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Online shopping: Better expectations

Online shopping has become the preferred mode of shopping for most urban folk today. People prefer to shop at various e-sites owing to the convenience and range of products these offer. Most e-tailers like Amazon and Flipkart, who are top of the game, deliver on their promises and provide prompt and efficient service.

But what about the lesser known players? They advertise products and service aggressively, but leave a large gap as far as delivery and quality are concerned.

One of the main benefits of online shopping is the sense of eagerness, of expectation of receiving the product within a reasonable time. If the time stretches to an inordinate long period, the sense of eagerness is replaced slowly by frustration and disgust. Shoppers tend to lose patience and curse the site for not meeting their expectations.

Online shopping sites must keep this in mind while promising the earth to shoppers. On-time prompt delivery is a MUST, and not an optional benefit they offer. Yes, they often have to source items from different places in the country, but then they should clearly mention that the time for delivery would be longer for these items. And often the advertise products that are not available on ordering. In that case, too, they should inform shoppers clearly that this is the case.

The last thing online shoppers like to do is to wait indefinitely for an ordered product. Online shopping sites must remember that a major driver of their sales is customer goodwill. If that is lost, all is lost for them.

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