Wow! Nice conversation going on here,
Omoita* incidentally i work for 234world.com and delivery for us is excellent. We deliver within 24-48 hours depending on which part of the country. About theft and all, well, i guess that's part of the risks in business. We have a refunds policy and tight audit and feedback processes. We have been doing this for about 2years now and had only one incident where a laptop was stolen, but of course, that had to be replaced immediately and also we investigated and the perpetrators were brought to book!
The problem we have here in Naija is we fail to follow principles. Life is about principles. Follow them and you'll definitely smile, break them and they will hurt you real bad. We run businesses haphazardly, live anyhow and without rules, then we want to get the results that europeans and americans get in an organized environment. 1+1=2 in every part of the world, Nigeria inclusive! What we have done at 234world.com is to organize our operations and implement standard procedures for both our external and internal (most importantly) operations, that way, we could easily trace the point at which the item was stolen and of course, we plugged it and everyone else in the chain had to sit up, knowing that the audit process etc that our bosses and consultants set in place actually work.
Anyway, like Lotachi rightly said, the only way to develop Nigeria's e-commerce is to use it, with caution - yes, but use it. We have to also look at ways of synergizing and not everybody jumping in and trying to be a solo superstar.
Seun: Nairaland is an excellent forum, just as I write this, I see very many ways of monetizing the traffic you have here, it's easy, very very easy. One of the ways may be integration with us at 234world.com - (
That one, we will discuss in private, ha, ha, ).
We're waiting for all the nairaland visitors resident in Naija to visit us at 234world.coma and actually make purchases.
One of the things the public does not know is that Interswitch has a complaints and reversal system/policy whereby if you buy anything online using their payment gateway and you don't get value for your money, you can get to them, submit your complaint and have the money reversed directly from the website back into your bank account! Knowledge is power - that's what we lack in Naija, people need to know their rights and the wealth of resources available to them.
i think its better for cash on collection and also leaving feedbacks on every transaction will also be good.
Well, cash on collection is good, but we have tried it and people make orders and when it arrives, they laugh and are like , "
we just wanted to know if it was real, if your system actually works"
You wish you could kill them, but you can't! That's Naija and, that's Naija.
Well, the best way to make these conveniences we see abroad come here is to encourage them when they are starting up. Somebody had to use ebay, someone had to be the first to signup, someone had to be #1 or #100 or #1,000 up till they now have millions of active subscribers,
Thanks all, I am on my way back to 234world.com, and I expect to see all of you there.