‘India should have common norms for online, offline retail business’

It will safeguard critical customer factors such as choice, convenience, price and quality

Updated - August 26, 2022 10:49 pm IST - Bengaluru

India should have common standards for offline and online retail business to safeguard critical customer factors such as choice, convenience, price and quality, according to a study conducted by the Bharti Institute of Public Policy (BIPP), Indian School of Business (ISB) in partnership with Empower India.

The report, titled ‘Customer Centric E-commerce in India,’ was structured around four broad topics in e-commerce viz. foreign direct investment, business models, data and search, and taxation, to assess the current e-commerce policies and make policy recommendations for improvement, according to a joint statement.

Some key recommendations of the report were policies on foreign investments in India need to be simplified to avoid misinterpretation by parties and have a common business standard, regardless of the mode of transaction, i.e., online or offline.

Alternate platforms complementing the existing ones such as the Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) and Government e-Marketplace (GeM), must be encouraged to benefit both small sellers and end customers.

Rural e-commerce should be expanded through collaboration with post offices, Common Service Centres (CSCs) and Indian Railways for assistance with logistics and warehouse, hence generating employment.

E-commerce platforms must further increase transparency and collaborate with the government to run customer awareness drives around various products listed on the e-commerce platforms within the remit of FDI laws.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.