81% customers support new e-commerce rules as they want clarity on business: Survey

Most consumers said they wanted e-commerce rules to be implemented for all electronically sold services

A majority of consumers want products and services sold over electronic or digital networks to governed by a set of electronic commerce rules, a survey has found.

The survey by online platform LocalCircles comes in the wake of the government calling for suggestions on the proposed amendments to Consumers Protection (e-commerce) Rules, 2020.

The Centre had sought public comments on duties of e-commerce entities, liabilities of the marketplace of e-commerce entities, along with duties of sellers on the marketplace, and duties and liabilities of inventory of e-commerce entities, amongst other issues.

According to the survey, while some consumers expressed support for the proposed rules, a majority of them raised questions about the effective inclusion of various electronic and digital sales of products and services, and the effective applicability of these rules, including the proposed amendments.

Read | Draft rules could stifle e-commerce

The survey polled more than 16,000 people across India, with 51 per cent of the respondents coming from tier 1 districts, 26 per cent coming from tier 2 districts, and the rest coming from tier 3 and 4 and rural districts.

The survey asked consumers about what sectors of e-commerce should be regulated under the proposed rules. 7 per cent of respondents said e-commerce marketplace and inventories should be regulated, while 3 per cent said e-pharmacies and e-groceries, along with all such sectoral products, while 14 per cent said that all electronically sold services like app-based food delivery, taxis etc should be regulated.

41 per cent of respondents said that all the above categories should be regulated, while 10 per cent said that none of these should be regulated, and 9 per cent did not have an opinion.

Overall, 81 per cent of consumers said they wanted sales of products and services over an electronic or digital network to be governed by a set of electronic commerce rules, the survey found.

Read | 'India consumer digital economy to hit $800 bn by 2030'

The survey also found that the highest percentage of consumers wanted rules in place to govern electronically sold services, followed by product marketplaces and e-commerce inventory models.

64 per cent of consumers said they wanted e-commerce rules to be implemented for all electronically sold services like app-based food delivery, app taxis, home repair, salon, airline & railway ticketing, OTT subscription, payments, etc., while 59 per cent said they must be implemented for e-commerce marketplaces and e-commerce inventory models, and 56% said they must be implemented for vertical e-commerce i.e. e-pharmacies, e-groceries and such.

Consumers also identified various services platforms like travel aggregators, food delivery aggregators, event ticketing aggregators as well as platforms like airline websites selling air tickets, IRCTC selling train tickets as e-commerce services.

Various marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal were also the subject of discussions on how consumers are challenged at times in reaching out to the sellers regarding counterfeit or fake products and the need for a mechanism where access to such sellers must be seamlessly enabled by the marketplaces.

Read | Amazon, Tata say Centre's e-commerce rules will hit businesses

Consumers also raised the issue of certain sellers listing and selling counterfeit products as new despite poor ratings from consumers. Many consumers also raised issues about platforms like Facebook Marketplace not complying with any legal metrology rules and permitting products and services sales over the internet.

Issues were also raised by consumers about many FMCG manufacturers platforms not listing MRP and best before dates.

Consumers also raised issues with certain e-Grocery and e-pharmacy platforms not presenting products best before date or shelf life to consumers leaving the consumers many times with spoilt or expired products.

Consumers also raised the need for a seamless and efficient process for accepting returns by e-grocery platforms where the return item value may not be significant and hence leading to many consumers giving up due to a cumbersome returns process deployed by e-grocery platforms.

Issues were also raised about certain e-grocery platforms not following basic packaging standards and packaging products like insecticides with other human consumption and edible products.