The digitally buying journey has to be super safe and secure for the end-users.
For the past one and half years, we have been struck by the Global pandemic. As a result, people's movement was grossly restricted and only essential goods and services had relaxation of movement to a greater extent. Right from Basic goods and services, food, grocery, Vegetables literally, every single thing had to suddenly move to online platforms and solutions.
The Indian E-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the second-largest E-commerce market in the world by 2034. (Ref Link)IBEF.ORG. India's e-commerce sector will reach US$99 billion by 2024 from US$30 billion in 2019, expanding at a 27% CAGR, with grocery and fashion/apparel likely to be the key drivers of incremental growth. According to Forrester Research, Indian e-commerce sales rose by ~7–8% in 2020. The Indian online grocery market is estimated to reach US$ 18.2 billion in 2024 from the US $1.9 billion in 2019, expanding at a CAGR of 57%.
According to Google trends and research, There has been a surge in online shopping. as per the recent reports, eCommerce makes up 22% of global retail sales by 2023. 14.5% of sales were E-Commerce purchases in 2019.
Why this real change in buying behavior from physical stores to digital stores :
The following factors have played a major role in spreading online shopping within the country:
- Faster internet: Better broadband services like 2G and 3G have provided faster and better internet access to the consumers; thereby enticing them to spend more time online.
- Time saver: Unlike marketplaces, one does not have to run around and spend tedious hours to pick up items scattered around the city. One can easily save time and choose items with a simple click.
- Cheaper rates and discounts: The exciting discounted rates and best deals on various products are profitable for budget-conscious customers.
- Cash on Delivery (COD): This facility is available only in India and has come as a hassle-free option for customers who are afraid to use debit/credit cards.
- Wider options: One is often spoiled for choices due to the plethora of options available on famous sites
- Home delivery and return policies: Convenient options like quick delivery and return policies within a certain time period have gained much appreciation from the consumer base.
- Increased mobile applications: now almost every e selling site is mobile-friendly. The result is of the convenience of selecting the items at any point in time. Next day or next few hour delivery options access have added to the buying convenience. Many such factors have been contributing to the unprecedented growth of the digital eCommerce buying experience.
As most Indians have started shopping online rather than stepping outside their houses, the Indian e-commerce sector witnessed an increase. India’s e-commerce festive sale season from October 15 to November 15 in 2020 recorded Rs. 58,000 crore (US$ 8.3 billion) worth of gross sales for brands and sellers, up 65% from Rs. 35,000 crore (US$ 5 billion) last year.
Online marketplaces offer seamless buying experiences. Marketplaces have come up with really easy setups and great user experiences. To open your own online setup is extremely frictionless and anyone who wants to do business can open a website. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are very easy to set up and start selling online. With very little budget these shopkeepers can start attracting traffic to their websites. Effective SEO and web Optimisation, social posts help them to gather multiple targeted audiences. With the penetration of Digital payments Linking payment gateways also has been very easy. Anyone can open an online store literally in few hours this is extremely good news for someone who is wanting to sell his goods online.
The real problem starts when someone some conman tries to use this platform as a tool to make some quick money!!!
The Modus of Operandi: The Fraudulent company creates identical-looking websites very very close to the original company.
Posts are created using the origin company products brochures. Original videos are linked and all the digital contents are consumed as if they are the original creators of these products. All the digital contents of the original creator are siphoned or recreated. You as a buyer will never even realize that you are not buying the original stuff. After the first few touchpoints are achieved quite successfully and you as a buyer tends to make up your mind to buy the product. It an impulsive buying and you don't care so much to read reviews. With a super easy buying process, you end up buying a product without confirming or realizing that you have been conned. After few days what you realize is your bought is a fake and rubbish product and there is no traceability of Who Sold this product to you.
This is one of the greater flip sides to this online buying experience if you land upon such a con-website. I experienced one such nasty experience and that is the very reason to share my own shopping experiences with all of you.
In a very recent time, I saw a very beautiful hydroponic microgreen vase. I took a look at the Instagram post and was then got directed to the product video and the detail page. Then was made to come across the video interview of the designer who had created this beautiful-looking solution. The seller seemed genuine I did the buying without looking at the ratings of the product or any parallel comments on any other social platform, nor did I search for a similarly named seller. I completed the buying flow, the payment was accepted. The first thing that happened was that I did not get the payment confirmation from the same seller. I thought that at times the SMS gateway have problems and nothing to really worry about. The order got confirmed not by this seller but by another third-party Logistics Company. They sent me a message saying that due to covid there would be delays in the delivery. As it was not an essential product for me and I had the patience to wait for some more time.15 days went by where I started getting messages saying that my order is getting processed. A week later I get a delivery confirmation message and I was told that due to the covid scenario we are leaving the packet on your doorstep. This was almost a month later when something had arrived at my doorstep.
I received a small size of the packet. What I received was an earthen broken cup. I was supposed to receive a 16-inch bye by 9 inches by 9-inch Hydroponic Vase. The delivery person had disappeared by that time I opened the packet. I was completely cheated in this online buying that I did.
I tried to reconnect out to the platform that had hosted the website of the products. With a small disclaimer being mentioned that it is the risk that you as a buyer or taking the selling platform conveniently shrugged off the responsibility.
It was probably a similar pattern that was used by many Conmen. I tried to reach out and see if I could speak with somebody who was a call center representative from the website on which I did the buying. To my surprise the website was shut down, the Instagram account was non-existing and the Logistics Company that had done the delivery of the product was also in nonexistence in nearly a span of 40 to 45 days.
Does this leave us with a greater need to think that how do we establish the creditworthiness in the digital E-COMMERCE SPACE?
As we see from the statistics the digital buying is the new normal for many of us. There is a greater need to have a certificate of genuineness or a mark of genuine seller going forward. With E-Commerce mushrooming It feels like an extremely essential thing to enforce such certification of genuineness. This will avoid the industry from suffering from such Fraudulent sellers as we see in one of the exhibits attached in the article here. The trust and confidence that several companies have built over these years will stay intact.
The question is who will take the first step in this direction is a bigger question mark. Is it the web hosting company that will get this done and ensure that the seller is genuine? Or is it the payment gateway company that is processing the payment? Or is the credit card debit card issuing Bank finally has the highest control on all the payments that happen globally can get this implemented?
The question lies grossly unaddressed right now. But while we are moving quite rapidly towards blockchain, artificial intelligence, and fraud pattern detection there is a ray of hope. Every single digital transformation we do today is under the heavy influence of this gloominess that lies ahead of us every single day. Getting cheated is a Fear Factor and a lack of a unified system or a solution simply amplifies its magnitude.
While there is unprecedented growth opportunity in The E-Commerce banking and digital transaction platforms scenarios like this where every single transaction for the end-users is secured and safe seems to be really long way to go. customer protection acts and genuine sellers will play a very important role in building trust and confidence in the minds of millions of old and new users that will follow.
