If there is one word that describes Ecommerce experience about Indian websites it is this..
“sucks!”.
The exclamation is a mark of my sheer disgust at failed transactions time and again. It’s a sign of hopelessness when all permutations and combinations of options provided on the website fail to capture my details in such a way so as to complete the trade.
Ecommerce on Indian sites particularly for NRI’s, i.e., Indians living abroad (need to spell that otherwise the website developers/ owners do NOT GET IT) is like peeling an onion. The frustration and tears only get worse as you are hitting one wall after another. There is also a total lack of help resources let alone an online chat facility with live support staff to get the transaction done.
Address fields and Pin codes
The websites expect NRI’s to use the website and transact with them but the technical design fails to accept my international address correctly. Well, the address I provide should match my postal address similar to my credit card billing address, right? But hell. When I do give the correct postal address the websites don’t accept it. They simply reject my input saying “Incorrect address” as though they are the immigration officers and do not believe such an address exists where I live. Data input fields do not expect you to use special characters like hyphens and comma, or they do not accept international pin codes or worse, both!
Telephone numbers
You are a NRI – Then why would you have an Indian number on which you would want people to call you? But hey, if you want to transact on online Indian portals they expect you to have them, else, your classified post or online purchase won’t go through. So should I go get myself an Indian land line or a mobile number (most likely expected input) for ecommerce purpose?
Payment options
Hmmm. This is almost impossible. Paypal as it was difficult from before but now has been banned if I am not wrong. So you have to choose from Indian bank cheque payment services or credit cards. I chose the credit card option of Visa/ Master. After providing my credit card number, name, expiry and CVV (very confidential stuff), my transaction was turned down as below.
As dog-headed as I am, without giving hope of making my transaction, I hit the ‘Pay Now’ button a second time in the hope of making any corrections to my transaction. Drums roll. Lo and behold the next screen!
So they take all MY PERSONAL information and now my transaction does not go through. So what happens to MY PERSONAL information? Could it be potentially misused by somebody? Who knows?
So what if one website is not designed properly. I will go try the next one. This website lost my business… but hey, who knows if the next site is able to get my order or not.
Related: Here is another article talking about how plight of Indian E-Commerce – The reason why E-Commerce does not grow in India !