What is e-commerce mainly about?

What you think about eCommerce in India?

• Hi Friends, again I came with my most favorite topic, eCommerce....I m a crazy guy behind this...there r certain reason too behind my crazyness... for others dream was happened in reality for me so it is exceptional for me to have an obsession behind eCommerce.. I sold so many diamonds online in USA, Canada and European countries( most expansive diamonds, price range 500 US $ to 10000 US $ ), so these all r unbelievable to ask and understand for others. N e way it is not a matter for all of you what I sold on internet. But my real question is, watch an item online and buy it in moments is very common for USA, Canada or European ppl. But we ppl in India hardly ready to buy a stuff of just 500/. Rs through internet. In INdia onlline purchases limited up to travel tickets and other stuffs. So, friends could you ask me your opinions about eCommerce and it's potentiality in India? what you predict about this for our country? hopes to get specific reply with some datas if possible.. thanks...

• Answer:

  e-commerce is definitely a boon for a country like India. Having made purchases like gifts, railway tickets online - I thing this is a good service but there are quite a few issues that we must address. a) Reliability: So far I had made 3 purchases from sifymall.com; twice it was ok. But once I bought a Key Purse or Key Holder (a leather purse that contains strings in which we can place our keys), it was really a good item to buy. It had been more than a year since I bought but I am yet to use it. Why? Because I don't know how to use it? Yes, I don't know how to move the small strings that will hold my key. Had spoken with sify support guys; I even spoke to the manufacturer in Ghaziabad who is doing it for Sify ... no proper response ... if it was a shop I would ask the shopkeeper to demonstrate it for me. Simple reason why I should not use e-commerce sites. 2) Bandwidth Limitations: How many people in India are using Broadband? Even if we are using broadband what about the data transfer rates and connectivity issues? I will tell this as happened more than thrice to me ... I logged on to irctc to book a railway ticket .. checked the trains and all those process were over ... now it directs me to another page - payment gateway; here is the problem :: it connects to server and this process continues for such a long time that I get a message "Network Timed Out" .... that's it ... I will have to start from scratch again. If I am in a hurry to book tickets do you think this will help? 3) Indians normally prefer buying things by seeing it and believing that they are buying the proper goods ... they need to see the person who is selling. One more incident, last week I bought two items from a very small grocery shop here in chennai. The cost was 35 Rs, I Paid .. he packed me the items ... everything was ok ....... when I came home to my surprise I saw there was only one item the other one was missing ..... no holes or damage in pack so no way it would have fallen down .... I went back to the shop and argued but the shopkeeper (who was a small buy around early 20's) shouted at me and refused to even listen to what I was trying to say .... so there was a huge evidence that in the way in which he was avoiding me that there was something wrong with him ... some one in that split second he has fooled me. If someone whom I can see, deal with can cheat me ... what about someone in net who is completely unknown to me? How can I believe him or the method - e commerce? 4) Strict guidelines and Laws: In India it is always easy to escape from Law if you have money. Whereas in US and other FOREIGN countries you find cases in which a poor citizen can get justice fighting against the rich or the Govt ... is it possible in India? So, if we are cheated of our hard earned money ... how soon will we get justice is a question that will act as a barrier for e-commerce business in India. 5) Compute Illiteracy: Last week we had a interesting news in papers .... a computer science Engg final year student lost about a lakh rupees in the Online Nigerian Lottery E-Mail scam .... a college student that to computer knowledge student .... fooled by some email scams. How many news reports are we seeing daily in news about these scams? How many Police Warning signs displayed against such crimes. But still the educated and uneducated Indians are losing money ... this is one form of Compute Illiteracy. Another one is there, Electricity bills can be paid online at least in Metro cities like Chennai, Delhi etc; if you take chennai for eg how many people in Chennai knows this? There is still long queues from 1'st to 16'th of every month .... people will be shouting, cursing the state govt for the heatwave, cursing the operator working there because his computer is not working ...... why all this ..... there is a net banking, credit card paying facility ... why can't they us it? It is also advt adequately .. then what is the real problem ... this is another form of Compute Illiteracy. Final Word ======== E-Commerce is a good business in this hugely populated Country but we need to set the basics right to shine in this field.