We recently came across an ad for an e-commerce store in Pakistan that was selling what it purported to be a ‘exam cheating watch’.
While there can be a lot said about the sad state of affairs where this is an actual marketable product, we’re going to instead focus on any recourse for someone who wishes to report the sale of such a product.
Here’s what the online store in question is selling, even worse, they have boosted the post to gain maximum reach. Have a look yourself:
Saad Hamid’s Post on Facebook, who originally identified the immoral activity
Like we mentioned yesterday, promises by government officials regarding a comprehensive e-commerce framework have borne no fruit. Everyone knows what’s going on with stores in Pakistan yet there’s been little evidence that the government is willing to do something about it.
Honestly, in this regard we feel like we’re beating a dead horse just like we have with the call for a payments gateway for Pakistan. The lack of a e-commerce framework means that customer trust in online stores is fast eroding and that could bode ill for all the projected growth.
We should also mention that we do no advocate the de-facto government solution to regulating an industry: screw the feedback and tax everything. With a sensitive market like ours that’s adding hundreds of thousands of new online consumers per year, there’s a need to carefully filter out suspect stores and protect consumer rights. Barriers to entry should be high enough to discourage fraudsters but not so much that actual entrepreneurs are kept out as well.
Also read: Pakistani Ecommerce Industry has One Key Flaw That we Must Fix Right Away!
