Long time back when people were not aware of the E stores or B2C websites because when people hardly were aware of the internet when E bay came with the concept of online selling of the products, though E bay started with used products. Now even if the people are so much aware of the internet and E stores, still one thing restricts them to buy the things from internet is the uneasy process of payment, i.e. via paypal account or credit card. In India people hardly use credit card as most Indian population believes in saving and always works on debit card for payments and all. They take credit card as a burden on their pockets. Anyways to lure more and more buyers E- stores have started offering offline pay options.
If shopping online wasn’t your thing because you wary online scams. you can do it the old way- using cash. Cash on delivery, where customer pays for what he or she purchased once the items are delivered, used to be popular once the items are delivered. This was popular used to be popular in thr US when credit cards hadn’t gained popularity. Now Indian commerce is also switching to CoD to increase their customer base.
” We have started CoD mainly due to the under-developed nature of the Indian payment system. In the west, the preferred method of payment online credit card whereas in India in India we have only 8-9 million credit card users,” said
Ajit BalaKrishnan, founder – CEO of Rediff.com says that they have started CoD mainly due to the under-developed nature of the Indian payment system. In the west, the preferred method of payment online credit card whereas in India in India we have only 8-9 million credit card users. Sales from CoD accounts for 40- 45 % of Rediff’s revenue.
Apart from most of the online shopping protals and so called E stores, now travel portals like MakeMyTrip.com and Yatra.comhave also jumped on to CoD band wagon.
All students, homemakers and even the other demographics like businessmen and people in tier II and III cities prefer CoD. Yatra.com who has started CoD just a month ago and has seen a spurt in sales.
Although these all companies are trying their best to compete in the market but one thing what makes their deal cancelled is that do not show the baggage on delivery. Once I ordered a a set of two watches from rediff and they were crystal coated. I just asked that courier boy that you please open the box for me just show the watches, if they will not be broken I will pay for them. That man refused to open the box and said that he will only handover to me the box after payment. I was just worried that if the watch will be broken what I will do ?
I refused to pay and then he went back with the courier so this is one more problem for the E stores as they have no option of encash this. But soon companies will also come up with some option to encash some more business they loose.