and protect interests of buyers, on this reliance which is
widely advertised by theses E-commerce companies, People buy products, even
those products which are new to them, hence these Platforms cannot just say that
they are just an Intermediary, they are the face of this Entire transaction of
Purchase and the responsibility to ensure that Correct Product as per knowledge
provided to the customer is delivered to him as shown in website.
Because that is the Entire premise on which customer buys product from an
Electronic Marketplace rather than a physical shop we trust in our neighborhood
or city. India is Eighth Largest E-commerce Market in world with its share
expected to reach US$ 350 Billion by 2030.Our Government Has Covered most
aspects of this Industry Investments wise or Taxation wise but has failed to
Create a Law dedicated to protection of consumer rights through e-commerce, This
Industry is a critical Contributor our Nation's Income and Disregarding its most
Critical Stakeholder would leave them as vulnerable play where Virtual markets
expand their Business eating Physical Market's Share and become the Elephant
that can't be tamed later on.
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