Common.in

While it is convenient to place an order online, it is sometimes difficult to co-ordinate delivery of the product ordered due to factors beyond your control. The courier / delivery person can deliver the product at any time of the day. Ordering magazines online is more convenient than most other products, since most magazines are sent by ordinary post and the recipient need not sign an acknowledgement. The cost of each magazine copy is usually less than Rs 100.

Many magazines offer an online subscription option on their website, but if you wish to subscribe to a number of magazines, signing up at each website can be a very cumbersome process as you have to enter all personal details like name, email, telephone number separately . There are some online aggregators like Infibeam, Pustak and Magazinemall which allow you to order a number of magazines using a single account. Processing of the subscription usually takes two to four weeks, after which you start receiving magazine copies. Many of the magazines which can be ordered online have a limited circulation and are not easily available at most newspaper stalls.

Of the monthly magazines subscribed for some time, Consumer Voice, Alive and Caravan have been delivered regularly on time. Tehelka magazines which is published weekly also has a very efficient delivery system, but the delivery mechanism of some other weekly current affairs magazines could be improved, as many copies are missing.

Some of the reasons why online shopping has become popular in India are:
1.the entire transaction is recorded. Since the specifications, discounts and payments are documented, the seller cannot make false allegations against the buyer.
2.convenient home delivery.

An article on this trend.

http://business-standard.com/india/news/watch-out-retail-giants-online-majors-aim-for-sky/458867/

The conversion rate at a website depends to some extent on the user interface. A well funded startup selling conventional products, can use any of the shopping carts available, but if the billing method is different, a team of programmers are needed for developing a suitable website.
Finding a good programmer can be a difficult task, especially if you do not have a programming background or a large budget. A lot of testing is required to remove any bugs before the new interface can be used, which is time consuming. The checkout process is comparatively difficult to debug as payments have to be made. A new startup may not be able to afford this, but this can affect sales and customer experience.

If a defective product leaves the company’s premises, rectifying the error at a later date is expensive for the company as it usually involves a lot of adverse publicity as well as expensive returns. So it is important for an e-commerce company to have proper quality control systems, to ensure that the product shipped does not contain any defects and there is no damage or pilferage by couriers during transit.
In the short term, shipping a faulty item may help get rid of inventory, but in the long term, it can be very expensive. The cost of customer acquisition, some one who spends a few thousand rupees annually is often more than Rs 2000 . Finding a high paying/ spending customer is much more difficult. So if the company fails to ensure that proper checks are in place, they may lose a customer for life and directly affect their future growth.

One of the factors determining the conversion rate of an e-commerce website is the user interface. If the website is easy to use and the customer can find the product he or she wants quickly, a visit is more likely to convert into a sale. On the other hand, if the user has to spend a lot of time, searching the various options, they may decide to postpone placing the order.

Unlike computer and other hardware products, the user interface design can be a major factor for a buyer purchasing clothes and accessories. Most online stores offer a number of variations in clothes like colours available and sizes. So a buyer has to use the drop down menu to check whether his or her preferred size and colour are available. If these are not in stock, the buyer has to check the other options available. There are many fashion websites which regularly conduct sales, and only limited numbers of a particular item are available. If the website is designed with a drop down menu to check the availability of different sizes of a particular product, just finding which items are available can be very time consuming. Though it may involve some amount of programming, eliminating these minor irritants can greatly boost sales.

At times, when you buy a product online and it is defective / not working as expected, the online store will compensate you by offering the following:
1. Refund – with no compensation for the inconvenience you have faced while ordering the item
2. Gift voucher – you are obliged to spend an equivalent amount at the store, despite having an unpleasant shopping experience
3. Replacement

The unlucky buyer has to spend time and money returning the item, and if the timelines / procedure for refund are not clear, it is better to keep the defective item and try to get it repaired locally.

