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Limitations

(i) Lack of personal contact: As there is no personal contact between the buyers and the sellers

under the system of mail order selling, there are greater possibilities of misunderstanding and

mistrust between the two. The buyers are not in a position to examine the products before

buying and the sellers cannot pay personal attention to the likes and dislikes of the buyers and

cannot clear all their doubts through catalogues and advertisements.
(ii) High promotion cost: The mail order business has to rely heavily on advertisements and

other methods of promotion in order to inform and persuade the potential buyers to buy their

products. As a result, there is heavy expenditure on promotion of the products.
(iii) No after sales service: In mail order selling, the buyers and sellers may be located very far

away from each other and there is no personal contact between the two. As a result, there is

absence of after sales services which are so important for the satisfaction of the customers.

(iv) No credit facilities: The mail order houses do not provide credit facilities to the buyers.

Thus, customers with limited means may not be interested in this type of trading.
(v) Delayed delivery: There is no immediate delivery of goods to the customers, as receipt and

execution of order through mail takes its own time.

(vi) Possibility of abuse: This type of business provides greater possibility of abuse to dishonest
traders to cheat the customers by making false claims about the products or not honoring the

commitments made through hand bills or advertisements.

(vii) High dependence on postal services: The success of mail order business depends heavily

on the availability of efficient postal services at a place. But in a vast country like ours, where

many places are still without postal facilities, this type of business has limited prospects.

Consumer Cooperative Store

A consumer cooperative store is an organization owned, managed and controlled by consumers

themselves. The objective of such stores is to reduce the number of middlemen who increase

the cost of produce, and thereby provide service to the members.