Ecommerce in Iran
Please note that this article is written on 2006 and most of the problems here are solved!
Infrastructure problems, again!
It has been many years that ecommerce came to Iran, but why aren’t we as successful as other countries? I think that the main factor is “the trust”, although this problem is almost solved but still the previous generation is not eager to risk and spend their money where maybe there is no profit! Fortunately, some active ones in this field succeeded to get the visitors’ trust. This is possible by these factors:
• Giving the phone number and complete information of the seller;
• Giving a complete information about the previous activities of the seller;
• By presenting the products in a way that customers can feel them. So, the customer will note and look at them not only because of their curiosity about them but also want to buy them. Of course, it is important to create this feeling in the customer but if you cannot answer this feeling, you will lose that customer forever.
The above reasons are useful to make customer trust e-shopping websites but the other point is “traditional Persians”. We, all, like to go shopping out of home, walking in the streets and then shopping! But e-shopping doesn’t let us do that unless the website is designed in the form of a bazaar we spend at least an hour in it. Still, we cannot surely say that people inside Iran buy their needs through e-shopping. While in USA and many European countries people buy their needs by internet.
The above paragraphs are being discussed when we talk about people who are acquaintance with the internet and are the users of it. But when we notice people who live in far and little cities, what can we say? Fortunately, in these recent years, in many cities people are using internet easily and of course they are the big cities but in many little and far cities and villages, people still doesn’t know much about the internet and when they hear about it, they think that it is something bad and opposite to good things! So, in this situation how can we succeed in ecommerce like other countries? Therefore, the education system and media has a big responsibility. Because these days in Iran, children can affect their parents easily, the role of schools is very important.
There is something else here that we must notice! We still have infrastructure problems in Iran. Some of these problems are Online Payment and Payment Gateway. It is right that some private banks have been working on it but it still needs more attention. Payment gateway of these banks still doesn’t support Shetab System although most of the people use the cards of this system. The central bank hasn’t permitted this kind of payment formally but people don’t trust this payment because of the software bugs. Receiving kinds of error messages while the transaction is being done prevent customers from buying online and although in many of online shopping websites, they are using the payment gateway of private banks, still people prefer to go out of their home and buy what they need. The root of this problem is hidden in weakness of banking system.
The other case is “shipment” or “delivery”. Nowadays, the followings are the best solutions:
• Cash on Delivery
• Post offices
• Posthaste (locally)
Of course, shipment is easier than payment and it is also easier to solve the problem. But if we want to underestimate this, it won’t be solved anymore.
We hope that related departments in government solve the problems and let Iran take a part in world trade. Besides, people who are included in ecommerce and should do necessary actions so that customers trust them and all of us should do our best to join the world trade via internet.