subject: Cash on Delivery - Online Retail Store [print this page] Cash on Delivery - Online Retail Store Cash on Delivery - Online Retail Store
You buy a pizza and the boy comes to your door and delivers Pizza at your door-step. You will be relieved for the service and for the fact that you can sit at home at get food delivered to your doorstep. Online retail or e-Shopping has adopted a similar process, which they call it as Cash on Delivery (COD). You see the product, observe the specification on the specific website, check for the brand name and make the purchase online.
After having placed the order, the order is confirmed, and the online retailer sends across an order confirmation to your email Inbox. Within 3-7 working days, the courier company hired by the online retailer sends across the product to your door-step, with the invoice. The invoice comes from the actual vendor, from whom the online retailer has sourced the product from. In case of replacement and manufacturing defect all disputes are settled between the customer and the online retailer. The online retailer only seeks to be an intermediary between the parties and only help in expediting the entire process at the earliest. It is fast becoming a reliable way of transacting online; the customer is expected to make the payment, only after the customer gets the invoice from the courier person and immediately he gets to physically "touch" the product. The payment option saves a lot of headache of not having to anticipate the arrival of product for which payment has already been done. "My-money-is-stuck" worry does not really cross the mind, when product is brought through Cash on Delivery option.However, not all products on an online shopping site, would have the COD option. Some products for which the listed price is quite nominal, the COD option is not provided to the customer.
Cash on Delivery option also is an indicator to the confidence the online retailer has on their entire supply chain apparatus. The flawless working of the COD payment option, depends a lot on the working of the entire backend as a well-oiled machine. In the end, it is the customer who is benefitted the most and helps develop mutual trust between the customer and the online retailer; a Win-Win situation at both ends.
