E-commerce industry is growing… so how much more time will it take to be an adult?

Some actual consumer comments picked from various web pages regarding bad online services –

“The biscuits I ordered online from your site were rotten! @#$%^&*(“

“How can you sell me a 500ml shampoo bottle when what I really ordered online was a 200 ml shampoo??”

“Are you really nuts to have just delivered 15 items out of 25 items ordered on your website…with your delivery man informing me the lack of stock availability, only after he was there at my door step? You charged full. And now I will have to wait a whole 15 days to get my money refunded for the undelivered items.”

“Now a days ..become worst …Orders are cancelled after long delay ..and waste coupon what we got by sweeptakes ..I think XXXXXXXX now coming into era of cheating …First give code …then make lucrative deal ..Then cancel order after 10 days …and give refund after 21 days .. So block your money for 40 days and give free promotion of their site ….I felt 3 time such type of activity in my account …”

Complaints don’t end here…they can go on and on. Only that very few read it and many others ignore it.

There is a dearth of quality service and products in today’s market. No matter how big the organization is or how trustworthy its beginning was, today, all that consumers face is an unhappy deal which largely ends up in helplessness instead of a concrete solution. Most of them think that it’s cash that’s on stake, but they forget that it’s rather emotions.

Emotions??? Are you joking?

Now you are getting too much personal.

Naah. I am not.

When someone orders a pack of rice online, it’s not the 70 rupees per kg that bother him/her if the delivery is made 10 days late. But it’s the purpose of the order that loses its essence. May be he/she had planned a dinner night for friends.

If someone buys an electronic item from a superstore and it’s not working for whatever reason, and you reject the appeal of replacing it with a new one; it makes him feel cheated with his trust that he placed upon you as a service provider. From faith, belief, hope to say bucks; everything is fading away gradually from the consumer minds.

What change it has brought on to the social media platform (read company FB page) is almost obvious –

“the comments are now complaints; posts are now all about pathetic services; tags are to tell others too about the empathetic situations and shares make the story reach to a bunch of could-have-been-a-prospective-consumer base.”

While there are still a handful on the ecommerce block who are trying hard to roll up their sleeves and give you the best, many others are deviating from the ‘service’ aspect to ‘profit’ quite early in their growth phase.

This post is not a result of personal experience (though have faced some not-so-pleasant situations after ordering online.). It’s a result of some hard facts known to me, being in the advertising industry.

Oh, I also wanted to include how advertising further veils the actual condition of these feeble organizations. But may be in another post… some other day.