Exhibit 10 Difficulties while returning products purchased online(%)
I couldn’ t reach a customer service.. I had trouble getting the returned item to the...
It took me too long to get my credit / refund I had to pay a restocking fee
I had to pay for return shipping
7.69
7.69
15.38
61.54
69.23
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00
Recommendations
! Major concern for customer( 69 % of respondents) after a product return is refund of money. Online retailers should ensure speedy refunds with clear information about any deductions, if made.
! The metro cities and other Tier-1 cities are where the largest percentage of customers resides. Consequently, they are also the locations which see maximum number of product returns. Online retailers should set up collection points as it would be convenient for both online retailers and the customers.
! Customers would not have to go through the hassles of printing labels and incur cost of shipping it back
! The number of returns would ensure economies of scale and hence online retailers would not have to incur huge cost in aggregating the returned products.
! The collection points should be located in densely commercial areas, so that customers can drop off products for return while going or coming back from office.
! Alternatively, online retailers can outsource the collection to either courier companies or Indian Post. Indian Post would have the advantage of large presence in all cities and also cheaper rates.
! In Tier-II and Tier-III cities, the most economical option available to online retailers is to request the customers to ship the product back. The additional charges should be reimbursed to the customers as many customers( 61 % of respondents) are not happy paying this amount, especially in Tier-II and Tier-II cities, where customers are very cost conscious.
3.0 FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
These days online retailers are striving to give the customers an offline experience while offline retailer want to cash in on the popularity of e-tailing. Experts sound a word of caution on the trend of online retailers
going offline. " Online and offline models are as different
1
as chalk and cheese," says Tuteja of KPMG. He advises, that retailers need to be very strong in either one of the format to leverage the other.
Although growth potential for e-tailing is tremendous, retailers must keep the changing times in mind. Internet access trend will reverse in the near future. One of the foreseeable changes is that by 2015, 72 % of internet access will be through mobile devices( see Exhibit 11).
Exhibit 11
Users by point of primary access of internet in India(%)
36
30
34
2007 work(%) Home(%) Cybercafe(%) Mobile(%)
36
26
38
37
23
40
34
37
29
9 27
32
32
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Source: IAMAI I Cube Report 2011
42
19 24 14
59
13 19 10
67
9 16
8
72
7 14
6
43