AIZAWL: Instagram sellers in Aizawl offer some of the least verifiable business credentials among 24 Indian cities surveyed, with just 3% having a functioning online shop website and only 2% having a physical store that could be matched on Google Maps, according to a new report by VouchKart.
The report, titled Is Instagram Shopping in India Safe? What We Found Checking 41,000 Sellers, examined 41,055 Instagram sellers across India, including 225 in Aizawl.
The findings place the Mizoram capital at the bottom of the surveyed cities in terms of online storefronts, while also recording the highest proportion of sellers without publicly available contact details and those with comments disabled.
According to the report, only 3% of the Instagram sellers identified in Aizawl had a live shopping website, compared with the national average of 32%. The contrast was particularly striking with Noida, where 79% of surveyed sellers had functioning websites.
The availability of physical stores offered little alternative for buyers in Aizawl. Only 2% of the sellers surveyed had a walk-in shop that researchers could match to an open Google Maps listing. The corresponding national figure was 17%, while Vadodara recorded 31%.
The findings also revealed gaps in customer communication. As many as 35% of Aizawl’s Instagram sellers had no publicly identifiable phone number, WhatsApp contact or email address, the highest proportion among the 24 cities. Nationally, the figure stood at 20%.
Furthermore, 32% of sellers in Aizawl had comments switched off or empty on most of their recent posts, compared with the national average of 13%. This limits one of the ways prospective buyers can examine customer feedback or publicly raise concerns about a transaction.
The report noted that the absence of a website does not necessarily indicate that a business is illegitimate. Many Instagram sellers operate through WhatsApp or maintain physical establishments where customers can verify their businesses.
However, Aizawl’s figures suggest that such alternatives are considerably less visible among the sellers identified in the survey.
Nationally, 43% of sellers linked a WhatsApp chat, catalogue, group or channel to their Instagram accounts, while 17% had a physical shop that could be matched on Google Maps. The report also found that 21% of sellers across India had no external links at all, although some still provided contact details in their Instagram biographies.
VouchKart clarified that its findings do not establish whether individual sellers are genuine or fraudulent. Instead, they highlight how easily buyers can verify a business, establish contact and examine its policies before making a purchase.
The report also examined return policies among sellers with functioning websites. Of the 8,224 businesses whose websites displayed a return policy, 43% offered only exchanges or store credit rather than refunds for a change of mind. Meanwhile, 78% of shops that accepted returns and specified a time limit allowed customers a week or less to request one.
The study covered publicly accessible Instagram business accounts identified by VouchKart and is not a census of all sellers operating in the surveyed cities. Its city-level findings include locations where at least 200 sellers could be identified and their locations confirmed through their biographies or websites.
With Instagram increasingly serving as a marketplace for small businesses, the findings raise questions about consumer awareness, seller transparency and the safeguards available to buyers making purchases through social media.
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