{"id":239409,"date":"2023-04-24T19:24:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T13:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?page_id=239409"},"modified":"2023-04-24T19:25:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T13:55:10","slug":"e-commerce","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/e-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"E-Commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>E-commerce refers to buying and selling of good or services via the internet. It includes online sale of products or services directly to a consumer.<\/p>\n<p>Indian e-commerce market is expected to reach US$ 200 billion by 2026.<\/p>\n<p>India is 8<sup>th<\/sup> largest e-commerce market in the world as of 2023.<\/p>\n<h2>E-Commerce: Types<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Business to Business (B2B)<\/li>\n<li>Direct to Consumer (D2C)<\/li>\n<li>Consumer to Consumer (C2C)<\/li>\n<li>Consumer to Business (C2B)<\/li>\n<li>Business to Consumer (B2C)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>E-Commerce: Classification<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Market based model providing an IT platform by an\u00a0e-commerce\u00a0entity to act as a facilitator between buyer and seller e.g. Amazon, flipkart<\/li>\n<li>Inventory based model, an\u00a0e-commerce\u00a0activity where\u00a0inventory\u00a0of goods and services is owned by\u00a0e-commerce\u00a0entity and is sold to the consumers directly e.g. Jabong<\/li>\n<li>The largest beneficiary of e-Commerce sector in India is personal care, beauty and wellness (PCB&amp;W) segment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>E-Commerce: Growth Factors<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Increase in internet and smartphone penetration with launch of 4G and 5G network, which increased internet connections driven by the \u2018Digital India\u2019 programme.<\/li>\n<li>Pandemic and consequent lockdown led to sudden rise in volume of sales taking place through e-Commerce site.<\/li>\n<li>Increasing financial inclusion due to digital banking leading to ease of online payments.<\/li>\n<li>Change in lifestyle has resulted in less time for shopping where it has become easy to shop online.<\/li>\n<li>Increased options for the customer with better deals while shopping online.<\/li>\n<li>Government support through GEM portal, National retail policy, eased FDI norms, consumer protection (e-commerce) rules etc<\/li>\n<li>Inflow of FDI from e-commerce giants is constantly increasing Indian Government hiked the limit of FDI in E-commerce marketplace model to up to 100% (in B2B models)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>E-Commerce: Challenges<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Financial fraud and theft of sensitive information during online shopping has caused breach of right to privacy.<\/li>\n<li>Whole sector depends on internet connectivity but due to digital divide, the sector is not able to reach its full potential.<\/li>\n<li>Issue of less accountability and responsibility of the e-commerce companies as compared to physical market shops led to lack of trust among the customers. As a result 95% of shopping takes place on physical market, only 5% shopping is done on online portals.<\/li>\n<li>Poor logistics result in delayed orders and increased shipping cost.<\/li>\n<li>Sellers, as in offline, are required to have a physical \u2018Principle Place of Business\u2019 which, given the nature of e-commerce, is not practical.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>E-Commerce: India\u2019s E-Commerce rules, 2020.<\/h2>\n<p>To protect the interests of consumers; encourage free and fair competition in the market; bring transparency and strengthen the regulatory regime.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Appointment of a nodal person to look into the compliances of the Consumer Protection Act and E-Commerce Rules as applicable.<\/li>\n<li>Information Disclosures: Rule 4(2) provides for disclosure of material information on the e-commerce marketplace in clear and accessible manner. Every seller has to make sure\u00a0that descriptions, images, and other content of goods or services are\u00a0accurate.<\/li>\n<li>Grievance redressal mechanism is ensured by appointing a Grievance Officer.<\/li>\n<li>Every marketplace e-commerce entity to provide information relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, modes of payment for consumers to make informed decisions.<\/li>\n<li>E-commerce Rules 2020 clearly states that no marketplace seller shall falsely represent itself as a consumer and post reviews about goods or services.<\/li>\n<li>Prohibition on display or promotion of misleading advertisement by e-commerce entity.<\/li>\n<li>E-commerce firms offer imported goods or services for sale, in such case name and details of importers are to be mentioned.<\/li>\n<li>Filter mechanism to display notification regarding the origin of goods, suggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goods.<\/li>\n<li>Sponsored listing of products and services are distinctly identified with clear and prominent disclosures.<\/li>\n<li>No e-commerce entity shall organize a flash sale of goods or services offered on its platform.<\/li>\n<li>E-commerce companies will have to appoint a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person for 24\u00d77 coordination with law enforcement agencies and a resident grievance officer.<\/li>\n<li>Every company which intends to operate in India will also have to register itself with the DPIIT (Department for promotion of industry and internal trade).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>E-Commerce: Issue with e-commerce rules in India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Overregulation leading to retarding growth and job creation.<\/li>\n<li>Issue of delivery charges, \u201cadd on charges\u201d not covered because sellers advertise low prices at the start of the purchasing process and later on, several additional charges, taxes, fees imposed\/disclosed towards the end, known as Drip Pricing.<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of these rules inherently leads to increase in operational expenses of e-commerce companies.<\/li>\n<li>Rules unclear about the \u201cflash sales\u201d, whether all the flash sales are prohibited or are there certain criteria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>E-Commerce: A way ahead<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Simplify the \u201cPrincipal Place of Business\u201d (PPoB) requirement by making it completely digital.<\/li>\n<li>Build infrastructure, both physical and digital which can lead to use of AI for better logistics support.<\/li>\n<li>Skilling policy and programmes to focus on e-commerce sector to meet future demand.<\/li>\n<li>Identify products that have potential for the export market, connect e-commerce with export-oriented manufacturing clusters and leverage existing SEZs to create e-commerce export zones.<\/li>\n<li>Promotion of robust data protection frameworks along the lines of EU\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).<\/li>\n<li>Provide MSMEs with support to understand how e-commerce functions, awareness programs, incentives to those using digital marketplace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>E-commerce refers to buying and selling of good or services via the internet. It includes online sale of products or services directly to a consumer. Indian e-commerce market is expected to reach US$ 200 billion by 2026. India is 8th largest e-commerce market in the world as of 2023. E-Commerce: Types Business to Business (B2B)&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/e-commerce\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">E-Commerce<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10341,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-239409","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}