Fear of online payments costing UAE firms time and money

This content was originally posted in 7DAYS UAE website at: Fear of online payments costing UAE firms time and money Online marketplaces in the UAE are wasting time and money dealing with cash-on-delivery cancellations, according to a top e-commerce portal in the region. Souq.com – the largest e-commerce platform in the Middle East and North Africa – revealed that cash is king for consumers in the UAE, even when they’re buying online. However, more than a third of the site’s cash-on-delivery customers don’t honour the transaction when their parcel arrives on the doorstep, often for trivial or flippant reasons. “Sixty per cent of our customers pay cash on delivery – I’d say about one in every three people change their minds at the doorstep,” Indraneel Jain, regional director at souq.com, told 7DAYS. “In cash-on-delivery, the biggest spoil act is when you’re at the door, they say I don’t want it. Or sometimes it will be that if the price of the product is Dhs110 and the customer only has Dhs100 at the time, or if it’s a Dhs65 product and they have Dhs1,000 and the delivery guy does not have change and goes back.” Jain does not see the cash-on-delivery method disappearing in favour of online payment as people are still wary of using credit cards despite the fact that they are often safer. “In today’s scenario, payment gateways are safer because they do check for fraudulent transactions. “Cash on delivery is essentially giving cash to someone you don’t know. I can wear a uniform and tomorrow bring you an empty box, or one where I’ve replaced the product with a fake, and collect the funds. There have been con cases. I’m not saying it’s common but it has been known to happen – globally and here, too.” megha@7days.ae Read the original story at: Fear of online payments costing UAE firms time and money