Just when it looked like e-commerce was about to really take off, somebody rained on the parade. According to a new international survey, many transactional sites are simply failing to come up with the goods – in some cases, literally. In addition, they are not telling their customers how to return merchandise, or even how to make a complaint.
But Ian Hughes, marketing director of MM Group, Bristol, England, which offers back-end support to e-traders, says the results don’t surprise him: “A lot of it is because companies coming into e-commerce are not direct marketing companies, so they are not used to dealing with a direct sales channel.”
The research was carried out by Consumers International, a global federation of consumer associations. Backed by European Union funds, the group placed 150 orders on 17 sites in 11 countries spanning the United States, Europe and the Far East. Of those orders, eight took over a month to arrive, and 11 were never delivered. Only two-thirds of the companies sent a confirmation of the order, and only 13% told customers when their goods had been shipped.
What concerns the consumer lobby even more than this poor performance is the absence of proper information. Only 53% of the sites explained their policy on returns – in fact, two customers are still waiting for their money back four months after returning a purchase. And just 32% of sites explained how to make a complaint.
This is especially troubling since the name and location of a company trading online is not always evident. Indeed, the survey found that in many cases, the URL would change when moving from one area of a site to another, adding to the confusion.
While Hughes says many of these problems stem from inexperienced traders launching themselves onto the Net, he admits established companies are not always better at it.
“It’s a carry-over from what we already know to be true in the paper-based environment,” Hughes notes.
When his company conducted research into fulfillment of information requests in the United Kingdom, 16% of the advertisers contacted never bothered to send out literature. This was so despite those companies having spent an estimated 65 million pounds on soliciting inquiries. “But to take the money off somebody and not send them the goods goes beyond the bounds,” Hughes adds.
As yet, there are no consistent standards of practice being applied to e-commerce. Nor is it yet clear what legal rules will apply to online trading.
In Europe, it seems likely that a measure will be passed applying the law in the country of destination – that is, where the customer is based – rather than the country of origin. In Consumer International’s research, only a minority of Web sites disclosed which laws they considered to be applicable.
Hughes acknowledges that “there are terrible difficulties in setting up a back-end fulfillment operation. It is terrifically complicated.” But rival sites are only one click away if companies fail to satisfy. Certainly many in this survey would not be getting repeat orders.
And somewhere in the world, an EU-funded Barbie doll and bottle of champagne are still eagerly awaited.
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