THE PROBLEM WITH ONLINE SHOPPING IN NIGERIA

"They are all fraudulent. Online shopping in Nigeria is the fastest way to loose your money."

"Ordered for a wristwatch from an online store on Valentine's day. Called them that morning to confirm my order. They confirmed it. Waited all day for the watch, no delivery.
They called me two days later to come downstairs and pick up my order. I asked the delivery man to go to hell"

"Rule number 1 in Nigeria is never pay for what you haven't seen. Take this advice to the grave with you."

The aforementioned statements are among several made by some Nigerians when asked about their Online shopping experience. These problems I believe are not just peculiar to Online stores in Nigeria as some of them in other countries which we perceive as 'developed' also have had or is still having similar problems.

Online shopping is exciting/fun as you look through products you want, add them to your virtual cart, make payments with your MasterCard or ATM cards and have the items delivered to your doorstep. Its stress and hassle free save for the problems associated with them atimes. In Nigeria, there are several Online stores including the well known Jumia and Konga, but their services can't be compared with that of Amazon, eBay and their likes because these ones have been around for a while. The major problem with online shopping in Nigeria is delivery and trust. The problem of delivery is as a result of some of these stores dealing on several category of products. Mind you, some of these stores rely on sub retail physical stores and when the demand is too much for a particular product, there is the issue of late delivery.

Also, the 'yahoo boys' and 'scammers' have made online transaction a no go area for Nigerians as most people have a problem with revealing their account details or ATM card PINs online owing to their past bitter experiences. This lack of trust on the part of Nigerians is still why most people would prefer to stick with the traditional means of shopping rather than shop online.

The problem of delivery I think would be a thing of the past soon because of the huge investments being made on some of these Online stores which I think would make service delivery more efficient and reliable but the trust issue would linger for a while not until the activities of the so called 'yahoo boys' are reduced to the barest minimum by our Graft agencies with the help of the Government.

PS: What are the other problems you think are associated with online shopping in Nigeria? The comment box is there for your usage.

Twitter: @victorikeji