What is it that a man would be buying and so ashamed about to the point of even refusing to tell a fellow man? Well, only Godwin (surname not provided) could tell. He is a regular online shopper and his reason is simple, “There are some products one will, ordinarily, not like to buy in the open shop. Online shopping provides a safe haven for anybody that wants to purchase such goods. You just place an order for such weird goods and they are delivered at your doorsteps.”
He would not yield to further prodding on “such weird goods” and where they could be bought. Saturday Tribune, however, learnt that such ‘weird’ items some buyers prefer to purchase online range from sex toys (including full sex dolls that can be delivered with desired secrecy) to body enhancement products.
For whatever Godwin is ordering online, he seems to be getting real value for money and had absolutely no complaints.
A survey by Saturday Tribune also showed that more residents are shopping online for other reasons apart from getting “weird goods” delivered at their doorsteps, without anyone linking them to such items.
A banker sees online shopping as a life-saver. Gloria, who works with a first generation bank, sees online shopping as the best thing to happen to the nation’s economy in recent times.
“Honestly, I can’t remember how I was doing it before online shopping became part of our culture. It is so convenient, exciting and at the same time, very impersonal. You can get whatever products needed online without having to shrug shoulders with anybody,” the mother of two, who works in Obalende, Ikoyi branch of her bank, said.
According to her, the pressure of time and the convenience online shopping offers made it her preferred mode of shopping. “Once I place an order, I have the goods delivered at my doorsteps. For me, nothing compares to such convenience online shopping offers me, especially considering the type of work I do,” she explained.
Not all rosy
But soothing as its tales might sound, online shopping is not without its untold stories. For instance, many Nigerians believe that there are still some dark clouds hanging on this sophisticated means of merchandising.
Although a cross section of Nigerians who conduct their shopping online are of the consensus regarding its huge prospects, especially in a developing economy such as Nigeria’s, others believe that a lot still needs to be done if the industry is to fully achieve its potential.
What Godwin, Gloria and their kind find ‘delicious’ about the e-trading is obviously ‘poisonous’ for some other customers who complained bitterly to Saturday Tribune about their dealings with some online markets (names withheld).
For instance, it was discovered that as exciting as e-commerce might seem, a sizable number of Lagosians seem to have got their fingers burnt while trying their hands on online shopping.
Mrs Kehinde Akinseinde’s experience on the platform quite authenticates the argument in some quarters that there are still many rivers to cross for online commerce to truly achieve its purpose in Nigeria.
Akinseinde, who resides in the Abule Egba-Iyana Ipaja axis of the city, had ordered for a 7.2 kg mashing machine through one of the foremost online shopping platforms (name withheld) in the country. What she saw on the day of delivery shocked her: the item was nowhere near the much-touted specifications.
“The product they brought was much smaller than the one I was made to order for. They told me I was ordering for 7.2 kg. it was when they brought it that I knew it was 4.2 kg washing capacity and about 3 kg spinning capacity.
“When I accosted the man that brought it, he said it was because I ordered it on my phone and that was why I couldn’t see the real size of the machine. But one thing I was sure of was that they deliberately kept the information away just to deceive unsuspecting consumers. Since I had already paid, I had no option but to collect the item,” she stated.
Mr Alao is another Lagosian with a not-too-pleasant encounter with online shopping. The Epe-based middle-aged man had ordered for a shoe he had seen on the shelf of a frontline e-commerce platform (name withheld). He was shocked on the appointed date of delivery that the pair of shoes brought fell far short of the one he had seen online, loved and ordered.
“The shoes were just not the type I would be comfortable in. They were just too flashy, too loud for my liking. It was just like those worn by artists and masquerades,” he said.
Perhaps the difference between him and Mrs Akinseinde was that he was able to retrieve his own money, because the transaction was not pre-paid.
“I just gave the person that brought the shoes N1,000 and rejected the item since it fell far short of what I ordered for,” he stated.
Kasali’s experience was, however, different. Despite the fact that his requests were not actually met, the online shopping outlet involved (identity withheld) gladly refunded his money.
“I ordered a phone case on XYZ online platform, but I wasn’t around when the courier brought it. So, I told him to drop it with a friend in the hostel, assuring that money had been given to that friend to give to him.
“Two days later, I came back to the hostel only to discover that the quality did not meet my expectations. So, I returned it to a branch at Yaba Road and my money was returned,” explained the University of Lagos graduate.
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What Lagosians should not buy
While operators would readily agree that there are challenges with online commerce, in Nigeria, they, however, are of the belief that such hiccups are not insurmountable.
