What to do if nobody trusts nobody
In the previous article, we went through one of the most problematic issues in e-commerce — payment and timely delivery of your purchase. By asking for the payment upfront, sellers try to protect themselves from scammers who order goods without paying for them; but on the other hand, buyers aren’t ready to risk it and send money to an unknown custom online store that may end up being a scam as well. Thus, the interaction between the buyer and the seller requires a separate third party that can ensure safety and security for both parties involved in the purchase.
Smart contract deals
We see the blockchain as the technology capable of providing and guaranteeing the security that buyers and sellers need and seek. The blockchain-based system is structured in a way that the buyer who makes an order sends the money to a specifically created smart contract, which sends the funds to the seller’s account only when the contract’s conditions are fulfilled. Let’s consider a simple example of how this system works.
· A buyer chooses a cooking pot in the Storiqa catalog and pays for the order;
· The money for the order is withheld by the smart contract;
· The seller is notified that the cooking pot is ordered and the order is paid;
· The seller ships the cooking pot to the designated verification center;
· The cooking pot is checked at the verification center, and once it is confirmed that it fits the description, the order is sent to the shipping company;
· The seller and the buyer receive the tracking code for the shipment;
· The cooking pot arrives at the designation point;
· The smart contract is fulfilled, and the money goes to the seller’s account;
· The buyer picks up the cooking pot.
With this system in place, the payment is secured by the smart contract while remaining transparent to both parties involved in the deal — in other words, no scamming whatsoever.
Packaging damaged, item broken; what now?
Indeed, this can happen. The verification centers do their best to check the item before sending it via the shipping company, but indeed, anything can happen on the way to the destination. However, Storiqa guarantees that the buyer will receive the quality order even if anything happens during the shipping. If a bought item gets damaged during shipping, a buyer can request arbitration through Storiqa and apply for full or partial refund (using the current exchange rate for cryptocurrency-paid orders) after a review. If the refunded order has been paid with STQ tokens, you will be refunded the exact amount of tokens regardless of the current exchange rate.
Any buyer can get a refund for the low-quality item at their own sole discretion within 30 days of purchase. This condition is included in each smart contract. In other words, no need to send back the damaged goods or waste time on the grueling paperwork.
Solution to cash deficiency
The seller ships one order, two orders, many orders — but the money arrives only when the cooking pot (guess who’s back?) arrives to the destination. And that takes time. So how do you solve this cash deficiency problem? After all, the buyer won’t survive for long without receiving the money upfront either: raw materials, salaries, rental charges, bills — all of these take money, and you need it right now… Turns out the smart contract system makes the purchase a safe bet for the buyer, but a great inconvenience for the seller?
We don’t think so. Firstly, the smart contract guarantees that the order is paid — which is convenient, because you know the money is out there. Secondly, we have a solution for the money delay and the cash deficiency: factoring data using the platform-wide store rating. Storiqa will form the platform-wide store rating based on a number of factors — such as delivery speed, quality of items and customer reviews. With this store rating, we can calculate the factoring data and help you get your payouts in advance, thus reducing cash deficiency.
