Online purchasing is very common in developed countries but this trend is too less in developing countries. Is it Risk or Lack of facilities??? What do you think???
[font=verdana]I suspect there are a lot of factors at play.
In developed countries, there is generally a good postal delivery network to all places, widespread internet access and the majority of people have credit/debit cards that make online payments easy. I don’t know to what extent those things are true of developing countries. I am sure that in bigger towns and cities, there are substantial numbers of people for whom those things are true, but equally I would expect that in rural areas they would be less common, and in poor parts of bigger cities they would also be uncommon.
You’ve got to remember that internet usage in developed countries is a much more mature industry than in developing countries. Using figures from 2011, about 75% of people in the developed world were online, compared to just 25% in the developing world* – in the developed world, we were there 12 years ago. And for people to want to use internet shopping takes not only ability but also confidence – for a lot of people, particularly older people or those from lower socio-economic groups, it takes a few years of being online before they will really trust internet shopping, and internet usage in most developing countries has been slow to take off so there are fewer people able and ready to use it.
And then there’s the question of what people are buying. The majority of internet purchases are not what you would call “essentials” – they are books, CDs, DVDs, holidays, plane and train tickets, large household items and appliances, gifts etc – in developing countries where a lot of people have barely enough money to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, spending on these kinds of items is going to be low anyway.
- And that 25% hides a huge variation: more than 20 countries in Africa plus a few others around the world saw fewer than 5% of people using the internet, and even with a burgeoning economy India had only 12%.[/font]
In addition to what @Stevie_D;, the access to computers and to good internet connections, there’s the matter of trust. As we become more technologically educated and see the advantages in the new technology, we become more confident in our use of this technology and we are more willing to do things that we would not normally do, like buying from a company that we will never visit and which is not located anywhere to our house (even country).
Of course, not every company can be a successful online seller. That this company explains cleary and easily the buying process and the claim/return procedure also bring trust. But the very first thing is to understand what you’re doing… and how the whole system works… so computer literacy and understanding the basics of internet must come first.
I think both the factors are effecting the volume of online purchasing in developing countries. As some of people really have concerns in online orders, delivery and their payments. And at some places they are not been provided with all of facilities to make an online purchase.
Well, online stores help small businesses. They don’t have to register their business. Most use facebook to market products. These biz people don’t even pay taxes for it (at least here in my country). You just have to make an order and they would deliver. Online trading is a trade today since most people spent their time browsing the net. Also, most are busy and purchasing online seems like a good idea to save time to go to the mall and stuffs like that.