For instance, Mr Kolawole Olukayode, the Public Relations Manager of
According to him, online shopping remains the most convenient way of doing one’s shopping, once the consumer has successfully learnt the rope.
Kolawole, however, attributed some of the challenges faced by shoppers concerning ordered items falling far below customers expectations when eventually delivered to the fact that Nigerians do not do enough “due diligence” before placing their orders online.
“The fact remains that people are not educated on how to use e-commerce websites in this country. A lot of them don’t bother to read some of the instructions well before placing their orders.
“For instance, before you order for any good, you need to take your time to do price comparisons. What people forget is that online platforms are like a marketplace where you will have the same item ready to be sold for different prices since different sellers are involved.
“At Jumia, we don’t control prices. We are like a market and what we do is to provide a platform for the owners of goods to display their wares.
“Unfortunately, what most people do is once they see a product and they notice that the price is very low, they jump at it, without carrying out the necessary checks. While the price could be one of those things to be considered when carrying out a transaction, it shouldn’t, however, be the only thing.
“For instance, there is the need to check the reviews and comments of previous buyers of such items on the platform. Whatever those buyers say always form the ratings for such products and if you see a product rating that is below 3.5, you must definitely know that that product is not good and should not be patronised.
“Unfortunately, most online shoppers do not always take the pain to do all these. Rather, it is the price that attracts them. Once they see that the product is ridiculously low, they jump at it without bothering to check for other details such as the product’s dimension and the usage. The thing is that the price might be attractive but the product might be bad,” he argued.
The Jumia’s image maker, however, explained that the online shopping platform is not insensitive to the plight of some customers.
According to him, the platform has provided a window for aggrieved customers to explore to get their issues resolved.
“For instance, we know there might be issues. We know some of the products may not meet the customer’s expectations. That is why we’ve provided a window, where you can always return such items within seven days of purchase and get another one, or have your money refunded. This is our own little way of enhancing e-commerce in Nigeria,” he stated.
Seek redress here –LASCOPA
Unknown to many shoppers, there are channels that can be explored to seek redress in case they do not have confidence in such window provided by operators.
General Manager, Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA), Mrs Kemi Olugbode, believes that there is nothing to fear as far as e-commerce is concerned in the state and by extension, in Nigeria.
According to the LASCOPA boss, there are outlets for shoppers on the online platform to seek redress if their rights are violated in the course of shopping.
She stated that since the inauguration of the agency early in the year, it had handled and sorted out some complaints concerning violations of online shoppers’ rights in the state.
Mrs Olugbode, however, stated that consumers’ rights are constantly violated by manufacturers or sellers of such products because such consumers are not doing enough to ensure that such rights are protected.
“For instance, cases involving consumer rights’ violation in e-commerce had been handled and dealt with. There was one against a frontline online shopping platform where a customer had come to complain to us that the generator delivered to him fell far short of what he ordered for.
“After some hesitations on the part of the online shopping platform, the matter was eventually resolved. But the fact remains that the agency would not have been able to resolve such a case if it was not brought before it,” she stated.
The LASCOPA boss, therefore, counselled shoppers whose rights have been violated to always seek redress with the agency, saying is the only way to win the confidence of the people in e-commerce.
She also stressed the need for residents to know the antecedents of the online shopping platforms they plan to patronise.
“What we discovered in the course of investigating some of those infractions was that some of the online shopping platforms involved were not really with pedigrees. They only loom large on facebook, twitter and other social media platforms. They are not really on ground, so dealing with them or making them account for such misdemeanour could be quite challenging,” she added.
Regulations coming –CPC
Checks with the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) by Saturday Tribune also revealed that the federal agency has also had its own fair share of complaints from online shoppers.
The Director General of the agency, Mr Tunde Irukera, disclosed that the agency had dealt with quite a number of such complaints in the past.
“We definitely receive a significant amount of complaints from this sector,” Mr Irukera, stated.
He added that one of the steps the agency had taken in the past few months was to engage stakeholders in the sector, a development which, he noted, had enabled the agency fashion out the guiding principles signed by major online merchants in March this year.
According to the CPC boss, the agency is unrelenting in its efforts at protecting the Nigerian consumers. To demonstrate this, the agency, he added, is on the verge of creating a regulatory framework for e-commerce guidelines.
“We have begun engaging with stakeholders in e-commerce. We even championed the guiding principles that were signed by major online merchants in March 2018 and are in the process of creating a regulatory framework for e-commerce guidelines.
The beginning, the future
E-commerce or online shopping has been described as one of the several revolutions technology has, of late, wrought on the human race, especially in the 21st century. Not too long ago, no one would have thought or envisaged a day when shopping activities would be carried out by individuals with a touch of the button; without having to trudge the rough, torturous and topsy-turvy terrains of the conventional or traditional markets.
