Online shopping is getting more and more popular in Nepal day by the day. Almost all people with access to the internet have at least once been attracted to niche products online and many also decide to buy it. But sadly, because of many issues with the online shopping experience, many are left disappointed. In this article, we will talk about the many issues with online shopping in Nepal and how they can potentially be fixed.
Payment
For the longest time, online shopping in Nepal always meant paying with cash on delivery. Although some online retailers have collaborated with some banks for online digital payments, it is still not as convenient as one would like. Nepal already has well-refined and user-friendly digital wallets like eSewa, Khalti, IME Pay and many more. Yet, most online portals rely on traditional online banking and cash on delivery for the payment of the products.
Recently, Daraz has implemented online payment through your Visa and Mastercard. Also, SmartDoko sends the delivery person with a wireless POS machine so that you can pay for the devices with your debit or credit cards on the go. These two options are examples of how to make paying for products hassle-free and easy for consumers. Hope that more online shopping websites integrate such features in their services in the upcoming days.
Product Choices
This is a big one that most online shopping portals are victims of. The products found online in Nepal are not up to the quality that a consumer expects. Mostly, Nepali online portals are filled with a cheap quality product. Also, in sites like Daraz, the same products have multiple listings with very similar pricing. This makes the shopping experience feel clustered.
This is one of the key problems in the online shopping scene in Nepal. To solve this, online portals must make deals with official vendors for better quality products. For the multiple listings issue, these portals can solve it the Amazon way. Amazon displays the one product per listing and inside each listing, they have a various option from varying vendors and price points.
Delivery
Now, this is the biggest problem that is closest to my heart. The delivery system is just messed up. In this age of online maps and GPS navigation, we are still expected to give out our hand-typed address. Sure, this is a necessity if the GPS navigation is inaccurate sometimes. But, I believe that services like Google Maps should be integrated into the delivery system. Just mark your current location on the map, give the nearest landmark and wait for the products.
Also, the delivery guys should be given proper training before they are given the job. Even when a simple and well-known landmark is provided, these delivery guys frequently call you up and ask the same thing over and over and over…
Customer Interaction
While the different online shopping websites now offer minimalist delivery tracking, I feel that more customers could benefit from a more interactive delivery tracking system. Like using Google Maps to track the exact location of the delivery person and the product.
Also, Nepali online shopping websites lack customer reviews and ratings. In order to persuade more customer interaction, these portals could offer some discount or coupon codes for each review provided. This could result in helping new customers who are looking to shop on their website. Also, since they are providing rewards, internal penalties can be given to reviews with fake opinions and opinions hurtful to the sellers. This could result in a lot of honest and true reviews on the platform.
And, these portals should readily listen to the customer’s voice. If low-quality products are shipped, some penalties should be made towards the seller as well.
Online retailers in Nepal really need to up their game. If international re-sellers like Amazon, Alibaba etc decide to come to Nepal, they will easily beat the competition and go far ahead. So, in order to retain their position in the market, Nepali online shopping sites need to move towards their improvements.
Well, these are our views regarding the issues of what problems exist in the online shopping scene in Nepal. If you have any more unique ideas of your own, be sure to drop them in the comments below.
