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Mistakes most Nigerians shopping online make and how to avoid them
Nigeria is a developing economy. Nigeria demands a modern society by emulating the developed countries, this has lead Nigeria to a path of online shopping. Online shopping is the new rave (vogue) adopted by youths, businessmen/women too occupied to shop and even housewives.
This trend is still going strong over the past years that the old traditional ways of shopping are gradually been relegated.
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Technology has made it possible to shop for everything needed right now in Nigeria. It also comes with the comfort of having goods delivered to your doorstep, what a step up to becoming a modern society.
Shopping online comes along with freedom and coupons from a variety of products and services; sometimes it is even cheaper to buy online, than in local stores across the country.
E-Commerce in Nigeria has recorded a growth of about $2m per week and about 1.3bn per month but shopping online is not without its own woes as some people have learned the hard way.
Although complaints about bad product and service in the country are rare due to inadequate remonstrance services by Nigerian online shoppers, Nigerians will choose to spend over 327bn shopping outside the country.
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The essence of this article is not about blaming E-Commerce or online stores across the country. This article is written with the sole purpose of educating the people about simple mistakes they make while shopping online and how to avoid them.
If only, we could pay attention to details, then we can avoid a lot of mistakes and maximize the satisfaction drown from accepting online shopping.
To do this we should observe the following;
Research a product before buying
Most people don’t research their products before buying and this has to lead to bad complaints. The importance of product research cannot be emphasized more!
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To research your product, know the difference between a new product and a refurbished product. Know the terms and conditions of the product. Without researching, all the needed information cannot be gotten.
Some product may be listed cheap and advertise in some colourful ways to allure customers. Don’t just add the product to cart without researching in the following ways
How to research a product
You can research a product by clicking on the product, for example, this product, HP 255 AMD Quad-Core from Jumia store.
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Step 1: Select the product,
Step 2: Click on the product
Step 3 Scroll down and find the Product description and read it carefully
Step 4: Product specification.
Step 5: the product review
Step 6: Return policy
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A lot of people fail to go through the above process when ordering a product from any online stores, which resulted in getting delivered the wrong item or a bad product. Though a bad product may have not been listed on the site.
I urge you to research your products thoroughly before making purchase and when you notice any defects in the product, please do return it ASAP!.
Not reading product description and reviews before purchase
Especially in this part of the world, people are very lazy to reviews products. Am simply saying, people, are lazy to read the product description before and after buying. And on most cases failing to a good or bad product review
It is that bad! Don’t just read reviews done by the product promoter’s, read reviews by individuals who have bought the same product to know how good the product is.
Funny as it may seem, most people from these part of the world are not interested in written reviews, thus online stores like Jumia, Konga kara has seen little or no project review on their products.
This is not good for business thus, online stores in Nigeria should encourage writing products reviews by their customers. Nigerians should learn to read reviews before buying any product and also cultivate the habit of going back to the store and writing a customer product review.
Return policies of online stores
All online stores that am aware of have return policies. Reading them is good for business. Most return policies of Nigerian online stores are so frustrating that it is better to cut your losses and move on.
There are several problems associated Nigeria ’s online store which includes the time taken to deliver a product, and sometimes not getting the product in good condition and Read full story here
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It is important to read return policies, though Jumia return policies may not be favourable, on several occasions, it takes more than 7 days for product to be delivered.
Not using your coupon codes during Purchase
To be frank, I faulted several times to use my codes during purchase. Coupons codes are greats ways of saving money from online stores. Coupons range from 1% to 5% on some rare cases 7%. It’s a great way to get discount.
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It does not really make any sense to pay the full price of the products, why not give me a discount and try making me a loyal customer to your online store?
Therefore when choosing to buy a product, find out if the product has a coupon code and make good use of the product coupons codes to get a discount.
I have made it a habit to make a purchase using coupon codes online. However, if you are new to online shopping, you can as well make enquire before making purchase.
Your right as an online shopper in Nigeria
To be honest, Nigeria as a developing country may have a non-existing law governing online transactions, as Nigeria’s consumer laws are made before the recent internet boom in the country therefore, it is important to know that when demanding your right, it may take some time.
when needing your right, you can contact lawpadi to help with the legal process of demanding your right.
On a final note
Online shopping in Nigeria is the rave, though it may come with its own challenges, it is finding expression in Nigeria and around the world. Nigerians ha made a lot of mistakes in online shopping and it has ruined their experience and satisfaction.
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Proper research of products can help in bringing you closer to having a wonderful experience of online shopping in Nigeria. Though over time, it will become the norm in the country, for now, we can allow ourselves to avoid making mistakes that can cost us our hard earned cash.
