Online shopping: The good, the bad and the ugly

While you ponder on how to get that fancy cover for your smartphone, visiting a local online retailer may sound a bit convincing given your busy schedule plus the inconvenient transport system in the city.

However, before you place an order, you should perhaps consider the fact that you may end up frustrated when the retailer of your choice finally delivers your order.

I am not trying to say that online retailers are frauds, no! Not at all. Just that there are people who regretted ever trying to buy online. We hear people complain now and then of how they sometimes get duped into ordering an item to only be presented with something they never bargained for. What they see on the photo is not what they get upon delivery.

Apart from the few who ended up frustrated and swore to never shop online again, there are those who got hooked the first time they gave online shopping a try that they now seem to be addicted.

Those who swear by online shopping have reasons why they prefer online to the traditional shopping model. While some say they are attracted by the convenience of shopping at one’s pace, others say they are interested in the payment system, saying they avoid bargaining given that you could end up buying something at a higher price in the shop if you are not good at bargaining.

Studies show that online retailers face the issue of trust from prospective buyers. The unease that you may not receive your product from online purchase is high and dominant among many. This has led to many online retailers getting non-serious buyers who place their orders simply for trial.

Clinton Ndyetabula, for example, a professional photographer and a former online shopper has no plans to buy anything online anytime soon. He had a bad experience with the shopping model once and decided he would not buy online again. Clinton lost a whole Sh250,000 after a toy drone was delivered instead of a real one he had intended to buy.

Clinton needed a drone with a camera for his photography works. Being an upcoming photographer with a small capital, he thought he had hit the jackpot when he saw a drone being sold at Sh250,000 on an online shopping website. He did not waste time but quickly placed an order.

He paid Sh250,000, a very cheap amount indeed for a drone with a camera, to the retailer’s thinking “they might have priced it lowly by mistake and so I wanted to have it quickly before they realised it,” recalls the 24-year-old.

To his surprise, what he received upon delivery was a toy. Yes, a flying drone toy.

“It is now here at home, my siblings play with it,” says Clinton showing the ‘toy’ to me as he laughs uncontrollably. Then he says on a serious note;“I was so upset that I did not even report the inconvenience to the retailer. In fact I was very furious,” says Clinton who has done more than five online purchases. He used to think online shopping was the best option until that one fateful day.

Another disappointed customer

Clinton mentions delivery delays as another inconvenience he experienced during his online purchases. He has since stopped doing online purchases saying; “it is too risky.”

Without naming the retailer that made him lose his ‘appetite’ for online shopping, Melikizedieck Florence, 22, a businessman in Kinondoni shares another disappointing story about the shopping model.

Florence says he placed an order in one of the local online retailers’ website intending to buy a smart watch but to his surprise upon delivery, “I received a watch that did not possess a single quality to be called a smartwatch,” he says.

When he reported the inconvenience to the retailer, he faced another complication, which was so time wasting that he just gave up. Florence too no longer shops online.

Operations Manager of the online retailer, KiKUU, Steven Massawe says there are sellers who attract sales on their products by using photoshop to make the picture look more beautiful than the real one.

To avoid such occurrences, KiKUU blacklists the fraudulent sellers. Massawe says when a customer is not satisfied with the delivered item, they are allowed to return the package for an exchange or for refund.

Massawe agrees what happened to Clinton Florence used to happen but said the problem has been solved and that such cases have gone down.

“In most cases where someone receives the wrong package, it is caused by package exchange where someone’s package is mistakenly given to someone else. This could be what happened in Clinton’s case,” Massawe says.

Clinton’s and Florence’s are just examples among many sorts of problems experienced by many online buyers.

Delays, inferior products, shipping charges, scam and warranty issues are some of the most reported problems of online shopping.

With the advancement of information and communications technologies including Internet and mobile telephony like smartphones in the country, the online business however, is expected to grow with the key players expanding their operations in the country.

“With 50 per cent of Africa expected to have access to the Internet by 2025, online shopping could account for 10 per cent of retail sales,” reads a 2015 report by McKinsey & Company titled Digital inside: Get wired for the ultimate luxury experience.

Although it is a growing business around the globe, with some 41 per cent of global Internet users having purchased products online in 2013, according to a German-based database company, Statista’s report titled Digital Buyer Penetration Worldwide from 2014 to 2019, the online shopping penetration rate varies from one country to another. As of 2015, China was the country where most Internet users had bought a product online within the previous month.

According to the report, other countries where online shopping is thriving are Germany, India, Brazil and United Kingdom.

Tanzanian online stores

According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, Internet penetration in the country has increased in recent years reaching 40% in 2016, with more 19.8 million using fixed wireless, mobile wireless or fixed wired internet services.

Meanwhile, the number of Tanzanian online stores is growing. Jumia, which merged with Kaymu is the largest online marketplace in the country.

Other outstanding players in the industry include, OLX Tanzania, Kivuko, Shop Online and KiKUU which is an innovative e-commerce service app for iPhone and Android.

The retailers in the country work by liaising buyers with the sellers, enabling them to make successful and safe transactions in all product categories.

Despite being a new concept in Tanzania, online shopping is inching its way, according to players in the sector.

“Its popularity and profitability continues to increase because of the number of benefits it offers,” says Jumia Tanzania’s Marketing Manager, Harrieth Mgongolwa.

Online shopping offers a lot of convenience for a buyer, being able to shop anytime anywhere is one of the privileges an online shopper enjoys, she says.

“Apart from saving time and cost, it also offers a buyer the ability to enjoy the different discounts online without the hustle of negotiations.”

To avoid disappointment like in the cases of Clinton and Florence, Harrieth says that, “JUMIA has a quality control policy which ensures customers’ satisfaction.”

After a seller has uploaded their product on the site, “we cross check to see if the product’s description, price and quality are all aligned.”

She says when a buyer is not satisfied with the product, their return and exchange policy allows the customer to communicate with the seller.

“If the buyer is unhappy they can freely have a conversation with the seller for an exchange,” says Harrieth, admitting that they have experienced inconveniences before and that they dealt with them accordingly. Today that does not happen very often because they pay much attention to what is delivered to their customers.

While Florence and Clinton ended up disappointed, Neema Mbonde, 24, shares a different story.

A fashionista and an ardent user of the shopping model, Neema says she has never been disappointed and that she has become addicted to the same.

About the inconvenience associated with the online shopping, Neema opinions that the problem lays in customers themselves. They do not have a broad understanding of online shopping and are unaware of their rights and responsibilities. “People place orders without reading the sites’ terms and conditions or the products’ description. What do you expect?” asks Neema who does most of her online purchases from KiKUU and Jumia.

Harrieth concedes saying the lack of education among many public members about online shopping is one of the chief challenges they face in their daily operations.

“We are frequently asked questions like ‘where is your shop?’ ‘Can I come there and choose what I want physically?’”

To gain trust from doubting Thomases, Harrieth says through constant communication with buyers after an order is placed on the website, as well as the cash on delivery payment method, “we continue to gain their trust whilst providing them with the best products and shopping experience.”

Email: [email protected]