It’s the time going in India when E-commerce players are coming up and providing a platform for small and big sellers to sell the products they manufacture, create, trade and supply etc.
Online selling in India started more than a decade back with few web companies (webpany). Products at that time ranged from small, big and new items often sold by big players. Online selling boom and buyer trust started with Flipkart which initially offered Books at cheaper prices by giving discounts. Not only better price deal on Books attracted book readers but Cash-on-Delivery (COD) also played a role. Trust of potential buyers increased with COD. Return of defective product back to online seller (OSeller) was another advantageous feature for buyers. All this added to a large online buyer (OBuyer) base being created in India.
Beginning Concept
It was a good idea to start with selling Books online. As there were chances that product would be real/original, it won’t be defective and it won’t be expensive, potential buyers trust increased. Earlier platforms were procuring products and selling them online like a brick mortar shop. Later they changed to more of a marketplace platform where multiple sellers were present.
Many Sellers, Buying Experience Dips
There are both pros and cons of running as a marketplace. It benefits a buyer as seller competition increases and competitive pricing prevails. With this user gets a chance to buy product at cheaper price. Issue that comes is the quality control. Some OSellers may compromise with the quality which OBuyer won’t be aware until product is used. For this, rating and returns have been incorporated but without good customer support OBuyer often gets frustrated.
Many Market Places (OShop), Confusion
It started with few Online Shops/Website/Webpanies/Market Places. OBuyers used these platforms to purchase products. As new OShops came there increased a competition and OSeller desired to have an OShop at most of the Webpanies. Like what happens in traditional shopping that buyers look for competitive rates and different variety/designs/options same is happening when there are more Webpanies and therefore more OShops. OBuyer is still confused from where to buy a product. The final choice depends on various factors like Trust on WebPany, OShop rating, Price, Courier Price (Free or Paid), Delivery Time, Stock Availability and to some extent Reviews of product on that particular Webpany. There being so many Webpanies for shopping some trusted, well known and other being new, less trusted offering cheaper price an OBuyer is confused which which one to go for to make a purchase.
Bargain
As compared to traditional shops there is no bargain factor in OShops. Prices are fixed either with discount/promotion/offer or without these. There is no bargaining done on popular and trusted Webpanies. What if bargain is introduced on platform(s) by OShops. Though initially it can be limited to time based i.e. an hour a day (bargain hour) or a bargain day in a week or could be based on early bargainers. On web platform it can be shown that this person just bargained this product for this much price successfully.
Return in 30 day
Return of Product when it is defective, not working and in case it is not desired product after being received by OBuyer. Some webpanies and OShops do offer Return and have return policies in place but upto which level it is followed depends on webpany to webpany. For an OBuyer it should come as hassle free, less time consuming and with no loss of monetary funds.
Barter (OBarter)
OBarter system came more than a decade ago but wasn’t much successful. Now, there are not many Webpanies based on this concept. Though there are some small platforms including forums, portals where some sort of Barter is done by exchanging points, services and in some cases a product. Barter could gain popularity again with exchange limited to some particular categories of product like Books and Used Goods etc.