The emergence of eCommerce in Nigeria changed the way Nigerians bought and sold goods. While there are still a number of online shopping though without escrow skeptics, more Nigerians have over time embraced the idea of buying stuff online and having them delivered at their doorsteps. According to a recent Alexa ranking, online shopping sites are among the most visited websites by Nigerians.

Pioneer eCommerce companies such as Jumia and Konga who had ventured into the uncharted waters of eCommerce at the time had to win the trust of Nigerians to get them to buy items online. If the fear of paying for something you haven’t seen physically was not scary enough, the thought of logging on to a website and providing card details –especially with internet fraud Nigeria has always been known for—was enough to keep Nigerians from trusting online payment.

Therefore, these companies introduced payment on delivery (PoD) to assure Nigerians that they do not have to part with their money until they are satisfied with the items delivered to them.

There are several downsides to PoD which is especially to the disadvantage of eCommerce companies as seen with the death of a Jumia delivery man in Port Harcourt and many other similar incidents.

Also, PoD gives too much power to the customers; eCommerce companies have recorded high rates of returned goods which result in financial loss. The cases of customers not being available to pick up their deliveries has also posed a serious problem for merchants and this can only be tied to lack of monetary commitments on the parts of the buyers. Although there have been cases of merchants delivering sub-standard goods and messing up deliveries, customers still take too much advantage of PoD which would not be possible if they had to pay commitment tokens before their ordered goods are delivered to them.

A few eCommerce companies have refused to conform to the norm that is PoD as it is seen as ‘bad business’ and in the wake of the Jumia deliveryman tragedy, more companies would move for the motion to kill PoD in Nigeria permanently. But who are we kidding? Cash on delivery can not be completely scrapped in Nigeria until it becomes a truly cashless society.

For eCommerce platforms that do not offer cash on delivery services, buyers need to know that their purchases are protected. Hence, the need for third parties who ensure the process goes smoothly.

Escrow services protect buyers and sellers by acting as third parties that collect and hold payments from buyers to be released to the sellers when the buyers are satisfied or based on agreements; it creates a commitment bridge between buyers and merchants.

This is a safe way to strike a balance between the power given to the customer and credibility of merchants, eliminating fraud. A few Nigerian e-payment gateways have claimed to offer escrow services but it is hardly public knowledge.

The likes of Konga and online payment platforms such as SimplePay and Voguepay offer escrow services but how many buyers are aware of this? Are their escrow services even functional?

American eCommerce platform, Amazon started with cash on delivery services but was able to work around the issue of trust due to the existence of trusted intermediaries like PayPal.

More Nigerian payment platforms need to rise to the occasion and start providing escrow services especially in these times that PoD is gradually becoming unpopular.

With PoD, customers have unlimited power to decide whether or not to accept goods delivered to them and if the terms of delivery which they may have agreed to earlier become inconvenient for them at the time of delivery. They retain this power to an extent with escrow services but bearing in mind that they have parted with some money. One one hand, knowing that a trusted third party is involved to ensure the safety of the process will make buyers more committed and reduce the return rates of goods and on the other hand, merchants will hold their own end of the deal.

Since trust is still a big issue with online shopping in Nigeria, one would wonder why many Nigerians shop on foreign eCommerce sites like Aliexpress and Amazon who require payment before delivery. These platforms provide escrow services that ensure that purchases made on their websites are protected. It is, therefore, imperative that Nigerian online shopping platforms provide a safe shopping environment for their customers which will encourage payment before delivery.

It is obvious that merchants are not the only ones that cannot be trusted, buyers too are to blame for some of the problems the Nigerian eCommerce sector faces. Since we know that payment on delivery is not going anywhere anytime soon, safety measures should be taken to protect delivery agents. Unsafe places should be crossed out of their delivery routes and deliveries should be done in public places. Also, a refundable fee should be charged before delivery to establish a level of commitment to the purchase.

https://crosart.website/2020/06/15/how-escrow-service-can-help-promote-ecommerce-in-nigeria/

How Peppa Boosts Buyer Protection On Social Media

Social media has primarily been a channel for meeting and communicating with people across the world. This potential of social media comes at par with the local parlance that "the world is a global village." This is owed to how social media has shaped our behavioural pattern towards interacting with people of cultural, ethnic, and demographic diversity.

