Challenges
CONSUMER JUSTICE CONCORD
On-line shopping is nowhere near as personal or as caring as dealing with a physical store. The consumer has no direct contact with anyone at all. If any issues arise or something needs to be corrected, it means going back to the net, back to the on-line store or vendor you started with. No salesperson sold you the goods, there is no store manager to complain to, nothing. You get shoved into filling out forms, waiting for emails and replies. If you are lucky, someone might actually phone you back. It is all part of the fun, the pleasure of buying on-line.
With all the countries in which on-lines stores are located, with the various companies who rush to get to market, it is fair to say that consumers are now facing new challenges which they have never had to before. Serious challenges such as:
| Failed shipment - delivery | Wrong products received | Defective products | Damaged goods |
| Inauthentic products | Counterfeit products | Used items sold as new | Product not as advertised |
| Expired Items | Prohibited items | Product safety problems | Warranty - item support |
Try getting an item you purchased on-line just exchanged. That’s not happening easily, as it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t. So the real question is who is going to stand by Consumers when these kinds of problems come along? Who is going to help the consumer get any real justice? The answer is the CONSUMER JUSTICE CONCORD. An entity which is definitely and sorely needed. We stand as an organization with a waiting global market.
The first group of industry players or operators which the Company expects to see become involved are the on-line stores who provide the various products they sell and support.
By definition, an ‘on-line store’ is the company or party or company who maintains or operates the on-line web site. Amazon, Ebay, Shopee, Paypay Mall, etc. would all be classified as on-line stores.
On-line merchants on the other hand are the supporting cast of independent merchants who support the on-line store and it is they ultimately supply the goods which people order.
Now it is true that there are some variations which have come along, such as Walmart Sears, Target, etc. who happen to actually have bricks-and-mortar stores who have or have previously had actual retails stores and who supply the orders which come in. But they are not the norm. Yes there are the exceptions. The biggest on-line player is Amazon and they are engaged in doing both forms of business where they themselves process and deliver orders and they also use independent merchants who come to supply the consumer with the goods that they’ve ordered. But, even having said that, the vast majority of on-line stores use third-parties to complete the sale, your order and it is these same merchants who come to give the delivery company the goods which the consumer ultimately wants or gets.
When thinking of shopping, the way it used to be, going to a story, inspecting the goods, taking all to the cash register, then walking out the door, had some advantages. But now, on-line shopping is a process. Yes you can pick out the things you want today very quickly thanks to the interactivity of the internet. That is the easy part. But then, if you look at all the things which have to happen thereafter. The on-line store communicates with the merchant, then the merchant, who may or may not even have what you want in stock, begins to then being ready the goods for shipping, contacts a carrier or shipping company, who then, by air or truck or motorcycle, something, may then even direct the goods to a ‘local’ distribution point, where the goods can come to be finally directed to the consumer. One hopes. There are of course courier companies who will deliver directly from the merchant to the consumer. There are. But those systems tend to be more expensive and the major consideration is that of volume. Depending upon how far the goods have to shipped, will impact how many ‘layers’ of shipping that the goods encounter. But it is a certainty that the more direct the shipping to the consumer, the more expensive it can come to be. The shipping systems used, tend to like to spread the cost of shipping over as many packages (consumers) as is possible. It simple must makes it cheaper all the way around. The consumer may have to wait a longer period of time to get what they wanted. Time is the one price that consumers always come to pay.