Interestingly, while for many, it is more of an excitement, for others it is such a huge relief. Technology has made it possible for them to do what had hitherto been considered impossible.
$50bn dream
Perhaps the increasing sophistication of the average consumer all over the globe best explains why e-commerce has continued to spread, even to areas hitherto labelled as third world communities and considered a long shot for such an experience anytime soon.
The advent of online commerce, therefore, is fast proving pundits and market analysts sceptical of the prospects and viability of this sophisticated means of merchandising in this part of the globe wrong.
Not only has e-commerce had its footing in the country’s business landscape, it has also continued to spread like a wildfire in harmattan as evident in the increasing number of retail online shopping platforms in the country and the number of Nigerians doing their transactions there.
To corroborate the inroad e-commerce has made in the past few years, in this part of the globe, a shoppers’ journal, Broll Shopper Segmentation, in a report released as far back as 2016, put the country’s online shoppers, ahead of its counterparts in Kenya and South Africa.
Besides, its present value estimated at over $13 billion and the optimism of a further explosion into a $50 billion mark in the next ten years, have made e-commerce status in Nigeria quite attractive to huge number of buyers and sellers, online.
Many are also of the belief that the country has the ability to go the whole hog regarding e-commerce. For instance, the growing number of online shopping platforms, the increasing sophistication of consumers and the brimming population of technology-savvy youth the nation parades have been identified as those ‘necessary nutrients’ that would nurture such $50 billion dream for e-commerce in the country.
“It is a development that has come to change the way we buy and sell as a people; a development that has come to keep us abreast of global shopping trends and at the same time, enhanced our individual and corporate economies,” argued Mr. Paul Irikefe, a marketing practitioner, in his assessment of online commerce in Nigeria.
Regulatory framework ready soon for e-commerce in Nigeria —Tunde Irukera, DG, Consumer Protection Council
DO you entertain complaints from individuals whose rights have been trampled on while doing online shopping?
The CPC does accept complaints from individual consumers whose rights have been violated in every transactional space, including online shopping.
What are the procedures?
The consumer only has to contact the council and lodge a complaint through one of our several channels: the consumer can decide to visit our head office in Abuja or any of our zonal/branch offices in the six geopolitical zones and lodge such complaint. He may even contact us online via http://cpc.gov.ng/contact or send an e-mail to contact@cpc.gov.ng.
The agency can also be reached on phone of via our social media platforms. An engagement with any of these channels will start the complaint process and the consumer will be contacted to take this process forward.
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Have online shoppers been coming forward to lodge such complaints?
We definitely receive a significant amount of complaints from this sector. This is the reason why we began engaging with stakeholders in e-commerce, championed the guiding principles that were signed by major online merchants in March 2018 and are in the process of creating a regulatory framework for e-commerce guidelines.
How would you rate some of the complaints the agency has had over the years? Are they actually genuine?
We treat every engagement with the consumer as genuine until proven otherwise. However, it must be said that the vast majority of the complaints we receive are from genuine consumers who have been wronged and are rightfully seeking redress.
We also hold the opinion that even though we might ask the consumer to be vigilant in dealing with online merchants, the onus of delivering value for money and quality service is on the online merchant and not the consumer. It is not a crime to be fooled by a shady merchant but it is certainly a crime to be fraudulent, exploitative, unscrupulous and dishonourable in your dealings with consumers.
Lagosians should come forward with their complaints —Kemi Olugbode, GM, LASCOPA
DOES your agency also handle complaints from online shoppers?
Yes, we do, especially from the ones residing in Lagos. We have handled some and we were able to resolve them. Lagosians usually come.
But what is the procedure since we are talking of online commerce here?
It is the same procedure. The complainant will mention the platform that he has used. But we discover that some of those that only exist on Instagram and Facebook are fraudsters. They are unknown brands. But the reputable ones, especially Jumia and Konga, are easier to deal with. Once these people lodge a complaint either by walking in or doing it online, we write to the platform. It is not different from others. Sometimes if their response is not satisfactory and we feel there is the need for mediation, we then call them.
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But a lot of consumers don’t know this.
Well we are creating awareness concerning this. Let those that feel short-changed come forward and lodge their complaints. In fairness to these online shopping platforms, they always respond. For instance, there was one case like that where the shopper made an error by ordering for the items twice and was debited twice. But the man said he never completed the second order. So, when he lodged the complaint to them, they insisted that the two orders were submitted. But when we intervened, they admitted and refunded the customer’s money. They even told us that they had returned the money and the customer confirmed that too. People should always come forward with their complaints.
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