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Economic Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Centre wants ‘country of origin' filter on shopping apps
The Indian government is proposing that e-commerce platforms include a "country of origin" filter to enhance consumer decision-making, especially before the festive season. A virtual consultation was held with e-commerce players to explore amending the Legal Metrology Rules. While companies generally agreed, some raised concerns about technical challenges and mobile app constraints, but experts believe the change is manageable. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads 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 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 most platforms only mention the country of origin in the product description section — something shoppers must manually scroll through, one item at a 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 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 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 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 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.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Centre suggests 'country of origin' filter on e-commerce sites
Centre suggests 'country of origin' filter on e-commerce sites New Delhi/Mumbai: Consumer affairs department on Friday suggested e-commerce companies explore including a new filter feature of "country of origin" on their websites and mobile apps for products, which will help consumers make quick choices. E-commerce platforms would have to create a new filter having a drop down menu of countries, allowing consumers to make their choice as per their preference. At present, companies display the country of origin of items under the product description option and to check this, buyers need to go through the entire information of each product, which is more time taking. "Many of the e-commerce platforms have filters on their sites and apps such as price range, brand, type of product and different sizes. So, adding another filter on country of origin is very much feasible and that will help consumers to find items of their choice based on their country of origin quickly. This will bring customer satisfaction," said an official. The department held a video conference with industry players and other stakeholders on Friday for amending the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules for country of origin-based filters on their platforms. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like How Much Does It Cost to Rent a Private Jet - The Prices May Surprise You! Private Jet I Search Ads Learn More Undo "There was almost a consensus among the participants, including from major ecommerce 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 an official. Sources said earlier the e-commerce firms smoothly complied with the Legal Metrology Rules for labeling packaged commodities. Industry sources said the meeting was more of an exploratory one where the idea was to understand the feasibility of getting the added filter within apps and platforms. They added that officials wanted to understand the constraints of companies if they were to create such a feature. "For marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, it would be more of a tech related issue, which can be solved. But for companies which hold inventory, there may be an added compliance burden," one of them said. Another e-commerce executive, however, said that given the limited space on mobile phones, adding another filter could be a constraint. "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 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," he added. For quick commerce platforms, food and grocery accounts for a major part of their coverage as of now and most of them are sourced from India anyway. A very small part of their inventory comes from out of India currently, added Meena.
