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.
