A newspaper story and a couple of blog mentions caught my attention and I thought I will chip in with my thoughts on this.
The newspaper story that ran in ET about ebay selling 1 product a min and the most selling category online is jewellery must have certainly frowned a few brows. Ebay sells a jewellery piece every 7 mins, more than any other category including cellphones, cameras, coins, stamps etc.
That is definitely a shot in the arm for the entire e-commerce industry in India.
But before you jump with both feet in it. Here are a few things you need to look for when shopping online at ebay India.
1) Home grown certificates for diamond authenticity.Most of the sellers on ebay provide their own certificates for the authenticity of diamonds. There isnt any standardized GIA, EGL certificates offered. which means these certificates dont hold water when you go selling them offline.
2) There is no true exchange/refund. Online shopping entails making a purchase decision looking at the pictures provided by the seller, which are often not so good quality. When a user is not satisfied with the actual product the return costs the consumer 10%- 25% or more as 're-stocking fees'. I found a seller which claimed - 100% satisfaction guarantee and yet had a 20% restocking fee if the item was returned.
3) The gold purity is 14K in most cases. Offline stores rarely sell jewellery items in 14K. This translates into good savings.
4) None of the jewellery is hallmarked. There are studies published by BIS on the prevalent purity of most gold items sold offline. Why cant the same happen online?
5) Adjectives like "full cut" and "premium white" describe the quality of diamonds.When internationally its an accepted norm to use the 4Cs namely cut, colour, carat and clarity.
These are early years of ecommerce in India and the biggest draw of online commerce has been the low prices. So the consumers are throwing caution to the wind and not asking as many questions as they would ask the offline stores. Both consumers should start asking for more and sellers should be prepared to offer more as this mode of shopping has to gain mainstream acceptance.
No comments:
Post a Comment