Room for improvement in protecting consumer rights in online shopping

Jiong Jiali, 23, a Malaysian customer, was disappointed when she received a pair of  trousers she bought from an Instagram shop in February last year. 

“This is nothing like the high-quality homemade trousers the shop claimed to sell,” she said on Rednote, a Chinese social media platform. 

The cutting of the trousers was awkward, and they hung loose around her waist and dragged on the floor. 

“What is worse is that the shop offered to change the trousers to a smaller size only if I cover the cost of shipping,” said Jiong. “It means I spent over HK$90 on this disappointing pair of trousers.”

Despite the sluggish performance of the retail industry, online shopping has been blooming, as the total sales of Hong Kong stores without a physical storefront reached HK$1.41 billion in November 2024 after consecutive 17 months of year-on-year growth.

However, the number of consumer complaints regarding online shopping are also on the rise. 

In 2023, online shopping complaints saw an increase of 19% from the previous year, reaching 12,696 cases and accounting for two-fifths of the total number of retail complaints received, according to the Consumer Council. The amount of money involved also increased by 20% from the previous year, exceeding $43 million.

Online shopping consumers often face problems such as delayed delivery, goods not matching descriptions, counterfeit and copyright-infringing products, and difficulties in returning and exchanging goods. According to the Annual Report of the Consumer Council, in 2024, delays, non-delivery and loss of couriers was the most prominent issue, accounting for 24% of total complaints with 3,969 cases recorded.

Dr. Yang Lin from the faculty of law at the University of Hong Kong, who specialises in dispute resolution and e-commerce law, said the rise in consumer complaints is a result of  a lack of government regulations.

“As Hong Kong’s current legislation is based on offline shopping, regulations regarding e-commerce platforms are more relaxed,” said Yang. “Currently there is no comprehensive and independent e-commerce law but only a couple of related ordinances in place to regulate online shopping.”  

One of the most popular local shopping platforms for Hongkongers is HKTVmall, with many people using it to shop for groceries and daily necessities. 

“I usually shop for food, some nutrition supplements and daily groceries like tissue papers on HKTVmall once or twice a month for the convenience and quick delivery," said Adrian Chiu, 22, male local citizen. 

Local shopping platforms, including HKTVmall, face competition from Taobao, a global e-commerce platform based in mainland China, as the latter allows consumers to return or exchange within 7 days of receiving products. However, once an order has been placed on HKTVmall, the product cannot be returned. 

Meanwhile, HKTVmall has its comparative advantages over Taobao. It allows consumers to buy daily groceries and fresh food from the market and have them delivered to the customers’ doorstep within an hour. They may also pick up their orders at the physical stores of HKTVmall or at designated pick-up points.

Cainiao, the subsidiary logistics company under Alibaba, which also owns Taobao, added over 1,000 self-pickup points to its network in Hong Kong in October 2024. However some goods cannot be sent to Hong Kong, such as food,  medicine and luxury brand items.

Du Yu, 24, a mainland graduate pursuing postgraduate studies at the City University of Hong Kong, is a regular online shopper.

“Cainiao's self-pickup cabinets are very close to my home, so picking up the deliveries is very convenient," she said. 

In terms of consumer protection, Taobao has established a more comprehensive framework. For example, it is mandatory to provide identity documents and register for business licenses to operate on Taobao, whereas Hong Kong local shopping platforms do not require shop owners to do so. 

Being a global platform, Taobao spends about $10 million yuan a year on random testing, making sure the quality of goods. It covers more than 6,000 products to protect consumers' rights and interests.

Both Taobao and HKTVmall have launched two new rating systems, namely "store experience score" and "product experience index", in order to better protect the rights and interests of consumers. 

The “store experience score” mainly rates the efficiency of customer service responses and after-sales performances, while the “product experience index” is based on the buyer's product evaluations. This helps consumers to make more informed choices.

“Compared to Instagram shops, it is easier to buy from shopping platforms that allow us to view the comments from fellow consumers,” said Jiong. 

Yang said that overseas buyers may face problems when it comes to resolving disputes.

“There is a gap between the current needs of the online shopping trend and the cross-border shopping trend, especially in terms of customs regulations, as well as differences in jurisdictions," said Yang.

In the 2024 Policy Address, Chief Executive John Lee announced “the government needs to enhance the efficiency of cross-border cargo distribution and develop Hong Kong into an electronic commerce logistics and distribution centre.”

The respective Consumer Councils of Guangdong and Hong Kong established a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance collaboration mechanisms for consumer protection last year. This allows residents of both places to file consumer complaints regardless which side of the border they are on, as  cases will be referred to the corresponding council.

“We should promote cross-border cooperation and enforcement, update the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, amend existing legislation, and promote low-cost online dispute resolution platforms like eBram in particular,” said Yang.

“Online brands should formulate different marketing strategies according to the characteristics of different channels,” said Andy Qiu, manager of Leyadoll, an online toy brand. “For example, Facebook emphasizes video marketing, while Amazon and Google emphasize product keywords.”

“Facing both challenges in the local retail industry and mainland shopping platforms, local online businesses are in need of changes to adapt to the rapidly changing environment,” he added.

To compare the shopping experience on both platforms, we created new accounts and ordered mini fans on both platforms respectively. While both fans are around HK$60, we paid HK$40 extra for shipping when shopping on HKTVmall.