The prospects of social media as a tool to engage a larger audience that uses the respective social media platforms have since led to leveraging social platforms for business. Today, you can offer your products and services on various social media platforms to teeming users. This development has reduced the move to have physical stores or offices to attract customers of clients to your business.

It is common knowledge that digitization is taking over all spheres of endeavors, and businesses are in sync with the power of social media to attract more visits and maximize profits at a low cost.

Study shows that there are about 4.62 billion social media users across the world, with over 71% of small to medium-sized businesses using social media to market their business.

Facebook is leading the pack of the most frequently used social media platforms for businesses, as it has the potential to give brands an engagement that is 10 times higher than other social platforms.

Nonetheless, we can not undermine harnessing the power of every other social platform to do business efficiently. Other social platforms that businesses use are Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.

One major feature that is peculiar to all these social platforms is the ease of trade with huge potential customers exploring different businesses available on the platform. Therefore, these social platforms serve as P2P platforms for sellers and buyers to meet without third-party interference.

For instance, you (the buyer) can navigate through different businesses on Instagram and shop from any of your preferred sellers, where you make a direct payment to the seller.

However, the proliferation of different businesses on social media is giving rise to the emergence of scandalous acts that are putting most buyers at risk of losing their funds to fraudulent sellers.

Social media scams are becoming popular today, thereby, buyers make a payment for a particular product but would not receive the product. In most cases, the seller may block the account of the buyer or even shut down the page when there are scores of people being scammed of their funds.

As social media scams are becoming one incident too many births the development of Peppa secured payment service to curb the incessant loss of buyers' funds to scams.

Peppa Helps Buyer Protection With Secured Payment Service

Peppa offers secured payment as a service to ensure buyer protection when you make purchases on various social platforms. We are aware of how sceptical people can be when it comes to buying on social media, which is the culmination of fraudulent schemes by some sellers to rip people off their money in the name of offering products or services.

Therefore, Peppa is changing the narrative as a top social commerce platform that guarantees buyer protection. The secured payment service enables Peppa to be the neutral middleman between the buyer and the seller. Peppa holds the payment made by the buyer for a product and releases the payment to the seller upon the completion of the agreement of trade – which is the delivery of the product to the seller.

This secured payment feature improves the confidence of the buyer in a business while boosting the commitment of the seller to the cause of the business. Moreover, it is a win-win situation for both the seller and the buyer, as the former and the latter receive payment and the product, respectively.

Benefits Of Using Peppa's Secured Payment Service For Buyer Protection

1. Convenience

Social media shopping brings some level of convenience and comfort as you can navigate through different businesses, shop, and order your preferred product(s) from your home. But the Peppa secured feature gives you more will to shop because you are assured that you will not be losing your funds to a fraudulent seller. So this gives you the feeling to shop more as you can from anywhere and at any time.

2. Low Fee

While Peppa offers secured payment as a service, it comes at a relatively affordable cost. You can access the secured feature with different plans that are available on the platform. For instance, you can choose a premium plan that would run for you for a month or three months, as the case may be. This means that you will have to pay a certain low fee to enjoy the Peppa secured payment service as a buyer.

3. Value For Purchase

Peppa secured service eliminates the phrase in local parlance "what I ordered versus what I got." As earlier mentioned, this secured payment feature holds the payment made by the buyer for a particular product and it will not be released to the seller until the product is delivered to the buyer, satisfactorily.

Therefore, this gives buyers the true value for purchase as you can always request a return of the product or a refund if you are not satisfied with the product. Peppa secured payment feature holds the money until the completion of the agreement between the two parties – the buyer and the seller.

Conclusion

The social media business is a thriving business with access to a large scope of audience. This has tickled the interest of many people to delve into the social media business, and buyers are finding more convenience in shopping on social media than in physical store shopping.

But as potential buyers are exploring the prospects of social media shopping, some fraudulent sellers are lurking around the social media space to scam people of their funds. So this is why enabling a Peppa secured service is important to protect your funds. With Peppa secured service, you can shop easily and safely with the guarantee of not losing your money.

Create a Peppa account today to enable your fund protection on social media.

Website URL: https://peppa.io/ , Blog: https://blog.peppa.io/