Though forums are littered with complaints about E-commerce websites, many of these should be taken with a pinch of salt. There are some e-commerce companies who are professional in their dealings with customers and you can expect the same level of service consistently over a period of time. There are other companies which take undue advantage of the customisation that e-commerce offers to deliver poor quality products to unsuspecting customers.

The easiest way to check if a customer complaint is genuine is to ask the customer for an order reference number. Most e-commerce websites follow a particular sequence in order numbers
Some of the reasons a customer complaint may not be real are
1. Fake complaint by a competitor
2. Customer has received the product but claims he or she has not received it, to claim a refund.

In any business, it is well known that it is easier to retain an existing customer than acquire a new customer by various methods (acquiring a new customer online is said to cost an e-commerce website between Rs 500 to Rs 2000) . However many e-commerce websites do not care too much about retaining existing customers.(for reasons best known to them)

Some of the mistakes e-commerce websites (or their vendors) make.
1. Send defective items that do not work at all
2. Send poor quality items that will stop working after a few days
3. Delay shipping the item – deliver it 30+ days after order placement
4. Customer support does not reply to emails
5. Cancel the order without assigning a reason
6. Have poor quality photos on the website (the actual product differs significantly from the photo displayed)
Any e-commerce website which overcomes the above problems is sure to be a success in India

While some of the e-commerce portals in India like Flipkart, Adexmart source the product sold on their website from their vendors and then ship it to the buyer, most of the e-commerce sites in India like Ebay, Infibeam (for non-book products), Indiangiftsportal.com have the sellers directly ship the item to the buyer. In such cases, the website has little control over the quality of the product being delivered to the buyer, other than having a feedback system in which the buyers rate the sellers after a transaction is complete.

Ebay.in and Rediff.com are some of the websites with a feedback system which can be used by prospective buyers to determine the quality and service of a particular seller on the website. On ebay, only the buyer user id is shown, but on Rediff.com, the full name of a buyer is displayed in the feedback profile of a seller. This acts as a deterrant for buyers who value their privacy, so they may not rate the seller. On Ebay, the ratings can affect the status of an account and if your feedback ratings are low, your account may be suspended. On other e-commerce portals, the seller account may not be affected by the feedback given.

Since manpower costs in India are low, there are many non serious buyers on many websites, who sign up or create user accounts just to get the free stuff and incentives offered by these websites to new buyers. Some of these accounts are created by competitors who do not hesitate to use negative tactics to undermine other sellers. These buyers use a number of methods to harm genuine sellers such as
1. Not making payments after bidding on an item
2. Using fraudulent payment methods
3. Giving wrong address
4. Claiming non-receipt of the item, after receiving it
5. Leaving negative or neutral feedback
Though customers are important for the growth of any business, it is essential that any e-commerce website takes suitable steps to prevent these non-serious buyers from signing up at their website.

On the other hand, if a rival / competitor has sufficient funds they can ensure that the better sellers are deterred from selling online , by using negative tactics. When only a few sellers monopolize the market, they often send defective and faulty items to the unsuspecting buyer and increase their profit margins. In many cases, these sellers are well informed about the activities of regular buyers on the website and selectively target them. Only after the item is received the buyer realises that the seller has sent a poor quality product.

The buyer may leave negative feedback for the seller, but if there are only a few sellers in the market, the buyer may opt to purchase a product elsewhere in future. All the time, money and effort spent on marketing and promoting a particular website, to acquire a customer is wasted. So if an e-commerce website is to grow in India, it is important for them to identify their genuine customers and sellers and formulate their marketing and other policies accordingly.

After checking out many online stores, one of the main reasons why more buyers do not buy online is the lack of suitable inventory, products that buyers wish to buy online.

If the store stocks only a few products or designs, the buyer will browse the store , but also check offline in search of a better product and end up buying it offline as he or she does not have to wait for it to be delivered.

When a third party is drop shipping the products listed in the ecommerce store, it may not be very expensive for the ecommerce store and can pay off in the long term, as the customer can choose from the wide range of products available.