eCommerce has changed the way people shop for products and services and the manner in which a business sells its services to the customers. Shopping from an online store is no longer restricted to a few elites and techno savvy people, as more and more customers are realizing the benefits of online shopping. From books to electronic gadgets, garments to food items, customers can purchase anything under the sun from the comfort of their homes and offices. eCommerce is already more than a 500 billion dollar industry in the global market and is expected to triple in the next few years.
However, this new revolution also gave birth to scam stars and fake businesses that have cheated customers using the online platform. Thus, for some customers a trust deficit was created, which prevented them from shopping online. All this changed with the ‘Cash on Delivery’ or CoD, where a customer paid upon receipt of the product or the service. It revolutionized eCommerce and increased sales for the businesses by many folds. Both the customers and the businesses have been benefited immensely from this concept.
Advantages of Cash on Delivery
Trust Factor – Some customers have always been wary about paying for a product of service without actually getting in then and there. The fact that many customers fell victims to online scams worsened the situation. The Cash on Delivery concept allows the customers to make the payment only when the product or the services is delivered to them. This increases the trust factor between the customers and the businesses resulting in more sales and revenue for the online store. The entire transaction remains transparent between both the parties under this model. This also allows the eCommerce stores to lock horns on the traditional Brick and Mortar stores in a more effective manner.
Easier Transaction Model – Most online stores depended on Credit Cards, PayPal and Internet Banking for payments and transitions. Serving customers using these payment methods was easy in the developed countries, but in developing countries, many customers didn’t have access to any electronic means of payment. Cash on Delivery has brought this category of customers into the purview of eCommerce. Thus, increasing the market size and penetration for the online stores substantially.
Quality Improvement – The customers pay only when they receive the product and are satisfied with its quality. They have the right to refuse poor quality products. This has ensured that online stores need to sell high quality products to the customers resulting in better quality and customer satisfaction. This ensured that only professionally managed online stores would succeed in the market, thus creating a healthy competition between them. Cash on Delivery has written an obituary for the fake eCommerce stores.
Legal Aid – Unless a customer has paid for a product he/she doesn’t have the legal right over it. This works to the advantage of the online store as this keeps them at bay from legal responsibility over late delivery of the product or no delivery due to unavoidable circumstances. In case, an online store fails to deliver a product it can ask customers for an alternative product of their choice without having to worry about any monetary compensation or legal hassles.
In short, Cash on Delivery has changed the dynamics of the eCommerce industry and helped online stores in penetrating deep into the market. It has empowered the customer which has in turn led to the growth of the industry. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the eCommerce industry wouldn’t have gained so much success in such a short period without the ‘Cash on Delivery’ model.
