Letters: Quality check in e-tailing?

This refers to the editorial "The billion-dollar gift" (August 2). With an eye-popping $1-billion venture funding, Flipkart has raised the competition in the e-retail segment. These companies seem to be selling everything under the sun. With such variety and vast outsourcing is there a system of quality assay in place? Just because the products are priced cheaper, is the customer resigned to getting pot-luck quality? Most of these e-commerce companies offer to take back products from an unsatisfied customer, but a mere return is the worst professional approach to customer-servicing. There should be a rider on licences for e-retail, requiring quality certification and audit on products they sell, to safeguard customer interests. Companies that fashion their trade to customer concerns will stay in the reckoning, while others might fold up over time. Investors and venture promoters should keep this in mind.

R Narayanan Ghaziabad

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