Online retailers creating buyer exclusion lists for consumers
In the realm of e-commerce, a fair market and clear, reasonable rules of the game are paramount. Aleksei Molodikh, General Director of the International Association for the Development of Marketplaces and Entrepreneurs, advocates for this very notion. However, a contentious issue has arisen concerning dishonest consumers and the potential implementation of a blacklist system.
Olga Rykalina, Associate Professor of the Marketing Department at RANEPA, expresses reservations about such a blacklist system. She argues that its implementation may be problematic due to the large number of consumers and the need for strict statistics and enormous databases from each marketplace.
Molodikh notes that sellers often suffer significant financial losses due to product returns. Estimates suggest that losses can range from 300 to 1,500 rubles per return, sometimes exceeding the product's value. He also points out that dishonest consumers often abuse their right to return goods, returning damaged goods or opened cosmetics and perfumes via pick-up points, with the seller bearing all costs.
Rykalina, on the other hand, suggests a loyalty program as an alternative. In this system, consumers would earn points based on their purchasing behavior. A consumer who engages in dishonest behavior, such as ordering and not picking up items, would not be fined or banned from making orders, but could be penalized through the loyalty program.
Despite these concerns and suggestions, there seems to be a lack of publicly available information regarding the Russian government's plans to address the issue of customers failing to pick up their online orders. While there is a legal framework in Russia regarding consumer rights and data protection, it does not explicitly mention uncollected orders.
Similarly, marketplaces and delivery services in Russia handle customs clearance and customer contact for shipments, but this does not reflect direct government regulation on order pick-up failures. It appears there is no recently reported specific government plan or marketplace measures explicitly targeting the problem of customers failing to pick up online orders in Russia as of August 2025.
As more updates become available, it will be interesting to see how this issue is addressed in the Russian e-commerce landscape. In the meantime, it's worth exploring general global practices used to handle uncollected online orders.
- The issue of a blacklist system for dishonest consumers in the e-commerce sector is not exclusively a Russian concern, as there are worldwide discussions on implementing such a system in business technology.
- In light of the struggles experienced by sellers due to financial losses from product returns in the realm of e-commerce, it is relevant to consider alternative solutions like loyalty programs as part of a comprehensive finance strategy.
