Users in Pakistan have been buying and selling goods and products online since the olden days of dial-up connections, however, in the past few days, the consumers’ habits have revolutionized all over the world including Pakistan, still, people in Pakistan are hesitant to buy things online and they avoid buying anything online. They would rather buy things physically, in-person than online and there are several reasons behind that which are as under:
1. Inaccurate Product Listing
One of the reasons why Pakistani people avoid buying goods online is because of inaccurate product listings. Online shopping starts with users going through products in each category to find out the product that they are looking for but the whole process is cumbersome. Usually, completely unrelated products show up in the result list which creates problems for the users.
When a user searches for any product online then multiple products show up and although the products are the same, the pictures show a completely different picture. This makes it hard for the buyers to choose the right product.
2. Not Enough Details
The second reason why Pakistanis avoid buying things online is that there is not enough detail available online. On the internet, there is no way to examine the product in person, and the only way to find out about a product or examine it is through pictures only.
International stores pay more heed to the presentation of the product in order to impress the users and compel them to buy their product, whereas in local stores, the description and specs of the products are hardly provided and the product shots that are provided aren’t very satisfactory.
3. Duplicated Information
In Pakistan, there is a trend of duplicating information between similar products. Usually, sellers try shortcuts and copy/paste the description from a similar product to cut the workload. This is misleading and confusing for the customers because they are literally reading the same product description on multiple pages.
Whenever you are selling something, make sure that your content description is up to par and you are using the right terms to describe your items. Whichever platform you are on, whether you are trying to promote your product on a platform such as Omegle or selling a product, make sure that you use the right terminologies.
4. Defective Items & Replicas
Defective items and replicas are another reason why Pakistani don’t prefer to buy online. The sellers sell replicas against the full price of original and luxurious products. Replicas that are being sold online are usually made of poor and extremely cheap quality materials. Plus, the customers receive their goods and orders in usually damaged and faulty condition, even from official vendors of reputed companies.
This is creating problems for legit vendors and it is a big reason why legit vendors are even struggling to sell their products. When you visit platforms like Chatroulette then you would even find the locals complaining about the quality of products.
5. Delivery Issues
Customers also face delivery issues because the customers are not allowed to open or inspect the package. The delivery guys are usually aggressive in collecting the money and they don’t allow the customers to even inspect the package without receiving the money first and this leads to the customers reaching damaged or inaccurate products.
When delivery guys are asked about this then they say that the company or vendors tell them to collect the payment first and deliver the order afterward. Due to this reason, users are not trusting online vendors and they rather prefer to buy things in person than online in Pakistan.
6. Fabricated Reviews
Reviews on online stores are supposed to be a way by which users can find out whether the product or service is real & genuine or not. Unfortunately, Fake reviews have become a common practice for e-stores in Pakistan and positive reviews are being fabricated by the vendors.
The review system of e-stores in Pakistan is poor and it is misleading the customers to find out whether a product or service is real or not. Such a review system is helping fraudulent vendors and discoursing professional sellers to reach the consumers that they truly deserve.
7. Overpricing & Fake Discounts
Overpricing and fake discounts are also becoming a norm in the Pakistani E-Commerce industry but that does not mean that all stories about mega sales events are fake. However, usually, vendors apply this technique of overpricing an item and adding a small discount to match the previous price or keeping the price higher than the original one. This is another factor contributing to distrust between customers and online vendors.