Centre wants ‘country of origin' filter on shopping apps
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The Centre has floated a proposal asking e-commerce platforms to add a 'country of origin' filter to their websites and apps, a move aimed at helping consumers make quicker and more informed choices, especially ahead of the festive shopping rush, as reported by TOI.The Department of Consumer Affairs on Friday held a virtual consultation with e-commerce players and industry stakeholders to explore amending the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules to introduce such a filter. The idea: enable users to sort products by country, much like how filters for price, brand, or size already work.'Many e-commerce platforms already have filters such as price range, brand, and product type. Adding one for country of origin is very much feasible and will help consumers find items based on their preference quickly. This will bring customer satisfaction,' a government official said.Currently, most platforms only mention the country of origin in the product description section — something shoppers must manually scroll through, one item at a time.While there was broad consensus among companies on the viability of the proposal, some flagged potential tech challenges, especially around tweaking existing algorithms and mobile UI constraints.'There was almost a consensus among the participants, including from major e-commerce firms, and they said this would need change in the algorithm to create this new filter feature. We will hold more deliberations with the stakeholders,' said another official.Industry sources said the meeting was exploratory in nature. 'For marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra, it would be more of a tech issue, which can be solved. But for companies that hold inventory, there may be an added compliance burden,' said one participant.An executive from a leading platform added that screen space on mobile apps is already tight. 'It could be quite draining for the industry. And the expectation of the ministry is to get it done before the festive season if it gets implemented,' he said.Satish Meena, adviser at market research firm Datum Intelligence, said that while the change could affect product visibility for some international brands, it may not have a major operational impact.'If this is implemented, customers will be able to filter out products based on their country of origin, which means that some brands on these platforms could lose visibility. Until now, not many consumers paid so much attention to a product's country of origin. But overall, it shouldn't be a very big challenge for platforms,' Meena said.He added that for quick-commerce platforms, where food and groceries dominate, the change is unlikely to have much of an impact, as most of their goods are domestically sourced.
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