Frequent issues with cross-border e-commerce, such as incorrect goods, and difficulties in protecting consumers' rights during online shopping

Various "overseas Taobao" and cross-border e-commerce markets are very popular (the brands shown in the figure below do not directly correspond to this article)

Although the emergence of cross-border e-commerce has reduced language barriers and cumbersome transportation processes for more people, after-sales problems such as incorrect goods, slow logistics speed, and difficulty in returning and exchanging goods have also emerged.

Half of the e-commerce "gray purchasing" in the booming overseas Taobao market

Currently, most young mothers are born in the 1980s, and their meticulous quality of life has also led to the expansion of the overseas purchasing market. Ms. Liu, who has settled in Japan, is one of them. She has accumulated many users through Taobao stores and WeChat acquaintances. Usually, after users place orders through WeChat or Taobao, I go to the store to buy and then ship them to Chinese customers by sea or air. In addition to businesspeople like Ms. Liu who fight alone, some companies specialized in sweeping goods have also emerged. It is understood that the specific operation method of the sweeping company is to organize a large number of Chinese students, housewives, and local Japanese to sweep goods in the store, and then ship them to China by sea through centralized packaging. This is faster than personal purchasing, and reduces costs and prices through economies of scale.

Although the official implementation of the General Administration of Customs' Announcement on Supervision of Import and Export Goods and Articles in Cross border Trade E-commerce last year suppressed "gray purchasing", industry insiders estimate that the total sales of "gray purchasing" merchants of all sizes currently account for more than half of the imported goods sold by e-commerce.

Difficulty in returning goods from overseas Taobao, incorrect boards, and difficult returns and exchanges frequently occur

However, many consumers have reported that there is a high difficulty in returning and exchanging products from overseas. Miss Wu, a member of the online shopping community, said that after conducting online shopping in China, she found that the product was not the correct version, and it was not as easy to return or exchange it. Especially when purchasing clothes, shoes, and other products that require personal fitting, each country has its own different sizes. In terms of conversion, both young and trendy white-collar workers around her have suffered from size losses.

Ms. Sun, a consumer, recently reported to the media that the problems encountered in November last year have not been solved yet. When she saw the promotion information of Alipay overseas shopping in Tmall, she went to a foreign shopping website through a link and bought several goods successively. Because the price is indeed much lower than the domestic counter, I bought more than a dozen bags within a few days, spending a total of 20000 to 30000 yuan. However, after receiving the goods, Ms. Sun discovered that some of the products had quality issues. "Two of the bags had adhesive stains that could not be cleaned, which affected their normal use

Ms. Sun contacted Alipay about this, and got the reply that "consumers need to contact overseas merchants themselves to deal with it." Ms. Sun had to send an email to the merchants to communicate. Although the other party eventually said they could return the goods, Alipay did not recommend returning them. "Alipay said that if something is lost, it would be more troublesome." Ms. Sun said that she had contacted Alipay about this matter many times, but the problem has not been solved yet.

Coincidentally, Ms. Duan also encountered after-sales difficulties. At the beginning of January this year, she also purchased a windbreaker through Alipay overseas shopping on the Neman Department Store website. After receiving the product, she found that it was quite different from the display photos on the merchant website. The coat shown in the picture is dark blue, while the actual item I received is a color matching coat. It must have been an error in the merchant's shipment. Later, I sent an email to Niman Department Store explaining the situation, but their after-sales service was very complicated and they asked me to send a fax to apply for a return, which is too difficult for ordinary consumers like us. At the same time, logistics are slow and uncontrollable, and problems such as lost parts also occur from time to time.

Difficulty in safeguarding rights in different countries

According to Liu Nan, CEO of Miayabao, even cross-border e-commerce cannot fully represent a "primary source of goods". Some platform e-commerce models that involve third-party merchants are loose, and retailers can shift responsibility to upstream merchants based on contracts. The sales platform and source of goods procurement also come from different parts. Once a product like diapers experiences quality issues due to logistics and warehousing (such as moisture or differences in squeezed products), retailers are not fundamentally responsible for this. Ultimately, it is consumers who suffer losses.

Many consumers have reported that due to insufficient regulation by government regulatory authorities and domestic e-commerce, there are certain difficulties in safeguarding the rights of cross-border online shopping that is currently being hyped up. Ms. Zhang, a Beijing consumer, has a representative feeling: "After all, countries and legal systems are different. If e-commerce platforms cannot bear full responsibility, the difficulty and cost of recovery may be much greater

(Editor: Yi En) Wang Tiefeng)  

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