Common

One of the greatest hindrance to ecommerce, based on my personal experience,  will be the unreliable courier service.

For example, I ordered an item online on eBay.in 21 July 2010 (can provide the Paisapay id if required) , it was shipped on 23 July 2010 with docket no.  B3224***   to be delivered in the same city Mumbai.

It was not delivered on 24 July 2010 , since the courier service suddenly  found the address inadequate. They had been delivering parcels to the same address satisfactorily earlier.  

Again on Monday 26 July 2010, they have not delivered claiming it was closed, when I was at the address provided the entire day(all 24 hours).  A person will  shop online only if the entire experience is hassle free.  

If certain courier services in India are  unreliable,   most online shoppers will think twice before making a purchase online and waiting for up to a week (or may be more) for delivery.

One  of the biggest hindrance for ecommerce is that there are a number of factors over which the seller has little control like how the item is handled during transit, which can result in damage.  This disadvantage is not there for digital products.

For digital downloads , I purchased templates sets from 2 different sellers on eBay.in as an experiment.  Unfortunately,  both the template sets turned out to be identical!  However, the seller of the more expensive item (by Rs 1) was quicker to ship it i.e send the download link by email.