Standardization is the key to the development of flowers and green plants e-commerce industry
When buying flowers online, please avoid these "pits" (Online China)
I placed a single bunch of delicate and warm fresh cut flowers, but when they arrived, they found that they were shriveled and almost withered.
Talking with customer service, but in exchange for constant shirking responsibilities...In recent years, online sales of flowers and green plants have gradually become popular, which not only reduces the sales cost of merchants, but also brings convenience to consumers. However, the goods are not right. , After-sales blame, difficulties in safeguarding rights and other issues have also frequently been exposed, causing consumers to be troubled.
The goods are wrong, and senior buyers also "turn over"
"I have more than 10 years of online shopping experience, and I didn't expect to encounter a "rollover" in online flower shopping." In February this year, Ms. Li, a teacher working in a university in Beijing, ordered a few bouquets of flowers on an e-commerce platform for her mother’s birthday. .
However, after receiving the flowers, Ms. Li, who was full of expectation, couldn't be happy.
“The carnations in the promotional pictures of the merchants are pink and tender, and the carnations received are not angry at all.” Ms. Li told reporters that these flowers were not only dry, but more than half of them were in a bad mood. , Basically in a state of withering.
"The two pots of pink orchids received were also sent to white by the merchant by mistake, so I can only buy them temporarily, which is really disappointing."
Mr. Hou from Shanghai also had a similar experience of "car overturning" after buying flowers online.
"My girlfriend likes sunflowers very much, so I ordered a combination of fresh cut flowers called'Chunri Warm Sun' online. I wanted to give her a surprise, but it made me very embarrassed." Mr. Hou said at the time the business promotion pictures showed This combination includes 9 sunflowers, but only 3 are actually available, and the matching flowers have become "weeds" like green leaves.
"It is not uncommon in the industry that the goods are not on the right board." Mr. Wang, the owner of a flower shop in Beijing Yuquan Road Flower Market, told reporters that compared with offline sales, online flower sales have a larger "operation space", variety and quality. , The quantity can be used for both hands and feet.
"In order to reduce the loss, some vendors even mix and sell the flowers that are dying, especially the combination of fresh cut flowers with a relatively short shelf life, which are mainly for one-time use. Generally, consumers receive less fresh flowers Admit it to yourself."
It is difficult to defend rights, and it is not uncommon to shirk responsibility
"Unsatisfied package return", "no fresh or broken flowers, direct refund"... In the e-commerce shops selling fresh flowers, "package return" has become the focus of publicity.
Consumers seem to be able to place an order with confidence, but in reality it is concealed.
"The after-sales customer service said that the flowers were sent from Kunming to Beijing because the flowers were dry due to express transportation and weather. It is not in the scope of unconditional refunds." Ms. Li said that she did not agree with this statement, and the merchant knew that it would take a long time. Transportation, without applying any moisturizing measures to the roots of the flowers, is entirely to reduce costs.
"Later, the customer service only replied every few hours, which was obviously evading responsibility."
In addition to shirking responsibilities, some businesses even directly played the "missing" trick.
In May last year, Ms. Zhang bought 4 Dutch imported double-flowered Hippeastrum bulbs online. After more than half a year of careful care, Hippeastrum finally drew out the foil and grew the bones, but Ms. Zhang found that she was "getting beans by planting melons." , 4 strains are all ordinary single-petal Hippeastrum without exception.
"For more than half a year, I have been hoping that the Zhu Dinghong I planted can also produce flowers like the ones in the picture. I didn't expect to be cheated, and my feelings and energy were all wasted." Ms. Zhang said that she wanted to go to the merchant for theory one. Fan, however, opened "My Order" again, and found that the product has been removed, and the pictures have been deleted, so there is no way to compare.
"I contacted the store customer service many times, but no one paid any attention to me. When the complaint came to the platform customer service, I was told that the rights protection period passed. The most annoying thing is that I gave a five-star praise at the beginning, and I can't change it now."
Industry insiders pointed out that compared with other e-commerce shopping items, online shopping of flowers and plants, especially seedlings, seeds and other products with a long growth cycle, is often more difficult for consumers to protect their rights.
When a consumer discovers a problem, the purchased product is likely to have been taken off the shelf, making it difficult to obtain evidence.
Even if the product is still on sale, the store will use the excuses of “wrong method” and “climate unsuitability” to prevaricate consumers, and the platform will shirk its regulatory responsibility on the grounds that “the trading time has passed the rights protection period”, which makes it difficult to protect consumer rights. A series of problems such as high cost.
Good and bad are mixed, industry standards to be regulated
In response to a series of problems arising from online shopping and online sales of flowers and green plants, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission proposed in an investigation report that relevant standards and regulations should be issued as soon as possible to further improve the quality and standardization of online sales of flowers and green plants, and guide the industry to Order development.
Industry insiders believe that due to the lack of standards and norms, merchants’ products and services lack measurability and comparability. Consumers cannot make rational choices before purchase and cannot scientifically evaluate them after purchase. This has led to a large number of online sales of flowers and plants. Related consumer disputes.
In order to reduce or avoid such consumption disputes, experts pointed out that relevant departments need to formulate special publicity and transaction rules for online sales of flowers and green plants based on the characteristics and complaints of online purchases of flowers and green plants, and urge the platform to make appropriate decisions based on the product growth cycle. Extend the after-sales protection and rights protection period to protect the rights and interests of consumers and prevent consumers from encountering problems such as lack of after-sales and difficulties in rights protection.
"As a practitioner, I also hope that online flower sales can be more standardized and give us a fair and competitive market environment." Mr. Wang said that many online flower sellers introduced vague words such as "white orchids" and "high-quality roses". Products, but in fact, there are many classifications of flowers and green plants. Even if they belong to the same species, their morphology and environmental preferences are different, and the prices may vary greatly.
He hopes that the platform can formulate a unified description standard for flowers and greenery products, so that "it is convenient for consumers to choose accurately, but also to prevent merchants from taking advantage of loopholes and bullying consumers who don't know how to do it."
"Standardization will become the key to the development of the e-commerce industry of flowers and green plants." Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics of Beijing Technology and Business University, believes that e-commerce agricultural products, including flowers and green plants, need to have higher quality assurance, and only standardization can be achieved. Avoid the disconnection between consumer expectations and actual products, and increase consumer satisfaction, so that there will be more repeat customers.
"If the problem of standardization of online sales of flowers and green plants cannot be solved, the situation of'bad money driving out good money' will be repeated, and consumers' confidence in online shopping of flowers and green plants may also be impaired."
Jin Chen